2. home-theater
  3. 1186968472

Good sounding, small center speaker

I'm considering the Gallo or Orb speakers for a home theater speaker system, but I'm concerned that especially dialogue will sound a bit light or thin coming from such small speakers. Anyone have experience with either of these in an HT setup, and if so how do they do as center channels for movies. Can they do a credible job with movie dialogue, and how do they compare to larger center speakers you've heard?

As an alternative I'm thinking about avoiding the center speaker altogether and just running something like 4 Maggie MMGWs and using a phantom center and adding a HSU STF-2 or VTF-2 sub.

Any thoughts would be helpful, but I'm really looking for a small footprint speaker that can do a great job with movie dialogue so I don't feel like I'm hearing a "small" speaker. Thanks all.
soix
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I can agree with Flrnlamb. I should have said that it helps some if you use a bookshelf center; to try to stay within the same brand; hopefully one with the same or similar tweeter.

If you are using a center rear as well; you can use the same speaker and then not have to buy a pair and only use one.

I admit that I run separate systems, and do not get so fussy with the surround system which is just for TV/Movies. I can see you might have more difficulty if you want a perfect image. I still don't think a lot of center speakers are properly designed. Making it fit above the TV seems to matter more to some companies, rather than actually having it sound good.
avguygeorge
2,300 posts
 
I'm with sugarbrie on this. Many need the best and that's ok.---I'm a 2ch guy.--- My mismatched center doesn't go that low so there's less mismatch in that area. To me good clear dialog is #1. I have Wilsons and their center is more money than the importance of matching;to me.
soix OP
9,755 posts
 
Thanks for the input guys. Big help.

Sounds like the Maggies won't work for me since a lot of the time I'll be sitting off axis. I thought planars worked fine left to right but suffered in the vertical domain (i.e. if standing up). I think it was the 6 moons review that seemed to reinforce the off-axis behavior as a strength rather than a weakness. Limited dynamics would be an issue though.

Seems like there's some differing opinions on the Gallo/Orb design types. Might have to let my ears make that decision, or I might just run Paradigm Atoms all around (or maybe incorporate their center speaker which looks good to me since the mid lies beneath the tweeter, which I have found to be a superior setup for center channel duty).

Thanks again for all the help.
elevick
2,638 posts
 
Consider two centers? You can run a Y out from your pre-amp or receiver to incorporate dual centers. This will fill more area. However, you may get cancellation problems...
dgarretson
2,601 posts
 
Merlin TSM-MX is relatively compact & is very clear with dialog-- my key criterion for CC.
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