# trying to find a matching center



## apilon (May 18, 2006)

Good afternoon ,

Cleaning up my garage i found a pair of Pioneer S-DF3-K speakers that i had bought back in 2002. They sound fantastic and i am thinking about using them for main HT speakers. 

So anyone has a good recommendation for a match center channel that i could use with these speakers


Alain <


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
Pioneer has a line of Speakers Designed by Andrew Jones who Designs their ultra expensive TAD Speakers and are available for very little money. The Center Channel Model is the SP-C21 and only costs 79.99. Even the Floorstanding Model only costs 200 Dollars.

That being said, it might be ideal to find a Pioneer Center Channel from the era when your Speakers were made for the best possible Timbre Match, but it might be difficult to find the Model.
Cheers,
JJ


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## apilon (May 18, 2006)

Jungle Jack said:


> Hello,
> Pioneer has a line of Speakers Designed by Andrew Jones who Designs their ultra expensive TAD Speakers and are available for very little money. The Center Channel Model is the SP-C21 and only costs 79.99. Even the Floorstanding Model only costs 200 Dollars.
> 
> That being said, it might be ideal to find a Pioneer Center Channel from the era when your Speakers were made for the best possible Timbre Match, but it might be difficult to find the Model.
> ...


The s-dc1-k seemed to be the matching center for these speakers but it has been discontinued so i am trying to see what could be close to the same timbre


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
Unless using identical Speakers for all channels, it is difficult to achieve true Timbre Matching. With Center Channels being almost always designed to be placed horizontal and smaller, it often is best to hope for identical Tweeters. That is the case with almost every Center Channel in that it is usually Designed to be used with a certain Series.

Finding an almost 10 year old Center Channel will not be easy. With this being the case, I would look for a CC that uses the same Tweeter Material (Soft Dome, Aluminum, etc) and get the largest one that can fit in the space you have for it.

The current Pioneers I spoke of really have gotten rave reviews. It might be worth considering getting the Floorstanding Model that sells for 200 Dollars that matches the 79 Dollar CC and moving the older Pioneers to the Surrounds. I would imagine they do not sell for a great deal more in Canada. Especially with the strength of the Canadian Dollar these days.
Cheers,
JJ


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

Hi.

Don't concern yourself too much with timbral matching. If your center and mains exhibit flat on-and-off axis frequency response then they should blend fairly seamlessly for movies. Auto-EQ like Audessey help in this regard as well. The nature of center channel content tends to differ from the nature of L/R content - pans where you might notice a disconnect are so rare and over-emphasized that it's not even funny. Often "matching" center channels don't even timbre match at all - they just match aesthetically.

FWIW, I recommend the Seas Loki coaxial center channel.

With that said you may not even need a center speaker. Consider for a moment using just the mains as a phantom center, and eventually moving them back as surrounds (as they do appear relatively small for HT).


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## gdstupak (Jul 13, 2010)

GranteedEV said:


> Don't concern yourself too much with timbral matching. If your center and mains exhibit flat on-and-off axis frequency response then they should blend fairly seamlessly for movies. Auto-EQ like Audessey help in this regard as well.


-1.
I don't agree with this statement at all. Timber matching is very necessary for a seemless surround experience. Imagine a car going from the left speaker to the center speaker to the right speaker, the sound needs to be matched otherwise you might hear a Ferarri from the left speaker, a Chevette from the center speaker, and a Hummer from the right speaker.
And having the same freq response has nothing to do with matching timber. 5 different speakers can have the exact same freq response but each may sound different.

I do agree that "matching" center speakers usually do not sound the same as their L/R counterparts. It is best to get 3 identical speakers for the front 3 soundstage.


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

gdstupak said:


> -1.
> I don't agree with this statement at all. Timber matching is very necessary for a seemless surround experience. Imagine a car going from the left speaker to the center speaker to the right speaker, the sound needs to be matched otherwise you might hear a Ferarri from the left speaker, a Chevette from the center speaker, and a Hummer from the right speaker.
> 
> You are most certainly free to your opinion, but your description is imo exaggerated. "Timbre" as you refer to is speaker error. If a person chooses poor speakers, then yes, other poor speakers will sound markedly different next to the center. But good speakers get timbre close enough that the pan you refer to would be seamless anyways. Timbre-matching isn't about picking the same drivers or the same company. It's about good speakers which get timbre right.
> ...


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## gdstupak (Jul 13, 2010)

Yeah, the Ferarri, Chevette, and Hummer examples might be stretching it a bit.

"...panning effects are rare and not worth sacrificing dialogue clarity or intelligibility."
Dialogue is constanly panning back and forth, that is a huge reason timber matching is important between the front 3 speakers. Dialogue is constanly moving between all three. That's how dialogue appears to come from different areas of the screen. Sometimes the dialogue only comes out of the center speaker; mostly it is shared between the center and left speakers, or the center and right speakers.


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