Center channel speaker?

[Robert M]

Center channel speaker?

Hi everyone,

My family is playing musical home theater system hardware. My current center channel speaker and subwoofer are being given to my parents for their surround sound system along with my old Onkyo receiver.

To refresh your memory, my original system was the Onkyo HT-S780 home theater system in a box, connected to my HD TV via optical. The TV did the switching. It worked pretty well. Think of the Onkyo system as an aging non-HDMI mid-range Onkyo receiver and a set of Onkyo surround sound speakers. All of the components have standard connections.

Last year, I replaced the Onkyo receiver with a Denon AVR-S900W a/v receiver. All I did was swap the boxes. The rest of the audio system remained the same. Same Onkyo center speaker. Same Onkyo subwoofer. Same Onkyo ssrround sound speaker. Works great. Love the sound. Love having the receiver be the heart of the audio and a/v switching.

I’m giving my parents the Onkyo receiver to use as the heart of a basic home theater system. It'll be connected to their Tv via optical and the TV will do the switching. No issues there. They don't need anything more than that. They’ve already got front right, front left, rear right and rear left surround sound speakers in place. They need a center and a subwoofer. So, along with the receiver, they are getting the Onkyo center and subwoofer that I’ve been using in my setup.

That means, I've got to replace the center channel speaker and subwoofer in my system. I’ve already found a replacement subwoofer - A Dayton Audio S-800 powered subwoofer. I did a bunch of research and it appears to be a solid, high quality subwoofer. I contacted Dayton about compatibility with my existing receiver and such. No issues at all. If anything, it'll be a solid improvement over the Onkyo subwoofer it's replacing. that and the support was excellent. The Dayton is on its way.

Now I need a center. My budget is about $100. My current choices are the following:



Crutchfield has the best price for it.



Provantage has the best price for it.

Those are my primary choices. I doubt I can go wrong with either of them. Still, I’d love another recommendation or two. My budget for the center is a maximum of $100.00 or so.

The old Onkyo hardware was surprisingly good especially considering they were a part of a home theater system in a box. It eas one of the better systems on the market when I bought it way back when and still does a decent job now. I don't want a center that'll be worse. I've no doubt either of the above centers will be an improvement over the Onkyo center.

Suggestions will be much appreciated.

Robert

[bazookaman]

http://www.amazon.com/BIC-AMERICA-DV-52C...B00009WBYJ

[Forrest]

I bought a Polk 15C a few years ago and think it sounds great. The specs are very similar to the CS10 in your Crutchfield link. The drivers are the same size, and the frequency response is the same. The only difference I noticed was the CS10 is slightly larger (20 inches compared to 18 inches) and the sensitivity (91 dB for the CS10 compared to 89 dB). This means the CS10 would be slightly louder at the same volume setting. Newegg sells the 15C for $79.99.

[Robert M]

Bazooka,

Thank you for the recommendation. I think the model in your link is one step down from the Bic in my post. No doubt a very good center but for the difference of $4.00 plus shipping, I'd go for the DV62CLR-S.

Robert

[Ombligo]

I have had very good luck with Polk at different times in the last 25 years. I'd go that way with no concerns

[dk62]

You may be better off keeping the Onkyo center speaker and buying your parents a cheap center. Two things are important for center - dialog reproduction and sonic match with sides/surrounds. If you were happy with your old setup, I would change just the subwoofer. Or change all 3 front ones together.

[deckeda]

I could probably find a few $100 or greater center ch speakers that are better than the Onkyo but worse when placed in your system because they won't sonically match as well.

dk62's right. You're doing it backwards, hurting yourself and not necessarily helping your folks.

Recommend waiting until you can do it right, with a matched setup. Use a phantom center for mom and dad and keep what you have. Later, set them up with a matched L-C-R.

[Gareth]

I'm also in the camp of keeping the front three matched. If possible, I'd figure out if there was a matching center to your parents' front speakers and look for that used, or just buy another L/R speaker and use that as the center for now since we don't have to worry about magnetic shielding in the centers anymore. A proper center will still be designed better, but I'd rather have the front three match in some way, than have a mix of speakers.

[3d]

If you don't mind a few scratches, $85 is a good deal on Orb Audio speakers in polished SS.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Orb-audio-speake...SwZQxW6E3T

Hook them up together for your center channel.

[D. Lawson]

I agree with dk62 and Gareth. Keep your setup intact (aside from the subwoofer, which would be the first thing I would replace) and get your parents a center that matches their setup.