Are Centre Speakers Necessary

[Stormboy]

Hi

I have a KEF system with XQ20's as front left and right and a KEF KHT3005 system for the rest of the speakers. Obviously, the XQ20's are far superior to the other speakers. This is most important for the centre channel. Due to space restrictions I do not have room for a larger centre speaker.

My questions is, do I really need one. Would I be better off just sending the centre channel to the XQ20's. If this is possible, I might even consider buying a pair of XQ40's and using these as the front left and right and the XQ20's for th rears, maing a 4.1 system.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Stormboy

 

[John Duncan]

Depends on how close to the screen the two fronts are, and where you sit in relation to the screen. In terms of tonality alone, the big KEFs will kick the little KEFs butt. So if the fronts are quite close in on the screen, and you sit dead centre, then the 'phantom' centre speaker created with by choosing 'no centre' on your receiver will sound an awful lot better than the weeny KEF in the middle. If they're quite far either side of the screen, or you sit off-axis, it'll be harder for that 'centre' channel to be 'locked' to the centre of the screen and it might give rise to disconcerting off-axis dialogue.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Cant say as ive tried myself, but the infamous RUSS ANDREWS doesnt use one in his setup. His explanation is that so long as the main speakers are setup correctly then voices should sound like theyre coming from the middle anyways

 

[John Duncan]

Which is true, of course, but like I say - if you move positions the voice will move with you to some extent. And it kind of limits the impact of across-the-front sound pans. Nonetheless, given the choice I'd rather have two good speakers and some compromised sound stage than two good speakers and a totally mismatched centre (tried it, wouldn't again).

But then I'd rather just listen in stereo anyway

 

[ear]

just by curiosity JohnDuncan what were the front 3 mismatched you heard? just to have an ideia of how bad it was..

 

[John Duncan]

Tannoy Revolution 2 floorstanders front L/R and a Yamaha centre from a sub/sat package. More extreme than the OP's example, I suspect, but same sort of idea.

Though he could always try it and see which sounds better, of course...

 

[ear]

yamaha satelite speakers are horrible..

 

[ear]

well...in fact I've only heard them connected to yamaha Av amps...JBL satelite speakers also sounded bad to me coonnected to a yamaha amp...

 

[Anonymous]

Back when I had a Pro-logic system and a 4:3 tv, I used phantom mode as there was no place to put a centre speaker. I never noticed any problems. The speakers were around 3m apart. The room is 4mx5m. I think because you are are looking at the people on screen your brain fools you into assuming the voices come from the people speaking. After all how many people on here feel the speach comes from above or below the tv with their current set up.

 

[Tom Moreno]

NSYGrinner:
Back when I had a Pro-logic system and a 4:3 tv, I used phantom mode as there was no place to put a centre speaker. I never noticed any problems. The speakers were around 3m apart. The room is 4mx5m. I think because you are are looking at the people on screen your brain fools you into assuming the voices come from the people speaking. After all how many people on here feel the speach comes from above or below the tv with their current set up.

It all depends, I can certainly hear the voices coming from below my telly and am looking forward to getting a new AV rack that has a TV pole mount on the back of it so the centre channel can sit on the top shelf and the LCR pans can move with a little more fluidity. I used to run a 4.1 system for quite a while years ago when I had my 1st system. When the L/R's were close in to the screen it worked pretty well but in an action style movie with a lot of guns and explosions it did seem from time to time that the speakers were handling a bit too much information and when I finally added a centre channel for that system it really seemed like the soundtracks opened up a bit and the front soundstage breathed a sigh of relief.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Stormboy,

Im toying with upgrading my front Kef 3001 sats to the XQ-20, would you say the jump is massive or slight ?

 

[The_Lhc]

Jed C:Im toying with upgrading my front Kef 3001 sats to the XQ-20, would you say the jump is massive or slight ?

Hmmm, at a grand for the pair you'd hope the XQ20 would offer more than just a "slight" upgrade.

 

[Stormboy]

Hi Jed C

The jump in standard by replacing the 3001 satellites with the XQ20's was substantial. There was a massive improvement at the top end and in the mid range. Also, when listening in stereo, there was no need for the amp to redigitise the signal and apply its crossover and then use its own DAC to turn the signal back into analogue. This also had a major impact, as my source (a Logitech Transporter) has a much better DAC than the Pioneer SC-LX70 receiver that I use. Furthermore, now that I did not need to do this, I could get a specialised stereo amp (a Cambridge Audio Azur 840a) for stereo listening; another big improvement over the Pioneer receiver.

Stormboy