My Center, 50 lbs and 1,000 Watts

Ah, the joys of manufacturing.... after getting all the different types of connectors (3 different metric sizes), and ordering metric hex screws from China that took 2 weeks to arrive I'm finally ready to power up the speaker and...

There is a firmware problem.  For whatever reason the CPU on the amp keeps identifying itself as the wrong model so I can't get the 3rd channel to be recognized.  Hypex is being really responsive but their first patch did not work. 

Here’s an interesting listing for a Wilson, using similar woofers and no midrange. Generally listed new for around $17k. I guess the extra 60lbs of cabinetry really add value. 😃

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9962d-wilson-audio-watch-center-2-macadamia-gloss-full-range

All joking aside, Wilson, ATC, Legacy and even Troels went a different direction in terms of bass than I did. All of them went for deep extension center channel designs (-3dB @40 Hz) but I went for maximum output. This let me use a much smaller cabinet, but also having measured these drivers before, limits the distortion significantly.

Honestly I see no benefit in trying to make a center channel quasi-full range.  Limit it to 80 Hz as George Lucas intended!

Eric,

Chapeau bas, as the French say. Such audio craftsmanship lends a lot of weight to your posts on this forum—like the added authority a wine maker can bring to a tasting. I always read your posts with interest.

@snilf

Thank you so much.  😁

Not that there’s really an apt center to compare this to (or not many anyway), but it’d be interesting for frame of reference how it compares to something we can somewhat relate to as a benchmark.

@soix Honestly I wish I had the cash to do that kind of comparison test. :D

I would love to see how well my center would integrate with Magico, Wilson and Martin Logan speakers though.

I can tell you that my current, modest 2-way center with inexpensive 5" woofers doesn’t do too bad in it’s limits. Room acoustics and room correction do a lot to make that little center shine.

My current HTR doesn’t let me tune the DSP settings directly, so I could not achieve the same level of integration that I could when I had a stack of miniDSP units and controlled it all myself. This, and not wanting to have more devices was a major reason for trying this. The other two areas were dynamic range and limited seating area. I also wanted to attempt a really wide dispersion pattern.

When I saw the physically large centers from Troels Gravesen it sparked my imagination.