# Small satellite or bookshelf recommendation



## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

Hi guys,
It's been a while. Haven't done much with the gear or speaker building in the last few years. Kids, day job, and larger home improvement projects (deck, bathrooms, mudroom, kitchen) took care of that.

Our great room has some DIY single driver speakers I built a long time ago. I like them, but need a center channel speaker, and could use more punch. I'm finding dialogue to be a bit muddy on them. It's casual watching/listening so I'm not looking for $1k speakers, just some small bookshelf I can mount on wall (with coordinating center channel). 

For reference, I've been seriously considering:
B&W M-1 pair (but no center channel available with those)
Gallo A'Diva's (the round speakers)
Martin Logan Motion 2i and 6i speakers

Amp has a 6 Ohm minimum load. Overall, I'm looking at 5" wide max (same tall for the CC speaker).

I've been out of the game so long, I don't even know who's still playing 

Thanks,
Anthony


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## theJman (Mar 3, 2012)

Anthony said:


> Our great room has some DIY single driver speakers I built a long time ago. I like them, but need a center channel speaker, and could use more punch. I'm finding dialogue to be a bit muddy on them. It's casual watching/listening so I'm not looking for $1k speakers, just some small bookshelf I can mount on wall (with coordinating center channel).
> 
> For reference, I've been seriously considering:
> B&W M-1 pair (but no center channel available with those)
> ...


Small speakers will sound small, so depending upon how large your room is and how far away you'll be sitting from them you may still have dialog issues. Also, speakers mounted to a wall tend to struggle in the SQ department. Designers/engineers expend considerable effort to minimized the size of the front baffle in an attempt to smooth the sound waves. Mounting speakers to a wall turns that entire surface into a front panel, the exact opposite of what you really want to do.

The M-1 speakers are also the center. They can be mounted either vertically or horizontally, so if you like those they could work as LCR. I've heard both the Gallo's and their knockoff, Orb Audio, and I felt the value proposition isn't there. They're unobtrusive and a conversation starter, but they don't provide much in the way of output or soundstage.

Regardless of what you choose, be sure your subwoofer is solid to at least 100Hz. The ubiquitous 80Hz crossover is too low for those speakers so you'll need to use 90-100Hz instead. That means your sub will play a bigger role than in a typical system. It would need to be above average to pull that off successfully.

I noticed you mentioned your "amp" power rating, which suggests separates and not an AVR. Is the upstream electronics separates?


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

The more I have been digging into this, the more I am liking the M-1s. The Gallo's do look nice, but having made my own single driver speakers, I see how they won't do much better in midrange or power handling. 

My sub is an old AV123 X-sub. Not a rock star, but being a smaller sub, it actually does play higher better. It's crossed at 120Hz now. Thankfully it's in the front of the room, so localization isn't too bad a problem. 

This is powered by a receiver (an old Sherwood-Newcastle). I just said amp because that's the section that will blow if I put a 4 Ohm load on it  

I have a local dealer not far from me for B&W. Might stop in tonight to see what they have. Ebay seems to have a few pairs for sale as well, although usually dented, missing the wall bracket, etc. 

Thanks.


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