What Center Channel are you using in your Home Theater?

In my case I had to build a speaker box to match my 4 towers in a 5.1.4 Atmos set up. The factory is gone but I can still source parts and get repairs and get new parts. I am very old and my experience goes back to the late 60s. I am a stereo 2 channel guy to begin with but evolved into the surround sound beginning with quadraphonic. I have experimented with 2 seperate stereo systems in the beginning just because of economics. After years of mixing and matching I now am using all speakers the same. It sounds so much more connected and creates a seamless illusion. All the same drivers and same crossovers.http://https//www.dolby.com/us/en/technologies/dolby-atmos/dolby-atmos-home-theater-installation-guidelines.pdf 
 This should help significantly

Just wanted to add that I noticed a huge improvement when I completely destroyed my entertainment center and got my center channel the exact same height as the 4 towers, the tweeter and midrange at the same height. Wife came home and had a fit and 3 weeks later she got over it. Placement as well as timbre matching is the way to go.

In a perfect world, we would all run five or seven identical speakers for all floor channels, heck even suspending some for overhead channels. However, the world isn't perfect, and I'll go against the grain here and say that I don't think timbre matching is very important for a center channel. I know that's the prevailing wisdom, but my experience has taught me different. 

To me, the absolute best setups I've owned and heard are where all speakers are of very high quality. The differences between these speakers, even one brand or design criteria to the next is significantly smaller than the audible differences between the bottom shelf, big box store offerings. Add to that that most HT setups run some form of advanced room correction and the differences get even smaller. For instance (because lets face it, we're talking mostly about tweeters here), I have mixed diamond (802 D2) and ribbon (ML Focus) tweeters, and currently mix beryllium (Focal Sopra 2) and ribbon tweeters. Both setups sound far superior to all ribbon (ML 60XT + Focus), all aluminum (B&W CM9 S2 + CMC2 S2), or other mixings thereof where the speakers were not as high quality, especially after Anthem room correction.

Your center speaker IS your main speaker in a HT setup, and as such will be almost single handedly handling all of the dialogue and on screen effects. The mains and surrounds are there mainly to fill out orchestral scores and off screen effects. You system though will sound pretty much like your center channel and subs.
 

Steve,
As another guy who struggles to hear dialogue (in movies, parties, etc.)...

I have gone through similar problems with dialogue clarity.  My experience is that the actual center channel speaker makes a HUGE difference in enjoyment of TV, movies, etc.  I have found minimal positive effect to adjusting center channel EQ curves, some beneficial effect to just raising center channel volume, and a large beneficial effect to getting a center channel built for dialogue.  To various degrees, I have been unimpressed with various center channels from B&W (entry level), Aerial CC3b (sounded like a blanket over the speaker, very disappointed given glowing reviews), Focal Chorus (nice for music, bad for dialogue), Martin Logan Motion 30 (could not understand males despite a "shouting" quality). 

These speakers have been run by a variety of high-end amps, preamps, processors, speaker wires, and +/- room correction, but it seems that the actual center channel speaker is the overwhelming piece of the puzzle.

I have Salk HT-3 mains, and talked with Jim Salk about my problems.  He built me the HT-3 equivalent center and it solved everything.  Great dialogue at low and high volumes.  Consider giving him a call to build a speaker, suggest an existing speaker from his lineup, or just give you some good advice.  Who cares if the center "matches" the rest of the system if you cannot understand what is being said.

My 2 cents
DF

Hi D Forrester
Well, I love your idea, and solution to our problem.

I live in Canada, Toronto

How can I get Jim Salk to build me  the same CC as you? Remembering, I have the Golden Ear system in my HT, and have their new Triton Ref as my mains, and am using their biggest XXL CC.

What is the cost?

Stephen