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Is it worth upgrading my center?

FSUWelder1212

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Oct 17, 2024
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Hello all, I’m a newb hoping for some guidance. I recently upgraded my old infinity primus set up with Emotiva, up front I have T2+ towers for Left and Right and since Emotiva centers haven’t gotten great reviews I went with a B1+ bookshelf for a center. I’m pretty happy except I feel like the center is “boxy” I think the term is, basically the imaging isn’t great and you can tell the center channel is coming from the speaker. I’m wondering if there is an opportunity for improvement by upgrading to a 3 way dedicated center, I’m specifically looking at the monolith 365c, Elac uni-fi 2.0 UC52 or uni-fi reference UCR52, and at the high end of the spectrum SVS Ultra. Any thoughts, opinions or recommendations that would offer an improvement ad pair well with the T2s would be greatly appreciated. TIA
 
Floyd Toole says the center is the most important speaker. (I think because most of a movie is dialog coming from the center, or maybe because the movie is kind-of worthless with poor dialog loudness or quality.) But generally, you want all of the speakers to "sound alike" (or similar).

basically the imaging isn’t great and you can tell the center channel is coming from the speaker.
Did you mean to say "can't tell"?

That shouldn't be a problem if the particular sound is coming only from the center speaker. And I'm not sure if you can blame the speaker since that's where the sound is coming from. Usually the acoustics have to be pretty bad before there is so much reflection that can't tell the direction of a single sound source.

Have you tried boosting the center volume a bit? A lot of people complain about dialog being too-soft (relative to the rest of the mix).
 
Hello all, I’m a newb hoping for some guidance. I recently upgraded my old infinity primus set up with Emotiva, up front I have T2+ towers for Left and Right and since Emotiva centers haven’t gotten great reviews I went with a B1+ bookshelf for a center. I’m pretty happy except I feel like the center is “boxy” I think the term is, basically the imaging isn’t great and you can tell the center channel is coming from the speaker. I’m wondering if there is an opportunity for improvement by upgrading to a 3 way dedicated center, I’m specifically looking at the monolith 365c, Elac uni-fi 2.0 UC52 or uni-fi reference UCR52, and at the high end of the spectrum SVS Ultra. Any thoughts, opinions or recommendations that would offer an improvement ad pair well with the T2s would be greatly appreciated. TIA
Generally this is caused by placement of the speaker and/or the rest of the setup, including the seats. Can you describe the placement of your center and seats? Let's make sure you are getting the most out of your setup before looking at spending more money and risk being disappointed again.

My setup sounds amazing with an identical bookshelf. Here is the setup:

S400 MKII Trio.jpg


The key is to make sure the speaker has open space around it and is just below the screen. I even overlap the bezel. Note that there is nothing in between my front stage and my recliners (no tables, etc). The screen is 77" for reference.
 
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Aside from "center" speakers generally just being a compromise to begin with?
 
Have you considered one of Emotiva centers, like the XC2? A bit odd driver layout, but it matches and it is apparently a 3-way.
 
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Buy revel center. Even a 2 way. Believe me. Kills the fan boy centers. I've been there.
Revel centers aligned for below/above screen are still a compromise and 2-ways generally not as good as a 3-way. Maybe even phantom center would work well enough. Fan boys, meh
 
I have used Infinity RC 263 3 way. No comparison to Revel Performa 2 way. I know the repetitive group think. No comparison.
 
I have used Infinity RC 263 3 way. No comparison to Revel Performa 2 way. I know the repetitive group think. No comparison.
I'm unclear from your statement here which one you are saying is better.
 
Late reply and new here. I have tried many, many center channels. If you want one of the best, get a used Aerial Acoustics CC5. Nothing I have heard come close. Next is probably the Aerial Acoustics CC3. The B version is a little better. The Revel center speakers I have heard are excellent. I have to give the edge to the Aerials for how they handle dialog. I have not heard the newer Aerial LCR speakers. Need to check those out.

For a budget center, the JBL EC35 is hard to beat. You can find them used for under $200.
 
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