Center Channel Speaker...

Mike682

I have a question regarding picking a center channel speaker. I have an H/K 225 and a pair of R30's. I am looking to buy a center channel and was wondering about picking the "correct" speaker to match the R30's. Polk's website says to use Csi 20/30, but I believe there is a new line out that replaced the Csi20's.

Also, what exactly does voice matching speakers mean? And do all the speakers have to be voice matched or can I mix brands?

As you can see, I am slowly buidling my system since money takes time to earn.....

Thanks for the help

PolkThug

Voice (timbre) matching is fairly important in home theater, although not mandatory. Basically you want your front three speakers to have the same tone. Imagine you are watching Gone in 60 Seconds, and a car drives from the right side of the screen to the left. As it does this, the sound emphasis goes from the right speaker, to the center, to the left speaker. You want the engine sound of the car to have the same tone across all three speakers. you dig?

Regards,
PolkThug

hoosier21

I have a CSi20 for cheap, if you are interested let me know.

Mike682

are there any specs that one can look at to see if a speaker is voice matched (sensitivity, freq response, etc) w/another speaker?


hoosier, what are you asking for the csi20?

hoosier21

60.00 and shipping

RuSsMaN

Originally posted by Mike682
are there any specs that one can look at to see if a speaker is voice matched...

For an absolute PERFECT match, all the speakers should be identical. Ie: Five RTi28's, Five R15's, etc etc.

In my opinion, the key is to match the tweeters - which is usually easily accomplished by staying within the same 'line' of speakers.

Some like to take it a step further, by making sure the midbass drivers on the speakers are identical also - but to me, that is a moot point - unless you use five IDENTICAL speakers.

A change in cabinet size will change the overall Q of the driver, thus changing the tonal signature also. In a nutshell, even though a CSi40 uses the same mid-bass drivers found in, say, an RTi70, it is no more a perfect match than a CSi30 is. (same tweeter, smaller mid-bass drivers)

Cheers,
Russ

Edit: The CSi20 will be a great match with your R series speakers.