My Center, 50 lbs and 1,000 Watts

Man, that’s quite the beast!  Must feel really good (and very satisfying) finally seeing it all put together in the flesh.  How long do you think before she starts singing?  Can’t wait to hear your impressions once she’s burned in a bit.  What other centers do you have on hand to compare it to?  Not that there’s really an apt center to compare this to (or not many anyway), but it’d be interesting for frame of reference how it compares to something we can somewhat relate to as a benchmark.  Congrats on a very nice accomplishment!

Thank you, @soix 

Believe it or not, she is a lot smaller than models from ATC or Legacy with similar sized woofers.

Those are some beautiful (and pricey!) drivers in that box!

Very nice.  Great to see the project done right with no compromises.

@roxy54 Ty, you are not wrong about that!

Believe it or not, she is a lot smaller than models from ATC or Legacy with similar sized woofers.

Funny, the first worthy competitor that sprung to mind when I saw the speaker was the ATC active C6C center.  That dome mid is an absolute beast I’m not sure the Scanspeak (or anything else for that matter) can match it, but your crossover sounds like it may be much more advanced and a potential game changer so who knows?  I’d love to hear them both back to back.  What I do know is the C6Ca is $20k and I forget, how much would yours cost if you were to sell it?  It’s more of.a hypothetical question, but just curious for the hell of it.

Hey, @soix

I know of no one besides Fritz who can sell a speaker for less than 10x the driver and amp costs, so 12k would be a starting point.

Seriously though, there is no way I think I would enjoy playing in the speaker market. It sounds like a horror show. I feel blessed to be able to take my hobby in this direction right now.

I get super excited by having parts arrive.

Seriously though, there is no way I think I would enjoy playing in the speaker market. It sounds like a horror show.

Agree 100%. It’s why cable manufacturers show up at audio shows in Ferraris or Porsches with big smiles on their faces while speaker manufactures show up in rented cargo vans all sweaty, stressed, and tired. I can’t even imagine.

Ah, the joys of manufacturing.... after getting all the different types of connectors (3 different metric sizes), and ordering metric hex screws from China that took 2 weeks to arrive I'm finally ready to power up the speaker and...

There is a firmware problem.  For whatever reason the CPU on the amp keeps identifying itself as the wrong model so I can't get the 3rd channel to be recognized.  Hypex is being really responsive but their first patch did not work. 

Here’s an interesting listing for a Wilson, using similar woofers and no midrange. Generally listed new for around $17k. I guess the extra 60lbs of cabinetry really add value. 😃

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9962d-wilson-audio-watch-center-2-macadamia-gloss-full-range

All joking aside, Wilson, ATC, Legacy and even Troels went a different direction in terms of bass than I did. All of them went for deep extension center channel designs (-3dB @40 Hz) but I went for maximum output. This let me use a much smaller cabinet, but also having measured these drivers before, limits the distortion significantly.

Honestly I see no benefit in trying to make a center channel quasi-full range.  Limit it to 80 Hz as George Lucas intended!

Eric,

Chapeau bas, as the French say. Such audio craftsmanship lends a lot of weight to your posts on this forum—like the added authority a wine maker can bring to a tasting. I always read your posts with interest.

@snilf

Thank you so much.  😁

Not that there’s really an apt center to compare this to (or not many anyway), but it’d be interesting for frame of reference how it compares to something we can somewhat relate to as a benchmark.

@soix Honestly I wish I had the cash to do that kind of comparison test. :D

I would love to see how well my center would integrate with Magico, Wilson and Martin Logan speakers though.

I can tell you that my current, modest 2-way center with inexpensive 5" woofers doesn’t do too bad in it’s limits. Room acoustics and room correction do a lot to make that little center shine.

My current HTR doesn’t let me tune the DSP settings directly, so I could not achieve the same level of integration that I could when I had a stack of miniDSP units and controlled it all myself. This, and not wanting to have more devices was a major reason for trying this. The other two areas were dynamic range and limited seating area. I also wanted to attempt a really wide dispersion pattern.

When I saw the physically large centers from Troels Gravesen it sparked my imagination.

Sorry I made a math error. The amp is only about 600 Watts, not 1,000.

Also, here is a picture of the speaker on my rack. I think my next upgrade has to be a bigger TV, no?

https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-center-at-scale.html

I still need to configure the drivers, and that's a place where the Topping DAC with the bluetooth receiver is really going to be useful. :D