A music-oriented home theater speaker system from Dynaudio.
(Credit: Dynaudio)First thing, determine your system's priorities. Will you watch movies or listen to music? Most folks do one or the other.
Since more home theater speaker buyers watch movies than listen to music, I'll start there.
It's hardly an overstatement to claim movie-oriented home theater systems succeed or fail based on their center channel's performance and sound quality. The center speaker delivers virtually all the dialog and it can, depending on the mix, convey upward of 80 percent of a movie's soundtrack. The center speaker has a big job.
So invest 30 percent of your 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 system budget on the center speaker, the Center Centric HT approach. As always, when it comes to sound quality, size matters. Bigger centers tend to sound better than small ones.
The subwoofer is the next most important player in a home theater sound system. Invest the next 30 percent of your dollars on the sub. The sub is largely responsible for home theater impact and power.
... Read moreFirst things first--center channel speakers do one thing really well--they anchor dialog to the screen for listeners sitting over to the left or right sides of home theaters. So if your family or friends watch movies together, I'd definitely recommend using a center channel speaker.
But for one or two people sitting directly in front of their TV a center isn't necessary, and almost always sounds less good than the left and right speakers. Center speakers tend to sound boxy, so Denzel Washington sounds like he's in a box. Ditch the center and your A/V receiver will redirect the center channel sound over to the left and right speakers. They have the advantage of not being in front of a display, which unfortunately acts like a large reflector behind the center, which messes with the sound. You will of course, need to go in the receiver's speaker setup menu and "turn off" the center channel speaker output to implement the change.
Also, the typical horizontal woofer/tweeter/woofer center design is a flawed concept (three-way center speakers that centrally position the midrange driver under the tweeter are better). In any case, center speakers rarely tonally match the left/right speakers, upsetting the illusion of a seamless soundstage. Yes, the center's responsibilities loom large--on movies the center conveys almost all the dialog, a lot of effects, and some music. That's why all of that will likely sound better over the left/right front speakers. Oh, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to "rechannel" the money you saved by not buying a center speaker into better left/right speakers. That strategy would result in better overall sound.
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