New Center Channel speaker w/ Bose - Help (1 Viewer)

[scsp12]

All

newbie to the board, looks like great info.

I was given a few years back the Bose Acoustimass 10 (w/unpowered bass unit). I realize these are not the best seakers by any strech, and Bose is more about marketing than quality, but they were free and have served my moderate needs over the years. I am upgrading as I can afford it and just purchased the Onkyo TX-SR605 as the start of a better system. I am not in a position to purchase new speakers yet and will wait until I can afford a good set.

My idea was (and I was looking for advice) was to upgrade to a decent center channel speaker (up to $200) and redeploy the extra cube to the rear to at least get 6.1. My next upgrade will be a powered sub in the near future. I am more concerened with decent sound, especially voices, and less concerned with big/loud sound.

Does anyone have any advice/warnings I should consider here. I like the look/price of the Polk Audio units, but am I getting into an issue of "voice matching" (of which I know next to nothing about) or would I be better off just buying the Bose center unit to at least make sure they all sound close to the same.


Also...one last question. Since that is a 7.1 unit and I am only going to have six speakers, does it matter which mid-center hookup I send that speaker to?

Thanks for help in advance

Steve

 

[John Garcia]

I would say listen to a lot of speakers in your price range and don't worry about timbre (or voice) matching at this point. Get a good speaker and then replace the front 3 entirely with matching speakers and you should be all set, using the Bose for surrounds for the time being.

Ultimately, I would shoot for eventually replacing all of the Bose speakers and selling the whole set on ebay or similar because they do command decent used prices.

I would recommend looking at the SVS SCS-01 speaker which is not too huge and is a solid performer. $185 for it in black; white and silver are on sale right now for less: http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-sbs01.cfm

Yes it usually does matter which one you hook up the rear center to. I don't know off the top of my head, but if you read your manual it should tell you which one is the correct one to use for one speaker.

 

[Dingiswayo]

Do you want these speakers mostly for movies or music? I ask because if you want it mostly for music I'd hold off on buying the center and like John said listen to a bunch of speakers, then buy your front left and right speakers first.

If you watch movies mostly then your plan sounds good. A good center will probably overpower your present speakers for a while until you get better fronts but you can set the levels to adjust for this.

Also, remember that you don't necessarily need a center speaker. You can set your receiver to "phantom center" and the fronts will handle it. It's actually pretty amazing what the fronts can do. I have a center but I listen to most music in stereo (since I think it usually sounds better that way) and at times I've had to get up and put my ear next to my center just to make sure it really isn't on. Like I said, it's pretty amazing.

Also if you get decent enough fronts you can put off a sub for a little while. Since the sub is the biggest expense in an HT setup this could help you get better fronts for the time being. It won't give you that super oomph of big, body-shaking bass but good fronts can still deliver pretty well.

Also look on http://www.saturdayaudio.com

 

[LanceJ]

And Bose's center channel? I'm not a Bose-basher and I'm being objective as possible here.....IMO that speaker sounds awful. Tinny and cheap sounding. I'm surprised Bose hasn't redesigned it yet (maybe they have?).

I would do the phantom center myself until you get a dedicated center speaker.

 

[John Garcia]

Nope, they are still selling the same center unchanged.

I'm not a big fan of the phantom center, but it is certainly an option. Stereo music is typically recorded with the intent that you have no center, while movies are not.

 

[David Norman]

If you are interested in an alternative that many poor students have used in the past and would likely improve your current sound and be inexpensive at the same time -----------

Outpost/Fry's has Polk R150 which are shielded and are downright cheap for what you get at 50/pair. Get 2 pr for $100, use 3 across the front and have some nice spare room speakers for when you upgrade to even better speakers for your main. Or end up with a Polk dedicated center and upgraded sub later Or get 3 pair and replace all the cubes for less than you've budgeted for a single center I can't see if they have free shipping available now, but these speakers often go on sale at 40/pair depending on Fry's weeklend sales.

Downside these are rear ported so you will lose some sound if you need to mount directly on a wall. As with all speakers, people have different ears as to what sound better so if you can listen to these first it always would help. OTOH most Polk's are generally pretty pleasant sounding.

These sell for around 100/pair at Crutchfield, 80 at JR Music and for comparison sake have a 180 MRSP.


I agree that have severely mismatched speakers across the front wouldn't be a very good idea.

 

[scsp12]

OP here

Thanks for all the great replies. Indeed I should have cracked the manual, it has very clear instructions for hooking up a 6.1 setup.

I did decide to go with the Polk Audio center, and I like the way it sounds. I went to Tweeter and listened to a bunch of units, and this fit my budget and space needs quite well. I am no audiophile by any means, and it sounds nice and rich to me for the voices...again, compared with the Bose. I liked the idea of just replacing the fronts and leaving the Bose for the rears and will move down that path with my next upgrade.

As a side note, the Onkyo SR605 is a really nice unit....again to my untrained ear.
Thanks again for the input