Polk CS10 or Sony CN5000 or neither (how important is it to match speakers?) (1 Viewer)

[w9xat]

Hello Group

First newbie post from a newbie HT person with a budget system so forgive me for my newbie-ness

 

[CB750]

Welcome Lou


A center speaker is an important addition especially for Video dialog. Your center speaker should be timbre matched to your L&R speakers. This means it should either be the same speaker our a special center made by the same company as your L&R with the same type of drivers. This means you should stick with Sony, However, before you purchase the CN5000 you should contact Sony to find out if it is timbre matched to your two SS-B1000. If is not then you should purchase a third SS-B1000 to use as a center channel.

 

[David Willow]

Nothing wrong with putting the center above the L/R speakers. This is very common. Just try to angle it down so the tweeter is pointing toward the main listening position (about ear level).

 

[w9xat]

Thanks to all for the answers. I did find out one thing for sure - and that is IMH (and neophyte) O get a center speaker. Maybe my naive (and middle aged) ears are too easily impressed and not discerning enough; but even with a 10 year old Bose 301 IV in the center and the little Sony SS-B1000's as fronts (cant get much more mismatched than that ), the system sounds overall better *with* the center than without. For movies it centers the vocals, and makes the fronts not work as hard, and thats especially important for smaller speakers (they dont have to also play the "phantom center"). And for all my old 2 channel music, the Pro Logic II conversion to 5.1 channels just isn't the same without the center pseudo-voice channel. (the whole concept of upmixing 5.1 channels out of what was originally just a two channel source impresses the bejeezbus out of me, but thats for another post )


Again thanks for the anwers