Mar
3
The Most Important Speaker
Filed Under Home Theater Speakers
While they’re all important (speakers that is) consider for a second the silent movie. Sure those early silent films had live musical scores and brilliant actors on-screen, who could convey their feelings with just a look, but modern audiences have come to rely on the spoken word for our cues into the cinematic experience. Rely is probably too soft, demand is more like it.
It pains me to see 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound systems with a good sized sub, rears that are adequately balanced front to back, and an anemic center channel up front whose job is to recreate 80% or better of the dialog present in the films soundtrack. I always advise my clients that if they’re forced to trim some fat from their speaker budget, the center channel wouldn’t be the best place to start.
If anything I feel people aren’t spending enough on their center channels, the ol’ if I can’t understand what their saying I’ll just turn it up mentality just won’t cut it. You’d be better off with a puny subwoofer than a lackluster center channel. To sum up, if I were buying surround speakers all over again, I’d probably balance my budget to something along the lines of 55/60% for the left, center, right and the remaining 40/45% for the surround’s and subwoofer.
There’s nothing wrong with a more “even” (traditional) split but once you’ve heard all the explosions, car crashes and karate chops, you’ll probably want to actually hear what the actors have to say.
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