Is it worth getting a centre speaker?

ferret face

ferret face

ferret face

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I currently have a pair of Monitor audio BR5 floorstanders connected to a Cambridge Audio Azur stereo amp and use this for watching movies on my plasma.

Question is.. i have been thinking if i should get a centre speaker to make things more immersive but this would mean buying an AV amp to replace the stereo one i have.
So it would probably cost me around £500 for the amp and the centre speaker, is it worth it in your opinion?

Oh and i cant go fully surround sound because we dont have the room in our rented flat..

Cheers
Ferret
 
Is it worth it? Well, the only person that can answer that is you. A center speaker will increase immersiveness and make speech clearer in movies. However, if you're going to buy a center speaker and dedicated AV reciever, i'd go the whole hog and get two rears too... that will dramatically improve your movie experience. It all depends how much you love your sound I guess. :)
 
MONITOR AUDIO BRONZE BX CENTRE SPEAKER & ONKYO TXSR608 HOME CINEMA RECEIVER = £530 (slightly over I know, sorry)

When funds and space allow

Monitor Audio Bronze BXFX Rears
Bronze BXW10 Subwoofer
 
Running a Yamaha RXV667 with the BX2's and loving it ... and funny enough am toying with getting the centre and sub. Sub is the costly one looking at around £380.
 
Hold on one minute! How big is your room? How is your sound currently? Where do you feel it's lacking? If you're hell bent on upgrading your amp then you may as well get a centre and rears, but your current setup doesn't seem terrible. If you aren't getting good centralisation of voices or stereo image take a look at your speaker placement first and foremost.

Much as I would love a great surround sound setup, my room is too small to benefit IMO and I get good results with only a stereo system. My main problem is that I feel guilty about volume levels in my flat!
 
Sorry just to add, how much music do you listen to? Is the setup purely for tv and do you have a lot of surround sound material to play?

I'd wager the azur amp would give a much better sound for music and stereo material than the av amps in this thread.
 
Yep it will do. You will have to spend at least £700 prob more to better your current amp for stereo music. My Arcam AVR280 is one of the more musical amps and even it sounds poor next to my old stereo amp (Roksan Kandy mk3).

I decided to live with it for now though as my listening is prob 90% movies, 10% music.
 
I would say that its 90% tv and films etc and 10% music on this system and the flat is not tiny so I may look at the surround option. I'm itching to buy something anyhoo

:)
 
ferret face said:
I would say that its 90% tv and films etc and 10% music on this system and the flat is not tiny so I may look at the surround option. I'm itching to buy something anyhoo

:)
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You will get more lasting pleasure from a good sound setup than you will a brand new spanky high-spec PC, trust me on that. :)
 
I've done away with my centre...... waste of time on a good system, assuming the amp has good phantom mode, or your using stereo as you are.

Here is the rub, if you use a centre it's normally smaller than the left and right speakers, and only one. Therefore it will have less weight and room filling power than the L+R working together.
When it becomes useful is when used in a big room, and the L+R are far apart, and you loose focus of voice off the screen. Then you need a big/good centre to fill it in.

If you listen to concerts or music, a centre sounds worse, as they channel it all to the centre, so it's like listening in mono....
So if you current speakers image well, with good placement don't bother.

Second problem, the AV amps as stated above will be a down grade on your current amp.... A sub and surround are more important in a well set up system.
 
ok thanks .. i might hold off for a while as my centre speaker would only be about 0.5-1m away from the floorstanders and as you mentioned 9design2, i might not hear any benefits. Or am i missing something???
 
For movies the centre speaker carries the majority of the soundtrack i.e. dialogue, action, music, it's more important than the rest IMO.
 
probedb said:
For movies the centre speaker carries the majority of the soundtrack i.e. dialogue, action, music, it's more important than the rest IMO.
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Exactly, that's why using one little crappy centre speaker sounds worse. Unless like I say you have a huge room and the L+R are miles apart. Or you say have tiny speakers as given in the all in one packages where they need to spread the sound about a bit to get some coverage in the room.

Decent main speakers don't need this help, when the amp is in Phantom mode.

I partly blame the steering/mix on stuff like concerts, where they push most of the stage sound, ie the band playing to just the centre. Then is sounds worse than Phantom mode.

I had my left and right and centre all the same drivers, and cabinet volume, all driven active by the same grade amp.... and I don't miss loosing the centre, it works better and more consistent with a wide range of discs with out.
You need a very serious centre to match a good pair of floorstanders in phantom mode.... which is way outside the budget of most posters on this forum..... Sorry been there and got the T shirt.
I wouldn't give up my sub or rears though for films.
 
well now i am really confused!

Can i ask what phantom mode is?? Also if i listen to music via an av amp will it will only output to the floorstanders in stereo and ignore the centre speaker?

cheers for all the info
 
Cheers 9designs2, I was thinking of getting a small surround set up for my bedroom but you're making me think it'll be much more sensible to invest in a decent 2.1 setup and then add a centre and rear speakers when I move out rather than having to upgrade everything all over again.
 
ferret face said:
well now i am really confused!

Can i ask what phantom mode is?? Also if i listen to music via an av amp will it will only output to the floorstanders in stereo and ignore the centre speaker?

cheers for all the info
Click to expand...

AV amps allow you to choose what speakers to send the sound to and in what form... So you can choose 5.1 surround mode for films... Or Stereo 2 channel for music. Phantom is where you tell it you don't have a centre, and to add the centre information in the 5.1 mix to the left and right speakers. Hence you don't loose any sound or information, just redirect it to bigger better speakers.

I'd take a high quality 2.1 over a poor 5.1 any day ;)
 
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