Video Asylum

RE: Stereo/surround compromises?

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In Reply to: RE: Stereo/surround compromises? posted by jimbill on October 24, 2007 at 11:37:44

No, you don't have to have a centre and I certainly started out without one when I added surrounds to a stereo plus sub setup.

At various stages I had tried adding a centre to the stereo only setup and eneded up removing it because it did not match the mains tonally. Initially that was because my mains were 25 years old, no longer in production, and no matching speaker could be obtained. When I upgraded my mains, it became possible to obtain a matching centre speaker designed to work with those mains and it, in combination with the Audyssey EQ function in my Denon AVR, finally did the trick for me.

If you can get a good tonal match, I personally find it preferable to have a centre speaker. If I can't get that match I'd definitely go without. Your mileage will vary but I wouldn't even recomment trying a centre unless you can get a centre which does a good job of matching tonally with your mains. Ultimately I think a good matching centre is better but it's definitely not a night and day difference and I think some people may still prefer things without the centre even when a matching centre is available.

David Aiken

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