Buying a new center speaker for my home audio system

Ok, I'm not very experienced when it comes to speakers and I'm currently wondering if this speaker:http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Center-Channel-Speaker/dp/B0018QROM2/ref=sr_1_1?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1296601548&sr=1-1

would work with my current home theater system (it came free with a TV and I'm not impressed with the speaker quality and looking to upgrade them on top of the fact that the center speaker is now blown :( ): http://www.amazon.com/LG-LHB535-1100-Watt-Network-Blu-ray/dp/B0038KELGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296601791&sr=8-1

If it doesn't work, a quick explanation and an alternative speaker choice would be appreciated. If it does work, let me know if it looks like a good deal or if there are any better deals out there! Thanks in advance!

There aren't many details provided for the bluray system, so I'm just going to assume it isn't that great.

As for the center channel though, that's the exact same one I have. Awesome speaker, especially for the cost. That's about half the price I picked it up for, so it looks like a good deal to me. Just an fyi, the thing is huge, almost 2 feet wide.

There aren't many details provided for the bluray system, so I'm just going to assume it isn't that great.

As for the center channel though, that's the exact same one I have. Awesome speaker, especially for the cost. That's about half the price I picked it up for, so it looks like a good deal to me. Just an fyi, the thing is huge, almost 2 feet wide.

topgunmv

[QUOTE="topgunmv"]

There aren't many details provided for the bluray system, so I'm just going to assume it isn't that great.

As for the center channel though, that's the exact same one I have. Awesome speaker, especially for the cost. That's about half the price I picked it up for, so it looks like a good deal to me. Just an fyi, the thing is huge, almost 2 feet wide.

badcompany2008

Usually what blows a speaker is over exerting an amplifier to the point of distorting. The low end recommendation on the polk is 20 watts and it has a pretty nice 91 db efficiency, which means it *shouldn't* take too much power to get the sound you want out of it.

Another thing I should mention is that it's probably much higher quality than the other speakers in your system, so there may be a distracting difference in the sound quality between it and your other speakers.

[QUOTE="badcompany2008"][QUOTE="topgunmv"]

There aren't many details provided for the bluray system, so I'm just going to assume it isn't that great.

As for the center channel though, that's the exact same one I have. Awesome speaker, especially for the cost. That's about half the price I picked it up for, so it looks like a good deal to me. Just an fyi, the thing is huge, almost 2 feet wide.

topgunmv

Usually what blows a speaker is over exerting an amplifier to the point of distorting. The low end recommendation on the polk is 20 watts and it has a pretty nice 91 db efficiency, which means it *shouldn't* take too much power to get the sound you want out of it.

Another thing I should mention is that it's probably much higher quality than the other speakers in your system, so there may be a distracting difference in the sound quality between it and your other speakers.

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

Good to know, I really appreciate it! If you, or anyone else, has a preference for some good front and rear speakers I'd also appreciate that information. I'm not looking to break my bank account, but I also wouldn't mind having a nice set of speakers at my disposal (preferably ones I wouldn't have to worry blowing without blowing my ear drums as well haha). Also, I live in a small-ish apartment room currently as I'm a college student, so I'm in no need of some big standing speakers or anything like that. badcompany2008

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

NVIDIATI

It'll "work" as long as the receiver can handle 8 ohm speakers, it's just questionable how good it will sound.

Also, the price just went down another 10%.

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

NVIDIATI

[QUOTE="NVIDIATI"]

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

topgunmv

It'll "work" as long as the receiver can handle 8 ohm speakers, it's just questionable how good it will sound.

Also, the price just went down another 10%.

[QUOTE="NVIDIATI"]

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

topgunmv

It'll "work" as long as the receiver can handle 8 ohm speakers, it's just questionable how good it will sound.

Also, the price just went down another 10%.

[QUOTE="NVIDIATI"]

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

badcompany2008

Well there are a few options, but this Onkyo system would be your best bet. ($319)

Onkyo HT-S5300: http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/ONKHTS5300/Onkyo/HT-S5300-7.1-Channel-Home-Theater-Package-with-iPod-Dock/1.html

Its labelled as a home theater in a box, but its really an A/V receiver bundled with some Onkyo speakers and a powered sub.

[QUOTE="topgunmv"]

[QUOTE="NVIDIATI"]

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

NVIDIATI

It'll "work" as long as the receiver can handle 8 ohm speakers, it's just questionable how good it will sound.

Also, the price just went down another 10%.

Oh, I didn't realise it wasn't using regular speaker wire. That would be problematic.

[QUOTE="badcompany2008"][QUOTE="NVIDIATI"]

It will not work. That is a home theater in a box system, not a real A/V receiver. Alternative, buy a proper home theater system. Word of advice, avoid home theater in a box.

NVIDIATI

Well there are a few options, but this Onkyo system would be your best bet. ($319)

Onkyo HT-S5300: http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/ONKHTS5300/Onkyo/HT-S5300-7.1-Channel-Home-Theater-Package-with-iPod-Dock/1.html

Its labelled as a home theater in a box, but its really an A/V receiver bundled with some Onkyo speakers and a powered sub.

[QUOTE="NVIDIATI"]

[QUOTE="badcompany2008"] And there is some news I was afraid of. :( Technically, I didn't buy it but it was packaged with the HDTV I bought. I love the thing since it is able to play blu-ray and access the internet and all that fun stuff.. but it's saddening to hear I can't apparently upgrade the speakers for it (as they are not to my standards). Lets say I'm willing to spend $300-350 is there any suggestions you would have?badcompany2008

Well there are a few options, but this Onkyo system would be your best bet. ($319)

Onkyo HT-S5300: http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/ONKHTS5300/Onkyo/HT-S5300-7.1-Channel-Home-Theater-Package-with-iPod-Dock/1.html

Its labelled as a home theater in a box, but its really an A/V receiver bundled with some Onkyo speakers and a powered sub.

Well in some possible good news... I took a center speaker from an old home surround sound system of mine and connected it to my current theater system and it works.

[QUOTE="NVIDIATI"]

[QUOTE="topgunmv"]

It'll "work" as long as the receiver can handle 8 ohm speakers, it's just questionable how good it will sound.

Also, the price just went down another 10%.

topgunmv

Oh, I didn't realise it wasn't using regular speaker wire. That would be problematic.

Well in some possible good news... I took a center speaker from an old home surround sound system of mine and connected it to my current theater system and it works.

badcompany2008

Your center channel should sound as close to possible as your mains. Otherwixse you are better off using a "phantom center" channel and sitting in the sweet spot. By the way, the amp you have is putting out 3 or 4 ohms vs 8 ohms most speakers use and as such the limited resistance will increase power coming through the outputs which can ruin the speaker/amp.rastan

And it was those type of problems that I was worried about. :/ In one hand, I can technically upgrade.. yet in the other I still can't. You guys have helped tremendously and have managed to teach me some about speakers/surround sound systems.

Your center channel should sound as close to possible as your mains. Otherwixse you are better off using a "phantom center" channel and sitting in the sweet spot. By the way, the amp you have is putting out 3 or 4 ohms vs 8 ohms most speakers use and as such the limited resistance will increase power coming through the outputs which can ruin the speaker/amp.rastan

Actually his amp should be fine, but his speaker will be getting half the rated power output of the channel on the amp. It *could* cause problems if the amp is putting out minuscule power compared to what the speaker needs, but generally speaking, it's when the speaker has a lower resistance than the amp's rating that it can cause meltdowns.

You are getting one bum steer here after another. Only a couple of these respondents have any idea what they're talking about, no offense, guys. That speaker will work fine. You can probably use the wires from your dead speaker---the wires are not at all critical unless you're wiring a ski resort or something. Eight ohms with a four-ohm amp causes no problems, and you shouldn't crank power past 3/4, anyway. Your receiver can adjust the level of each speaker independently, so you can balance it out with your other ones. Don't worry about an audio quality mismatch, either---the center speaker is the main one and should be better than the others. (Your subwoofer should be better, too, by the way.) That 16-pound weight bodes well for the sound, man. Heavier is better when it comes to speakers.

Sorry, but that's backwards. The crappiest amp in the world will sound great through great speakers. Just had to set that straight, though the OP can't know who to believe.

Sorry, but that's backwards. The crappiest amp in the world will sound great through great speakers. Just had to set that straight, though the OP can't know who to believe.

Blistrax

Actually you have that backwards, it's the exact opposite.

[QUOTE="Blistrax"]

Sorry, but that's backwards. The crappiest amp in the world will sound great through great speakers. Just had to set that straight, though the OP can't know who to believe.

topgunmv

Actually you have that backwards, it's the exact opposite.

Agreed. Can't have good sound with a *****y source. I'd rather take crappy speakers and a good amp.

Let me try to convince the poor OP of something that every audiophile already knows---that you put your money into speakers.Obviously, "the crappiest amp in the world" is an exaggeration. What I meant was that even the audio amp in a crummy low-priced receiver will produce a fairly flat frequency response over the range of human hearing, approximately 20Hz--20kHz, with very low distortion. This is easily measured in a laboratoryand easily achieved with today's components. You can ask no more of an amp. The difference between a top-notch audio amp and a run-of-the-mill one is subtle (and would require outstanding speakers to hear).

Speakers, however, are much harder to build and are much harder to analyze. The mechanical aspects alone introduce practically infinite variety and infinite problems. For example, speaking of infinity, the ideal speaker cabinet mimics an infinite baffle, which is a wall that passes no sound stretching to infinity in all directions. No sound can be heard from the back of the speaker. This means that the ideal material for building a speaker cabinet would be, oh, osmium. Steel-reinforced 3,000-pound concrete would do, though. Imagine the difficulties in designing the magnets and the voice coils and the cones, if such the speakers even have. And the quality of the sound produced is such a complex phenomenon that it can't be quantied in any useful way (you have to hear it).

You will hear a much, much greater improvement in your sound with better speakers than with better anything else.

Speakers are definitely important and different brands/levels of speakers will definitely sound different. However the amp needs to be able to provide clean power to those speakers and also have enough power reserves to control the woofers so that you can have cleaner bass while also have enough power to provide for sufficiently clean dynamic range. The HTIB ysstem lsited earlier really is not designed in any sense to power a real high end speaker. Even good small studio monitors require good clean power to sound their best.rastan

To say that different brands sound different is to say that few brands sound right. When you play a chamber orchestra through your speakers, it should sound like they are actually there---if you close your eyes, you should not be able to tell whether it's a live orchestra or not. That is ideal. If a particular set of speakers sounds different from that, it's defective. Two sets of properly designed speakers will sound identical.

Of course the power has to be there. When I said "flat frequency response", what is being graphed is the gain at whatever frequency at a limit of distortion. You can overdrive a studio playback amp, but why would you want to? Whatever amp you have, you have to run it in its linear range. That goes without saying. Crank any amp to eleven, and it will distort.

The impedance of a speaker is no indication of how loud it will be. That's a different spec, efficiency, determined by the physical parameters.

P.S. -- Why is IE all of a sudden warning me that Gamespot is trying to download a file to my computer?

[QUOTE="rastan"]Speakers are definitely important and different brands/levels of speakers will definitely sound different. However the amp needs to be able to provide clean power to those speakers and also have enough power reserves to control the woofers so that you can have cleaner bass while also have enough power to provide for sufficiently clean dynamic range. The HTIB ysstem lsited earlier really is not designed in any sense to power a real high end speaker. Even good small studio monitors require good clean power to sound their best.Blistrax

To say that different brands sound different is to say that few brands sound right. When you play a chamber orchestra through your speakers, it should sound like they are actually there---if you close your eyes, you should not be able to tell whether it's a live orchestra or not. That is ideal. If a particular set of speakers sounds different from that, it's defective. Two sets of properly designed speakers will sound identical.

Of course the power has to be there. When I said "flat frequency response", what is being graphed is the gain at whatever frequency at a limit of distortion. You can overdrive a studio playback amp, but why would you want to? Whatever amp you have, you have to run it in its linear range. That goes without saying. Crank any amp to eleven, and it will distort.

The impedance of a speaker is no indication of how loud it will be. That's a different spec, efficiency, determined by the physical parameters.

P.S. -- Why is IE all of a sudden warning me that Gamespot is trying to download a file to my computer?

If an 8 ohm speaker is hooked up to a 4 ohm amp, it won't necessarily be half as loud as a similar 4 ohm speaker, you're right. That's determained in part by efficiency. But a 4 ohm 100 watt speaker will always be louder hooked up to that amp than an 8 ohm 100 watt speaker with the same effiency.

The only case where they would have the same "loudness" is if there is such a disparity in efficienty that it takes twice the power for the 4 ohm speaker to achieve the same volume as the 8 ohm one, in this case that would mean the other speakers would have to have an 88dB rating.