Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions center channel question

What makes a center channel speaker special? I mean why can't any speaker be used as one? Besides the amount of woofers or tweeters and the shape of the speaker, is there a difference? And what gimmicks do some lo-fi companies use to sell their speaker to unknowing customers? I plan on getting an Axiom CC speaker eventually, but what sounds different from their speaker and another companies speaker?

A) it's laid out horizontally for easy placement
B) sometimes (as in Axiom's case) they are more magnetically shielded than speakers that are not specifically marketed for that purpose (someone please correct me if this is no longer the case for Axioms!)

In other words, anything'll do for a center if you can fit it in your space and don't need to worry about magnetic fields (for example, if you have a front projection or LCD screen).

>>A) it's laid out horizontally for easy placement

Expanding on (A) a bit more -- when you orient a speaker horizontally, you need a symmetrical layout to avoid mucking up your imaging. What you don't want is low and high frequencies coming out at different horizontal locations or your ears get confused. If you look at the VP100, for example, the two woofers add together so the apparent sound comes from the same spot as the tweeter...

When I was playing with the M2 as a center channel I found that a single vertical M2 worked great, a horizontal M2 sucked, but a PAIR of horizontal M2s (with tweeters together) worked great.

Lets not forget about the tonal match in staying with the Axiom brand. I was using a different brand center for a while before I decided to purchase my VP150, I was actually shocked in how much better the overall sound and effects were from having matched speakers.

I currently run an M3 vertical and inverted, and it works great in OUR situation! During the holidays it often gets laid on it's side for decorative purposes, and as long as I orient it to take advantage of our asemetrical listening configuration it works well enough. But my preference is to be vertical.

And of course running it inverted takes advantage of putting the tweeter closer to the tweets of the mains and bringing the more easily localized sound "down" to the screen.

.......now it Axiom would only produce a 6.5" drivered dedicated center........

I run my M3s-as-surrounds inverted too, for the same reason......now if Axiom would only produce a 6.5" drivered model in the QS series!

Michael, I didn't even think of that but I can see how that would make a big diff.

And Bren, sometimes I forget about the wife and only worry about what I hear. I guess thats why they call it the sweet spot. Thanks for reminding me.