Question about 5.1 speaker setup

[Guest]

I recently bought a 5.1 speaker setup. The issue is that there is a duplicate left surround speaker and no center speaker leading to me assuming that whoever previously owned these speakers had lost or broken the center speaker and replaced it with a left surround speaker to be the center speaker. Is it okay to use this left surround speaker as a center channel or should I purchase a center channel off ebay to replace it?

[BuzzingBee]

Doesn't matter, in fact some people may argue that it's ideal as L-C-R are identical their tonally would match. 

[saintlouisbagels]

22 minutes ago, BoxTurtle said:

 Is it okay to use this left surround speaker as a center channel

Yes it is okay. A speaker is still a speaker.

Some people would say the center speaker is the most important speaker in the entire setup due to its importance in delivering all of the dialogue and general audio cues, but you should actually use the setup before making any decisions.

 

I have a 2.1 setup so I cannot personally talk about center channel importance.

[ender23]

Center channel is by far the most important for dialogue heavy stuff, followed by FL/FR.

[saintlouisbagels]

3 hours ago, ender23 said:

Center channel is by far the most important for dialogue heavy stuff, followed by FL/FR.

I keep seeing people say that, but I'm having a hard time believing it. Does this only apply to cheap home theater setups?

 

I am downright terrible with understanding indie rock vocals, and I do very poorly with understanding friends with mild accents... I have never had an issue hearing the dialogue in movies of all genres on my 2.1 setup.

 

If it matters, I use the KEF R100 speakers (MSRP 1200 USD). I specifically choose KEF because I've been told that their concentric driver arrangement makes it so sitting in a sweet spot is not as necessary as other driver setups. I can confirm this with the many hundreds of movies I've watched in my 7yrs of ownership sitting in a variety of non-optimal positions. When I go to the cinemas, and I when I listen to my friend's 9.2 setup (all cheapish ELAC Debut), I do not perceive any improvement in dialogue clarity. (In fact, I enjoy my friend's 9.2 setup far less than my 2.1 setup)

[circeseye]

2 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

I keep seeing people say that, but I'm having a hard time believing it. Does this only apply to cheap home theater setups?

 

I am downright terrible with understanding indie rock vocals, and I do very poorly with understanding friends with mild accents... I have never had an issue hearing the dialogue in movies of all genres on my 2.1 setup.

 

 

center on any ht system matters.
i had a Yamaha Audio NS-C210BL for my center and switched to a JBL Stage 135
the difference was night and day. the yamaha was ok but the jbl showed me what i was missing with voices and such

in ht systems your center is used more then left and right.

in 2.1 of course your going to hear in left and right. its a stereo system with a sub

[BuzzingBee]

6 hours ago, ender23 said:

Center channel is by far the most important for dialogue heavy stuff, followed by FL/FR.

I partially agree, however having ideal FL/FR speakers along with ideal sitting position can create stereo imagining. If you listen to dialogue in ideal situation, you could hear the voices coming out from centre despite not having actual centre speaker. I'm not that smart to able to explain why it works, but I'm sure audiophiles with dedicated  listening room know what I'm talking about. 

 

Centre speaker can help if stereo imaging can't be formed (bad sitting position, bad room etc) or have multiple people in same room so that centre speaker can help fill up imaging from off-centre sitting positions. 

[saintlouisbagels]

1 hour ago, circeseye said:

in 2.1 of course your going to hear in left and right. its a stereo system with a sub

What I was trying to say was-

Is the center channel even important if I already have audiophile FL FR speakers?

 

From my POV you went from a cheap center speaker to a somewhat cheap center speaker (I'm not sure if I'm looking at the correct JBL 135). I'm wondering, if you hypothetically already had great audiophile FL FR... would that center channel be a benefit? Because in my experience going to hundreds of Dolby Cinema and Showcase XPLUS showings, and experiencing movies on my friend's mid-budget 9.2 system, I am not losing out on any dialogue clarity on my somewhat expensive 2.1 system.

[ender23]

It’s less about hardware and more about the prevalence of shitty sound mixes. A center channel absolutely helps with dialog clarity in bad mixes. That said, sure, you can mitigate it in other ways see: SLB’s 2.1 setup.