Looking for Advice on Centre Speaker (Front/Rear)

jozi

I'm buying a reciever shortly and will also be buying 2 speaker for front and rear centre use.
I dont want to spend all to much on them (<200).
Should the wattage be similar to that of my other 2 sets of speakers or is that irrelevant?
Here's a Few speakers i was looking at

Gale Gold Monitor
Gale 3020
Maybe Mordaunt Short 902 Avant
Monitor audio Bronze 1

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated

Jozi

aodh_rua

Your best bet is to talk to someone in Richersounds or XMusic and see which set will give you the best tonal balance with your current set.

On their own merits the Monitors are well recommended and I've just bought myself a set of Gale 30 series speakers (3040 fronts, 3050c centre and 3060 rears). They've gotten excellent reviews - I'll let you know what they're like as the 3040's are the floorstanding version of the 3020's.

As a matter of interest - what make are your current speakers? If you're planning on going 6.1 would you be better off getting dedicated centres?

jozi

aodh_rua wrote:

As a matter of interest - what make are your current speakers?

Like you i have the gale 3040 floorstander and a set of mission m71's.

Is there much difference between a centre speaker and a normal speaker?
Thanks for the reply

Jozi

aodh_rua

jozi wrote:

Like you i have the gale 3040 floorstander and a set of mission m71's.

Is there much difference between a centre speaker and a normal speaker?
Thanks for the reply

Jozi

Good question - not sure but there must be one or what'd be the point. Then again some of the smaller systems seem to use the same speakers all round.

Just as a matter of interest - how do you find the bass from the 3040's? I was thinking of picking up a 3080 sub, but I'm going to see what the sound (rather than the vibration) is like with the ones I've gotten first.

robbie1876

The front centre speaker is probably the most important speaker, on a normal DVD about 60% of all the sound comes from it!! Based on the list provided, the Monitor Audio speakers are head and shoulders above the rest, but you would be better off with a pair of centre speakers if you can afford them. Check out the Bronze centre model and prices, it shouldn't be much dearer than a pair of bronze 1s.

However, it is important to match the centre speaker with your main left and right speakers tonally. So I'd recommend the 3020s, or whatever the centre speaker in that range are. When you are watching a DVD movie, sound often pans across the front 3 speakers, and it can be noticably different if you have a centre that doesnt match the other two.

I used to use a James Bond movie (cant think which one now!) to demonstrate the problem. It was a car chase scene, and much of the scene was spent close behind a high powered car that was weaving from left to right. As the engine noise panned from the left speaker to the centre, it sounded like a totally different car! Then it panned off to the right and back to normal again. I used to then put in the matching centre to the front speakers, and the whole scene came to life and everything sounded right.

Robbie

robbie1876

jozi, to try to answer your question about the difference of a centre speaker, centre speakers are built with dialogue in mind. Usually the centre track has loads of music, sound effects and all sorts going on, but the dialogue has to be crystal clear on top of all this. To this end, a centre would usually have two drivers and one tweeter, versus one driver and one tweeter in a 'normal' standmount speaker. The extra driver is normally configured as a midrange speaker, to seperate the vocal range from the rest of the goings on. This is not always the case, but what is most common.

Robbie

jozi

Thanks for the replies above, very help full.
I think i'll go with 1 centre speaker then and wait till i can afford a second for the rear centre.

@aodh_rua: I find the bass pretty good. I recently changed rooms at home and notice the bass to be louder in the one room, no need to turn on extra bass i find.

would i be better of selling my missions and getting a set of gale rears and centre, or the other way round?

Jozi

robbie1876

It's personal choice, I would sell the Gales and get Mission fronts, but it's up to you really. Try swapping the Gale front and rear speakers and see if you prefer the sound, that might give you an idea.