Ultimate center speaker in a small HT set up?

You are going to have to do a lot more spadework

(A)There is no "best".... Full stop. Without actually auditioning any alternatives personally, all you are going to get here is a shotgun approach (instead of a rifle) of heavily biased personal value judgements pushing their faves that have about a nil chance of actually sounding good with your gear. System synergy matters.

(B) Without actually disclosing the specs of your equipment, cables, more details on the viewing environment, and especially your budget (emphasis added ) your overly broad question as currently posed is analogous to asking: "... How long is a piece of string?"

ANS: "... It depends."

Look at Legacy Audio options.

Actually Akg, I agree with you totally and thank you for that!

My room is a small one; 10 x 12. IMHO, I think small rooms are a lot easier to work with. I have a 50" Panasonic Plasma on the wall and under that a Sunuko Vent Quadrasphire AV rack (which is about 4 ft. wide). On each side of the rack, I have placed a SVS Sub Ultra 13. On top of the subs sit a granite stand on each. Under the granite stand, I have put self adhesive felt pads, so as not to mark the subs. On the subs will sit my Monitor Audio PL100 (Presently on order). Amplification is Lexicon RX7 and processor is the new Yamaha CXA-5000. Back surrounds are Anthony Gallo Strada 2. All interconnects are Cardas Clear and Golden Reference and all speaker cables, Nordost Tyr. I have presently, a Monitor Audio GXC350 as a center speaker and it is really very good. But now as I await delivery of the PL100's, I am wondering can I further improve on my center speaker? Does not 60% of the sound not emanate from the center?
Now, I am aware that the front three speakers should timbre match, but is it really so important? What if I were to insert a Vivid Audio C1 in there for example? I have heard great things about Vivid Audio and I love the look of the C1.

It surely is , all great fun!

Morgan, I found one of the biggest improvements to my HT system came when I timbre-matched all of my speakers. I have Gallo Ref. 3.1s for front L/R, Gallo Ref. AV Center, and Ref. AV surrounds. The coherence of the soundfield was greatly improved when I did this. This is not a subtle improvement.

When I saw you had the Stradas, I thought great, just get some more Stradas and you're done. This would have made for an excellent system that should work very well in that small room. But now that you've ordered the MAs, I guess you might as well go ahead and replace the Stradas with some MAs....

-RW-

Magico produce the SSC centre channel which is designed to be a perfect match with the S Series speakers, but due to its overall overall neutrality and resolution, it should partner well in any high end home theater using dynamic speakers.

I agreee with RW. My front three Coincidents are perfectly matched at identical height and amplification. The sound field is seamless. Don't mix and match.

Gonna throw the cat among the pigeons now...

That's exactly what happens to the sound when you start mixing speakers in a HT system. Doesn't it make better sense for the birds to fly together as in a formation?

Now, I am aware that the front three speakers should timbre match, but is it really so important?

Not just the front speakers, this is important for all speakers. A sound may move throughout the room in anyway imaginable, or be fixed at any place in the room, therefore any two or more speakers may be used to create the sound. Looking at the picture in Matching Front and Surround Speakers, it is obvious that the jet would sound exactly the same, front or rear in the room, with all identical speakers. Now, what if that jet moves left to right across the front. Again, the front 3 speakers should be identical. Using different speakers will NOT give you a seamless blend from one speaker to another.

Run the test tone around the room, and listen for the difference in the character of the sound. The greater the difference in the sound means the greater the speakers are mismatched. Timbre matched speakers should sound very close, however, all identical speakers will sound exactly the same. The ultimate sweet sound for a HT system is to use all identical speakers.

If you want to improve the performance of your HT system, there is some good information in this article, especially the last comment.

Greetings Tls 49,

I just wanted to thank you for your comprehensive reply and very good advice.
Thank you for making the time.

Cheers,
Morgan.

And thanks to all the other contributors as well!

Morgan, you're welcome. Having spent over 20 years in the A/V industry, I have definitely listened to many systems. HT systems with all identical speakers range from quality bookshelf speakers to a system with all Wilson Watt/Puppys. While timbre matching is much better than a mix of speakers, IMHO, all identical speakers increases the overall performance even higher. There is much less localization to the speakers, and the sound seems to just wrap around the room. I have often thought that between every 2 adjacent speakers in a HT system, an image is created just like the 2 speakers of a stereo only system. So, in the stereo only system, how good will the image be with different speakers? Timbre matched will likely be better than totally different speakers, but neither will be perfect like a pair of identical speakers. Now think about those images from every 2 adjacent speakers in a HT system blending together around the room. Just seems to make common sense to me that all speakers should be identical.

Good Luck!
Tony