Using Center Channels as Fronts

Early B. · March 2006

Anyone ever tried using three identical center channels as their front soundstage?

I like my modded BIC center channel so much that I'm thinking about eventually buying two more of them to place upright and use as HT fronts.

dorokusai · March 2006

I know a Polkie used CSi40's as L&R's....anyone remember who?

HiPerf360 · March 2006

I have a M&K set up that uses the same speaker for all three and it sounds very good, actually damn good.

Lsi9 · March 2006

I have problems with traditional center channels as you can see from my equipment list below. I have a cs350 that I am currently not using. I replaced it with a RM3000 3 peice set with passive sub all for the cc.
CCs sound like they accentuate the low end mid range for me.
I prefer my set up to the 350.

aaharvel · April 2006

if you don't mind that whole cascade crossover thing with your front pair, then yeah i guess it would work.

Toxis · April 2006

I've done a couple systems with all centers (for fronts at least) with Klipsch speakers and haven't had a problem yet! I haven't tried a Polk or any other brand but the big K's loved it. No problem here.

cfrizz · April 2006

What do you do about the loss of most of the bass? I've made the mistake of forgetting to turn on my main speakers & just had the center & surrounds playing. It was the lack of bass where I knew should be that made me realize that I forgot to turn on my amp for my mains.

Toxis · April 2006

Hmmm... add a sub?

Ron Temple · April 2006

A friend is using 5 GR Research AV2s powered by monoblocks hooked thru a Marantz 8300, very nice.

HiPerf360 · April 2006

I had the crossover set the same for all three front speakers...

So no loss of bass here

AsSiMiLaTeD · April 2006

dorokusai wrote:

I know a Polkie used CSi40's as L&R's....anyone remember who?

I belive that would be LiquidSound...

I-SIG · April 2006

The only problem I see is in the pocketbook as a good center can go for almost as much as a roughly identical pair of mains.

Wes

Early B. · April 2006

I-SIG wrote:

The only problem I see is in the pocketbook as a good center can go for almost as much as a roughly identical pair of mains.

The center channel I'm referring to sells for $100 NIB.

Early B. · April 2006

Just ordered two stock BIC center channels for use as my fronts from amazon.com for $105 ea. with free shipping. Will report back when they arrive. It'll be interesting to hear if they sound as good as the $2300 (retail) floorstanders that formerly served as my fronts.

Tour2ma · April 2006

I played with my CS400's as mains for a while. Not bad, but I have a few better choices around.

Also played with my f/x1000's just for grins. Actually they were much more fun and more enjoyable, but...

Early B. · April 2006

Early B. wrote:

Just ordered two stock BIC center channels for use as my fronts from amazon.com for $105 ea. with free shipping. Will report back when they arrive. It'll be interesting to hear if they sound as good as the $2300 (retail) floorstanders that formerly served as my fronts.

Just got the BIC center channels for my fronts. At first listen, they are very capable speakers. Sounded about at 98% of the floorstanders I had before. They are a bit brighter, which was to be expected, but they were not annoying. Detail is pretty decent, too. For the price, they are absolutely unbeatable, so overall I'm quite pleased with the purchase. Hopefully, both the level of brightness and detail will improve as they break in. The crossover is very simple and begs to be tweaked, so someday I may fool around with doing that.

Using Center Channels as Fronts

Comments