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Center Channels sound crappy

Why do center channels sound so crappy with music?

This is something that absoilutly baffles me...

I was talking to a KEF rep at SoundTrack audio, he said it is becuase they are designed for dialogue more than anything else.
What im wondering, is why can alot of center channels only give marginal preformance with music?
My front KEF Q1's do a fantastic job creating a phantom center channel, the dialogue is crisp and clear. They do a fantastic job on music as well.

Wouldnt it make more sence to just get another KEF Q1 for $225.00 and use that as a center instead of paying 350 for a speaker that does great voice but crappy musical preformance?

I know it was not the "center channel" amp either, it is on a DENON 3803 and all channels are identical, i was playing it with the 5/7ch stereo mode and all the speakers sounded great for music but the center channel really really sucked..

i noticed this with my past DefTech setup as well...

has anybody done a serious comparison between a center channel and a monitor of the same brand with same drivers and heard any vast improvement with the center speak with dialogue?

does it have anything to do with sound dispersion?

----- Slappys disclaimer-----
It was not my intent to offend anybody with the above post, im genuinly curious and hope it does not offend anybody becuase that is clearly not the intent. If so, please reffer to "My Apologies" thread which explains more.
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THANKS IN ADVANCE
slappy
mborner
34 posts
 
Eldartford,
You are incorrect in saying that you are "missing" something with a phantom center channel. Let me explain. If the center channel option is turned off in the pre/pro then it will re-direct ALL of the center channel data to the L & r channels. If the system is set up properly and you are sitting in the sweet spot I doubt you would notice a difference. Just as an experiment I turned off the center channel (not disconnected it) in my pre/pro set up menu and wouldn't you know it, I had perfect center channel sound with no center channel! Most of the time, though, this is not feasible because it requires one person to sit in the sweet spot. Anybody sitting off at even a small angle would not get the full picture. Richard Hardesty who writes the Audio Perfectionist Journals has an excellent article on this. Here's the link. http://www.audioperfectionist.com

eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Mborner...Semantics again! I took "phantom" to mean the sound image that occurs naturally between two good speakers that play the same sound, and which can be very convincing. I think that a better word for what you describe would be "synthesized".
mborner
34 posts
 
Eldartford,
I seem to recall you saying that "something was missing". I simply meant that all the center channel information is re-directed to the L & R channels so I could not understand what could be "missing". Perhaps you could elaborate so that I might have a better understanding of what you are hearing or not hearing.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Mborner...If this "redirection" was not being done, center channel info would be missing. In other words, if you were set up for 5 channels, and the speaker wire fell off the center front speaker, something would be missing.
mborner
34 posts
 
Eldartford,
Yes you are absolutely correct! As a matter of fact you would be missing more than "something", you would be missing almost everything including all of the dialog of a film soundtrack. That is why you don't want to just disconnect the center channel. "Disconnecting" the center channel and telling the processor that you don't have one are two, very different things.
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