Center Channel Frequency Response

I'm not an authority, but I don't accept the premise - or at least not fully. A speaker optimized to produce music must produce vocals too. Indeed, few (none) of us would be happy with a speaker that won't produce vocal music accurately. And, it doesn't seem to me that a speaker that reproduces vocal music would be sub-optimized for spoken word.

That said, I guess we do agonize over our speaker selection considering which models are better for vocals vs various types of instrumentals. So if you're fanatical about the vocal reproduction accuracy for your HT viewing, you may have vocals criteria, but I wouldn't go beyond that if it were me.

The initial premise is fallacious. Ideally, all the speakers should be full-range and of equal timbre, distance and level. In practice, smaller speakers can be used with proper bass management.

Poor voice intelligibility is generally due to an inadequate (or poorly designed) center speaker, poor center channel placement and integration with the other speakers and, more often than not, bad room acoustics. There are band-aids for most of these.

Oh and why rely on someone who cannot spell "tailored?"
Kal

>First question: Is the underlying premise correct?

Anecdotally, 60% of a motion picture soundtrack's energy ends up in the center channel. It gets more than its fair share of the musical score and effects.

Thanks, guys. Makes sense to me to have as full-range a center speaker as funds and space permit. And, Kal, yeah -- ditto for "intelligible."

Lou