Beginners Guide - Choosing The Right Center Channel Speaker

Using center channel as front channels (3 center channels) work the same as using 3 bookshelves? Wondering of having 3 center channel speakers since I can place them in the same plane.

For my center I use an extremely rare one of a kind 2-way folded horn Cerwin Vega prototype with the famous polycell DT5 tweeter and a custom made 8" midwoofer built by Gene Czerwinski himself. I think it sounds excellent! it's a shame this model never made it to production.

I hope I don’t sound arrogant, and I'm not an audiophile, but I was under the impression that this was common sense.

I know towers look amazing and they enhance a room's aesthetics far better than any other speaker in that space, but I also understand it doesn't make sense to overshadow the main unit in a full home theater setup, the center speaker...

All I had to do was trial and error to know the first couple of centers I had were trying really hard to keep up with my towers, which was when I had to get up into the Klipsch reference premiere line. That's when everything started to come together...

Great video, by the way.

I don’t have a projector or an acoustically transparent screen. With my TV, how would I position a bookshelf as a center speaker if I went with that option? Lay it on its side?

Thanks for the great advice!! I have 2 old Klipsch 4.5 tower speakers for L & R. What klipsch center would you recommend. It’s for my garage home theater with 150” screen. Thanks

I been gifted a paradigm reference studio series CC-490 v5. Never knew what realistic sound was until this speaker. The speaker dissapeared and the sound stage just opened up. Need to find some matching speakers for the fronts now. Klipsch kind of clash with paradigm sound. My center channel speaker is huge. It is 10 times the size of my small klipsch quintet I use for the fronts. I love having a big center channel.

How about towers for the centre channel ?

Room 24Lx16Wx14H Speakers all Klipsch . RC-64ii x3 LCR,s RS-62ii x6 surrounds CDT-5650cii x4 Dolby Atmos SW-115 x2-and SW-112 x4 decoded by Yamaha powered by QSC . Like being in a real theatre. Cheers 🍻🍿Eh.😎🇨🇦

The obvious and simplest answer is one that matches your front speakers/towers

i need honest opinion, im having jbl stage a130 as fronts, and i want to add klipsch sinergy c20 for center speaker, would it work well?

Hi please suggest a pair of front speaker for yamaha nsp350. Thanks

Please stop telling people that 2way MTM centers are ok. This is a disservice to viewers. People research comb filtering and lobing to understand how bad 2way MTM Centers are and how useless they are for what their main goal is..providing clear sounds across a sitting area.

Arendal 1961 has a good center somewhat cheap

4000 subscribers what are you peter McKinnon ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

SVS for life

Some really good advice, thank you

Hi, what is the model of the speaker on the left bottom corner of the screen here?
Nvm, I think its Polk, how natural is it for dialog?

Great video. Really gets to the meat of what information us New-bies need to know when trying to make intelligent decisions with home audio. I just purchased some Elac uni-fi bookshelf speakers with a matching center. it's in a small-ish room and I can't seem to get the placement perfect. any suggestions?

With home theater, it's so important to have the speakers from the same brand and series so that the voice timbre matches (especially with the front left/center/right). So I bought a spare speaker (identical to the 3-way center speaker) just in case to replace any bad speaker.
Instead of the spare speaker (91db 3-way identical to the center channel) sitting in a closet, I'll use it as my back surround speaker for more dynamic range.
My 3 speakers (3 identical horizontal center speakers) are under the screen. I don't have room to the left and right of my 150in 6x9 screen (11' wide screen on a 12' wide wall, 10' high wall) for tower speakers (nor would the LCR be identical when using 2 towers and a horizontal center channel speaker, nor would the tower's tweeters be at the same height as the horizontal center channel), so my LCR are identical to the 3-way horizontal center speaker and located below my screen.

Hi Dustin! Just became a fan of your channel. Asking for your advice. I'm currently looking on upgrading my bedroom setup particularly the front channels. Currently, I have a Polk Audio ES10 for the Left and Right channels and I am looking to match a center speaker for those. Would the Polk Audio ES30 be alright even though it has slightly bigger drivers than the ES10 or should I go for the ES15 which has the same driver size? I worry that the volume difference would be noticeable if the drivers don't match. Cheers!

I really have my heart set on a klipsch rp 8000f as my L/R. Would you recommend the klipsch rp 504c with the 4 5" speaker set up or the other klipsch with the 2 6" speaker layout

Would towers work for centre channel? Always wanted to get a tower and run them Full Band.

Many 2-way 3-driver center MTM (midwoofer, tweeter, midwoofer) channel speakers have issues with interference between the drivers at an angle, or phase cancellation. This means they really only sound good directly in front of them. MTM speakers, which also include the new Polk “Slim” center speakers, including the XT35, S35, ES35, R350, which have a MMTMM or MMMTMMM setup, have noticeably less midrange off to the side, which could be an issue for hearing dialogue properly. I think of MTM center speakers as being like an LCD tv: poor image (or sound) off to the side. The 3-way center speakers, on the other hand, are more like an OLED: they don’t have this problem, but they are expensive.

Thank you for the great info. Question, I have Klipsch f20 fronts with the c20 matching center.
I have hearing loss, so I am thinking of upgrading to the rp-440c which is on sale now. Is that a good upgrade? By the way, i am old, 70, so need help!

I have a cheap 20+ year old Klipsch system that has a tiny center channel, and now that I have a dedicated room for it I’m upgrading to a Marantz SR8015 and some RF 7 III’s and the RC-64 III’s. That should fill out the room. 😃

I’ve got a pair of Mirage M1’s. Don’t have a Centre channel. What would you suggest for me?

Inferior center channel can be verified by Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug or Khan :)

great information thank you but have question i'm using the Polk Audio RC85i for my left and right front speaker can used the same one for the center speaker?

Hey Dustin, great video. I have a pair of Klipsch Heresy IVs that I use for both stereo hifi music listening as well as my right and left for my home theater but I cheaped out on a lower end Klipsch center channel and I have just not been happy with it. Feels like a serious weak point in my system so I just purchased a Polk Legend L400, it looks like you have one in the background there. Good center speaker?

What do you think about the SP-EC73 Pioneer Elite?

I made my own TV stand and allowed plenty of space for a large center channel speaker just below the TV. Got Bic Venturi all around, with the center one being the largest of them all. Problem is that the ones they sell in a package all come with same size speakers all around.

If i were to get a better one I'd have to raise the tv on a stand, but i think it would be too high.

Hi, excellent advise. The size of the woofer matters? Deciding between Polk s30 and s35. Could you help me on that? Thank you very much

First time watching one of your videos and was VERY IMPRESSED! I subscribed immediately! I have a pair of 6ohm JBL L7 speakers (which sound phenomenal) and was wondering if the Klipsch RP-504C (8ohms) would be a good match. I would rather buy the Klipsch RC-64 III but it's too not in my budget. Building a 20' x 19' room with a pool table (I'm a professional pool player) but only have about 16" maybe 18" tops of room between the speaker and the wall. The 504C is 14.4" in depth and is ported so was wondering if it'll sound the same if I put it a couple of inches off the wall. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your helpful tips and especially for your hard work and dedication to the community. Hope you're having a fantastic weekend!

I would say 99% of dialogue comes from the centre speaker!

Well said!

Hi Dustin,
I was wondering if you could help me out with my setup. My setup sounds great as far as all channels including my sub, the problem is that my system is a Focal Sib 5.1 so all speakers match. My in ceiling Atmos speakers are Focal. That being said I want to have a better center but still try to match the setup as my setup is extremely loud and clear, it's driven by my Onkyo Rz820. Was looking at some of the Def Tec's centers and was wondering if that would cause an imbalance due to speakers not matching. If you go to my channel you can see my setup. Any suggestions and help would be great,
Thanks!

Love the idea of tilting the center channel upwards. Just ordered a nice pair of door stops. Great tip. Thank you.

Great video because I see so many without using a center speak at all......

Good stuff. Learnt a lot from this!

Hola, greetings from Mexico. I have as main Polk S30, currently using old very inexpensive centers, less than 100$ each (2, on below and one on top of the TV) sounds ok, but would like an upgrade , what center would you recomend given the rule 33% each?, my AV is a Pioneer Elite VSX-LX301, surrounds old Bose 201

Great video, now subscribed. Do you know what centre would be a good match for the Graham Audio Chartwell LS6/f? Thank you.

Can i use center speaker with the same 145w power with reciever?

Acoustically transparent screens, ha-ha-ha. Those were the days, surely. Not sure how things are advancing in America, but in Asia and Europe, cinema chains are junking their projectors, their perf'd screens, and their old-fashioned behind the screen cinema speakers. That was never a good idea, more like a necessary bad compromise. Replacing them now with Micro-LED and Crystal-LED video walls and altering the type and positioning of all LFR speakers accordingly.

Dustin, you rock. Thanks for your honest advice. Cheers from Arkansas.

hello. i would like to ask to ask something. I have recently bought klipsh r51m for fl and fr speakers. Now its time to buy the center channel and i want something really nice . I am between r52c and rp500m. i know rp500m its from the premiere series of klipsch so its superior to my r51m.Will i have problems if i buy this product? It will make my system unbalanced so the superiority of this center speaker will go wasted? thx for any answer given

TV's belong on the wall. I once had two Infinity RS-3's paralleled as a center. Actually did really good.

What do you think polk audio signature s30s?

Just got a Martin Logan abyss for $40. Came without a fuse. Ordered the right ones and its coming today. Hoping it doesn't blow the fuse out the gate.