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    Invelos Forums->General: General Home Theater Discussion Page: 1  Previous   Next
Center Channel speaker as a front speaker?
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DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantdavidperez
Registered: March 18, 2007
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I am in a situation were our new place doesnt have enough room next to the tv entertainment center to place my floor standing front speakers. I have a pair of Yamaha NS-777 for my fronts and a Yamaha NS-C444 for the center channel. The shelf on the sides of the entertainment center are perfect size for the center channel. I was thinking of selling my fronts and getting a 2 more centers and using them as fronts? Is that possible? Are centers just speakers and the amp is the one that the center channel of sound to them or will they not sound like regular speakers. I know they wont offer me much in the bass department but I have 2-Yamaha powered 12" subs in opposite sides of the rooms for that.  Will this work?
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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Registered: May 19, 2007
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Since you have less space, you may want to go with smaller speakers.  I have a Bose 5.1 speaker set and it's loud enough that I can hear it on the other side of the house, one floor down - and sound doesn't travel well through my house.
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantdavidperez
Registered: March 18, 2007
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Thanks Dr. I would do that and there are some nice sets out there that if I had the money I would definitely look into, but in my case I have a budget of $0 so I intend to sell the front speakers and hopefully have enough to buy 2 centers for my purpose. My other option is to buy a set of the same style yamaha ns series book shelf speakers but I have had bookshelfs before and they didnt sound too good, granted they were sony not yamaha. Thanks for the info, maybe when I get that lcd for our bedroom I will look into the Bose, that would be really nice, I would never leave the bedroom.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRossRoy
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Shouldn't be a problem. A speaker is a speaker. It's called a center because it's in the center, but I'm sure it can be used as fronts if plugged in the right outputs on the amp. The amp does the job of separating the sound channels.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
Reg. Jan 27, 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting davidperez:
Quote:
I am in a situation were our new place doesnt have enough room next to the tv entertainment center to place my floor standing front speakers. I have a pair of Yamaha NS-777 for my fronts and a Yamaha NS-C444 for the center channel. The shelf on the sides of the entertainment center are perfect size for the center channel. I was thinking of selling my fronts and getting a 2 more centers and using them as fronts? Is that possible? Are centers just speakers and the amp is the one that the center channel of sound to them or will they not sound like regular speakers. I know they wont offer me much in the bass department but I have 2-Yamaha powered 12" subs in opposite sides of the rooms for that.  Will this work?



Most true center speakers are optimized for dialogue.  They typically don't have the dynamic range that a true left/right front speaker has to handle the full range of sound in most movies.  One solution might be to mount the front speakers on brackets up on the walls on either side to free up floor space.  I did that once some years ago when I was living in a mobile home.  Looked funky as hell but worked quite nicely.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registranttwojayz
Registered: September 7, 2007
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If needed, and it sounds like it would be the case, your tri-center option is one worth exploring. The center channel handles nearly all of the soundtrack information anyway. Anything from the dialog to sound effects and explosions. The best advice would be this; best case scenario match the two new speakers identically with what you currently have. Worst case, use two more identical Yamaha centers. If you do this any variance in sound characteristics should be minimized. Ideally a home theater would use a complete set of identical speakers anyway to ensure tonal matching. For the most part though it doesn't happen. So, stick with a single manufacturer to enjoy the best results. Hope this helps...
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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Quoting davidperez:
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maybe when I get that lcd for our bedroom I will look into the Bose, that would be really nice, I would never leave the bedroom.
I have a LCD mounted on the wall in my bedroom with 5.1 sound.  It IS nice. 
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantnolesrule
Registered: 09/21/2000
Registered: March 15, 2007
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If you get some quality bookshelf speakers you'll be fine.

Don't get me started on Bose... no offense intended to those that are happy with their purchase.
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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I'm simply curious what problem you have with Bose.  PM me if you'd like if you feel it would be too off-topic.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantFUBAR
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Registered: March 21, 2007
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To Dr. Killpatient,

Regarding Bose speakers.  I expect the problem with them is due to pricing.  You pay a lot for worthless hype, much like here in Canada with Monster cables.  About a year ago I bought a DVD player with HDMI.  The salesman asked if I would like an HDMI cable for my new player as it didn't come with one. The 3 foot cables he showed me were from Monster and would cost $249. I was incredulous as the DVD player only cost $189.  The curious part in all of this was that the player actually did come with a free HDMI cable. Since then I have purchased HDMI cable 6 feet long from Monoprice at around $3. 

The lesson to be learned is; don't believe what the manufacturers spew, it is just so much hot air.

My rant is over.
Graham
 Last edited: by FUBAR
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantnolesrule
Registered: 09/21/2000
Registered: March 15, 2007
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I assume we're referring to accoustimass.

You can get small, aesthetically pleasing cube-style speakers that sound as good and usually better for much, much less money. Couple that with the fact that they cannot  reproduce the full range of sound (there is a sound dropoff between 200 and 280Hz, and cannot reproduce below 45Hz and above 13kHz), you are not getting anything near what you are paying for.

For more info, see http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

If your goal for a home theater is to accurately reproduce the theater experience in your home, then Bose is not for you.

That's not to say all Bose products are bad (they make some decent larger speakers), just the ones that are mass marketed.
 Last edited: by nolesrule
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registranttwojayz
Registered: September 7, 2007
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Bose arguments aside, were you able to get the information you were looking for? Hope you got your help...
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantxradman
Registered: June 17, 2002
Registered: March 14, 2007
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That's the way I have mine setup and they are fine.  In fact, I would say that because all three front speakers are the same, I have transparency across the front stage that cannot be matched by separate front and center speaker setup.

My Home Theater
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantdavidperez
Registered: March 18, 2007
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Thanks folks for all the reponses. I did indeed purchase 2 more center channels and used them as left and right and I can honestly tell you that my system sounds better for movies, it lack in music, but in movies it sounds better. I had the really big front towers and it seems my sony receiver just wasnt enough power for them so in return they were under powered and didnt sound very good, I am very happy with my tri-center channel speaker set up. thanks again to all that responded.
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