Upgraded wall-mounted centre speaker?

[admin_exported]

Currently have an Onkyo SR606 driving Tannoy Arena Lites, a pair of Polk RC60i 7.1 ceiling speakers and a Monitor Audio Radius 360HD sub.

I am fortunate to have a living room layout that places me right in the middle of the room, seated just over 3 m from the screen.

Next big upgrade will be an Onkyo 818 but the main issue I currently have is the centre speaker which seems to lack the range and quality of the rest of the system. Particularly when listening at lower volume, e.g. late at night, even with the centre volume adjusted accordingly it still often sounds muffled.

I wondered if anybody had any good suggestions of a wall mounted centre speaker which would deliver greater dynamics, but in a fairly compact, wall mounted package, and ideally matching the arena lite front speakers as far as possible.

I've already done everything I can with regards to positioning, tuning the setup etc. so my only realy option at this stage is an upgraded unit.

Last upgrade was the sub, which absolutely knocks spots off the Tannoy sub that came with the system (a former 5* review unit) so I'm now wondering if the same improvements can be found elsewhere, starting with the centre!

Thanks in advance.
Ed

 

[Anonymous]

I guess nobody has any advice? :wave:

 

[ideal av]

the one bit of advice I could give you is to maybe hang on until you get the 818 and use Audyssey XT32 to set it up, should be quite a step up in room eq improvement and may solve your problem

as a rule of thumb, choosing a different centre speaker to your LR is not recommended but if you did want to choose a speaker which would produce excellent detail with performance then take a look at the MK 950, i can`t think of another speaker at its price point which offers such dynamics and accuracy, especially with movie performance in mind.

it uses the tweeter out of MK`s professional studio monitors so that should tell you its capabilities

Maybe the M7 as well could fit the bill

Allan

 

[Anonymous]

Allan,

Thanks for the response. You make a very good point which I hadn't considered, but I guess that's the point of posting on these forums, right?

As you say, I think I will hold off until I get the new amp, and see where that leaves me.

Many thanks!

Ed

 

[ideal av]

keep us posted when you get the 818, its a stonking AVR for the money, i`m sure you`ll like it

Allan

 

[pioneer7]

I think there is a midnight option,not sure of the actual name but it allows you to use this option of a night time, but does not loose any quality of sound that you are getting now when you lower the volume, I am sure you have but there are a few reviews out there now, and as alan has stated it is a very god amp indeed. 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, yep I sure will.

Will also try night mode on my current amp at the weekend. However either way I need to upgrade as I've long since run out of inputs/outputs etc!