small centre speakers?

beachBOYken · 23 Mar 2014 at 14:45

hi

Would like to change my centre speaker on my 3.1 system.

I have an Onkyo ht22hd 2.1 setup which I added a centre speaker, problem is it takes up a lot of room.

Its a Q Acoustics and is big and heavy.

Can anyone recommend a small centre speaker that packs a punch?

lucid · 23 Mar 2014 at 16:16

Small and that packs the punch of a much bigger speaker is a bit of a contradiction. It's either going to mean the speaker leaning more heavily on the sub to fill in the missing lower frequencies, or the speaker needs to move a lot of air despite smaller driver diameters. That in turn means expense.

If it was me, then I'd be on the lookout for a used Monitor Audio Radius R180 speaker. Despite being only 1/3rd the volume of something like the Q 2000Ci centre the Monitor audio still manages to produce a bit more bass extension (60 Hz vs 75Hz)

gingerbiscuit69 · 23 Mar 2014 at 17:35

personally, i think the center channel is the most important of a 5.1 system. It handles most the dialect, and upper content - placing the sound at the screen. It should ideally be the same as your L/R to maintain tonal matching, but i digress. Really, if you cant/wont put a proper center channel in which can do the job well, id stick to a 'phantom' center and leave it too the L/R to handle it.

Undersized centers just make everything sound thin and pathetic....

MOOGLEYS · 23 Mar 2014 at 18:59

I had a Q Acoustics 2000 series and upgraded to the smaller Q7000i series and tbh even though it's a lot smaller it sounds superb easily as good as the larger 2000 series.

The centre speaker can be purchased alone.

http://www.qacoustics.co.uk/q7000i-centre-speaker.htm

gingerbiscuit69 · 23 Mar 2014 at 19:48

not trying to be confrontational, but as a standard, surround channels [including center] are mastered down to 80hz, with the sub channel taking <80hz. If a speaker can't conform to the very basic principles set by Dolby/THX, they can't really be considered suitable for multichannel playback IMO.

i accept people will always compromise size for performance or we'd all have massive cinema horns, but to effectively leave a hole in the frequency response seems daft too me.

please once again, i'm not trying to be rude, just putting forth my views of sound based on what i get up to in my dayjob - 'constructive criticism' if you like.

beachBOYken · 23 Mar 2014 at 20:14

Hi again

Thanks for the comments.

Instead of starting new thread I'm also on the lookout for a wireless 5.1/7.1 headset for watching movies late at night.

Like OP I have the Onkyo ht22hd 2.1 system I'm not entirely sure if there's headsets out there that can connect to this?

I'm interested in the sennheiser headset range , seen a few such as rs-180. Has anyone got a wireless headset, any good?

Cheers