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Recommendation: Complete my studio monitor system with a center channel

Hello,

I have turned my garage into a mancave. Carpeted, couches, basically turned it into a 2nd living room.

This is what my current setup is:

Outlaw 976
Yamaha HS8 Fronts
Yamaha HS5 Rears

Big fan of Yamaha Natural Sound, speakers, amps, etc.

I mainly listen to music, however I will be adding a TV for football and the occasional movie night.

I am using balanced XLR connections for the speakers.

I need a good center channel speaker recommendation to go 5.1 and possibly 7.1 in the future.

I was thinking of using a Klipsch Icon VS-14 speaker that I have, it is a budget curved rounded center channel, however considering that I have high quality Yamaha monitors, I figured it may be a good idea to get something to match quality wise. 

What do you guys recommend? I would prefer something with a balanced connection that is monitor quality, and I really love that Yamaha Natural Sound.

It is acceptable to advise me to not go with a center channel, just use the Klipsch, or maybe recommend something out of left field. I have nowhere near the years of audiophile experience as you guys, so let me know what you think?

I really appreciate your guidance. :)
mrdoug1
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
mrdoug1, I think you would be better off talking to the theater crowd. Most of us think in two channels only.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
It really depends on what you want. When you say twice you really are in love with that Yamaha Natural Sound, that is a trademark not actual natural sound. Furthest thing from it. But there was a time I was in love with JBL sound, and solid state, and looking back there were several times I rejected vastly superior components simply because they didn't meet my preconceived notions of what should be. 

So if you really want to bask in that YNS, then what you want is a center channel very close in sound character to your L/R speakers. Whatever they are. I can't get into it enough to recommend one. 

Because when set up right the center image is so rock solid there are few things more superfluous than a center channel. I had a guy one time so convinced I had a center channel he went and lifted up the blanket I had covering the TV, so sure he was that there was a speaker hiding under the blanket. Walked right up to it convinced the whole time it was hiding a speaker. Think about that for a minute. That is how little use there is for a center channel speaker. 

Unless of course you are convinced you need one anyway. In which case, your cave, your system, your choice. Go for it. You know what you like, and that is the First Audiophile Commandment: Know Thyself. 
crn3371
224 posts
 
Your best match would be to find yourself a single HS8.
soix
9,456 posts
 
Agree a single HS8 would be your best option.
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