Center Channel Speaker Question

I had the LM-1's. Best speaker B & W ever made. Your problem is very common. There's a huge demand placed on a center channel. It has to keep up with the 2 main speakers and sometimes, even a sub. To get an idea of what I am talking about, listen to some music using just your front 2 speakers. Unplug one of your speakers and listen again. Its a huge loss. It seems like more than 50%. That's what your center channel has to compete with. For me, the best way to handle a center channel is to not use one or to use a regular pair of stereo speakers. Basically, a center channel is pretty much the same as a mono channel. If you buy another pair of LM-1's and put one on each side of the screen, it will float a perfect center image, just like a mono recording. Also, the LM-1's are very easy to drive. You should be able to get away with using just 1 channel on your amp for both speakers.

You should be able to get away with using just 1 channel on your amp for both speakers.

Sorry to disagree, but B&W states the impedance of the LM1 as 8 ohms with a minimum of 3 ohms. Using a pair on a single channel will result in a 4 ohm impedance with a minimum of 1.5 ohms. The recommended minimum impedance for the SR-6004 is 6 ohms. It just seems too risky, mainly because of the severe drop to 1.5 ohms. I would talk to Marantz tech support before attempting to use a pair of LM1’s on the center channel.

I would definitely use a single LM1 for the center, as this will give you a perfect timbre match throughout the entire room.

If your dialogue alone is hard to understand it may be more of a "lip sync" issue. Try closing your eyes and if the dialogue is now understandable then its a lip sync issue. I know it seems crazy to try but if your lip sync is not adjusted correctly than your brain has a harder time with understanding the dialogue because the lips start moving before the corresponding sounds come out of the center.

If it is still an issue than pursue matching your front speakers.

Your receiver has Audessey. Try to turn the dynamic EQ on. It may boots the midrange up a bit. You may get away of buying new speaker.

"Sorry to disagree, but B&W states the impedance of the LM1 as 8 ohms with a minimum of 3 ohms. Using a pair on a single channel will result in a 4 ohm impedance with a minimum of 1.5 ohms. The recommended minimum impedance for the SR-6004 is 6 ohms. It just seems too risky, mainly because of the severe drop to 1.5 ohms. I would talk to Marantz tech support before attempting to use a pair of LM1’s on the center channel."

Not if you wire them in series. Also, if you use 2 speakers, you won't need as much volume. It will definitely work.

Its easy enough to test what I'm talking about here. The OP can just take the pair of LM-1's that he already has and hook them up to one channel on his amp, and do some listening.

Thanks for the response. It appears that all agree I don't necessarily need to purchase a true center speaker. Usually the LM1 come as a pair so my curiosity is piqued. Zd542; Am I correct in understanding that all I need do is use center channel wire, hook up 1st LM1 and continue wire to 2nd LM1 effectively wiring in series? If the result is not pleasing then I can fall back to using 1st LM1 as center. If the "series" setup does no harm then why not try it? Wired in series,will there be a "volume drop" between the 1st and 2nd LM1?

"Am I correct in understanding that all I need do is use center channel wire, hook up 1st LM1 and continue wire to 2nd LM1 effectively wiring in series? If the result is not pleasing then I can fall back to using 1st LM1 as center."

No, that's parallel. You can try it that way but your amp may strain a little. For series do this: 1. Connect a speaker cable from the + on your amp to the + on one of the speakers. 2. Connect a speaker cable from the - on your amp to the - on the other speaker. 3. Run a speaker cable from one speaker to the other connecting it to the unused binding posts.

As far as the volume issue goes, I meant that using 2 speakers for the center will take the demand off 1 speaker used as a center. That's why I suggested the test in my first post. Listen to some music just using your main L and R front speakers. After a minute or so, just unplug 1 of the speakers and listen to it. If you do that, you will see immediately what I am talking about. Just listening to the 1 speaker play music, you will see how hard that single speaker has to work to keep up with the main 2. Its just a rough test. When you are watching a movie, different info is sent to the center channel, so the test isn't 100%. That said, its still a very good indicator as to how the front and center speakers interact with each other.

Yes, a series connection will be safe for the amp, however the resulting 16 ohm impedance load will reduce the center channel amp capability from its rated 110 watts to about half or 55 watts. This will then be split between the two speakers. Sound from each LM1 will likely sound thin and anemic, and have very little dynamic range. It makes more sense to run a single LM1 with 110 watts than 2 with less than 30 watts each. A series connection will just reduce the overall performance.

Now I am not against using 2 center speakers, actually if it was safe to do a parallel connection, I would say go for it, however I do not agree with,

You can try it that way but your amp may strain a little.

Initially it might work OK, but long term is likely to cause premature failure. Again, talk to Marantz tech support.

IME, runing two speakers in series will not help give you clarity. The problem is that the crossover in the first speaker interacts with the crossover in the secound. Phase is negtatively effected. A parallel hook up does not have the phase issue but as others have stated you may have an impedance issue.

Of course yiou can always try it as YMMV.