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When is a mismatched center OK?

Hi all, 

I'm going to go listen to some speakers in the next 30 days and need your advice.  My goal is to improve my 2 channel experience but I have to be cognizant of HT also.... and my primary problem is as follows:  For many of the speakers I like the center channel is freaking huge.  (Looking at you Paradigm Persona!)  I don't have room for the standalone style center.  I could reconfigure my rack if needed but like the way mine sits today.   I could shop down market a bit where the centers are more reasonably sized (Founders instead of Persona,) and likely still be pretty happy.  

I recognize that ideally you don't want a mismatch, but.....What I'm wondering is if you stay within the same family (Example:  Focal Sopra 2 with Aria center) , would your timbre match be solid enough to get by or would you create a potentially glaring mismatch?  

Any first hand examples appreciated.  

Thanks, 

Eric 


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Showing 2 responses by mtbiker29

mtbiker29's avatar
mtbiker29 OP
156 posts
 
@cissado thank you, that’s exactly the type of feedback I was looking for.

My music listening is often by myself but movies are either 2 of us or 4 of us. You can see my very wide couch in the pic of virtual system so yes @millercarbon there is some off axis listening. I already have space for center so that’s not the issue, the issue is keeping it small when the mains you like are only paired with giant centers.

I'm assuming everyone advocating the use of your two channel setup are 2.1 only?  So what happens with sources that are 5.1 or better?  
mtbiker29's avatar
mtbiker29 OP
156 posts
 
Keep in mind when you try to combine home theater and two channel audio together, compromises will be made. Your job is to decide which is more important to you and proceed with that in mind. But performance will suffer for one of the two formats, Choose wisely.
So I agree sort of.  I'm not an all out theater buff, but do appreciate 5.1 movies.  I use an integrated with HT bypass so don't feel like i'm compromising much on the two channel side.  
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