What is best center speaker?


I have an HT set up with bryston 4b amps (4 ) an AV 9000 marantz a 65in HDTV and Piega P10 as fronts Piega P5 as back and the Piega Center. I have now blown the center twice and am tired of sending it back east to be fixed. I need a center that will fit in with the Piega and will take 200 to 400 watts and sound outstanding. Does a center like this exist? (The Piega center is a wimp)Thanks for your input.
128x128nicknapster
Russ 1: I agree that the lack of a center speaker CAN work better in many systems. This will depend on the mains being used, how far apart they are, the seated listening distance, if everybody is sitting in the "sweet spot", how the source is recorded / mixed, etc...

It is not uncommon for a center channel to corrupt the presentation. This is especially true if someone is running good sized mains and only has them spaced apart by 6 - 8 feet or so. I've seen WAY too many installations like this. I think that too many people are "fooled" into thinking that they "need" a center from looking at advertising and listening to money-hungry sales people.

In my particular installation my mains are over 12' apart, so a center channel does help to anchor dialogue in movies. At the same time, side to side special effects are more pronounced due to the wider spread of the speakers. If the speakers were a few feet closer, i wouldn't bother with a center. This is one of those things that is system / room dependent. Even if one doesn't have a dedicated HT room or system, just watching movies in stereo with "decent" speakers spaced a bit apart is a BIG improvement in most cases. Sean
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I would think that the best CC would have to do with what gives the best Dialog without clashing with the other speakers in the setup.

I would think that Magnepan would make the best Dialog speaker ,but I agree with what someone else stated about having a thoird main speaker or something close.

As for myself I have all Modified NEARs and for the CC I will get 2 of there bottom of the line speakers which will have virtually the same drivers I have throughout my system.All use the same Tweeters and once I find the values of all the Caps I will outfit all the XO's with the same type of SoniCap Capacitors ,Inductors and resistors(Matched).
You can get it in piano black..
My friend powers it with a 1000W Boulder monoblock.