Do you ...Center Channel?

Kal: Why do you find the center essential for multi-channel music? Assume the context of one person listening--so no issues with being off axis. I would have thought that in that context a "phantom" center would be fine. Are there phase variations that are extracting more information than that which would be effectively summed from the left and right speaker? I value your experience in MC music.

Now, I want to take it one step further. Let's say the center channel is not identical to the mains as is the case for most home theaters. In that context, is using the center for MC music still the better way to go--or is 3 channels matched essential to good MC music?

Last question--and then I'll let you go. How imporant is matching the rear speakers for MC music? I know 5 matched channels is the best way to go for this application, but few people have this set-up and typically invest far more heavily in the left and right mains. So I'm just trying to understand the relative compromises in your experience.

Sorry--didn't mean to turn this into an MC music thread--but it is relavent to the importance of the center channel.

If your speakers are set up for multichannel, the left and right are too far apart for stereo. With a 2-channel source like a CD you must come up with a center signal/speaker, or be faced with moving speakers around when playing a stereo recording.

I have yet to find a 2-channel recording that is not improved by using a center channel. This is not true about matrix-generated rear channels, although a very few stereo recordings respond well.

Baam23f

The front speakers are 52" tall. And the center would sit well below. My impression is that the oratorio was designed with the HT in mind more then the MC music. So far I am listening multichannel music with four speakers.

Provided your DSP is adding back in the Center channel information to the L and R main speakers (phantom) then you are certainly doing the right thing in your case, IMHO.

A perusal of most recording studios will show that, for those with a surround setup, they all seem to prefer to mix/master with five speakers of the same type, with the mid range and tweeter drivers all at the same height.

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself how many people have you ever seen listening to stereo with Left and Right channels at different heights from the floor, or one speaker turned upside down and the other the right way up?

Common sense should tell you what is best...inspite of the marketing hype and sales people which often advise differently on a center channel.(I wonder why?)

BTW: Kudos to Rives for telling things like it is, which just shows that some companies can be trusted to look after their customer's best interests....these companies obviously seek repeat business and word of mouth recommendations, rather than focussing on one time sales!

05-29-07: Shadorne

OTOH, creating a phantom center when there is a discrete center signal creates inevitable phase/time errors in the process. This is noticeable even on-axis but mostly with music sources.

Really? How?
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The 'phantoming' is a purely algebraic process in which the center information is electrically split between the L and R channels. As a result, sounds which reached the center microphone at a different time than they reached either the right or left are now combined into a simultaneous signal and reproduced from a single speaker. Such center sounds will be reproduced from an inappropriate distance and/or the incorrect time and they will also interact, electrically, with similar (but significantly different) signals in the left or right channel resulting in unpredictable summation/cancellations.

Kal

If your speakers are set up for multichannel, the left and right are too far apart for stereo. With a 2-channel source like a CD you must come up with a center signal/speaker, or be faced with moving speakers around when playing a stereo recording.

Or move your seat. ;-)

Kal