Who turns center off when listening to music

Unless your 2-channel setup is absolute shite, leave the center off.  What AVP, amp, and speakers are you using and how much flexibility do you have in placing your front L/R speakers?

I use the center channel all the time for everything. I listen almost exclusively to 2 channel recordings and up-mix everything to 3 channels with simple channel summing and subtracting - no complex processing.

@asctim No.  Just no.  Out of curiosity what’s the rest of your system?  If you’ve ever listened to to a truly high-end, 2-channel system NONE of them use a center channel speaker because it’s completely unnecessary.  Plus, if you use a center speaker you need a multichannel preamp/processor that further degrades the sound.  Go to any high-end audio show or retail shop and get yourself re-educated.    Jeez.

Well its obvious you have never heard a high end system WITH a center channel, don’t blame @asctim. Why do you prefer being trapped in the sweetspot? Once you leave the sweetspot anything meant for the center will be skewed and sound to be coming from the speaker you are nearest, don’t get upset, thats fact.

@kota1 Who the hell owns and listens to a high-end, 2-channel system and doesn’t sit in the sweet spot?

You must know that stereo started with 3 speakers not two.

I can’t even. I’m out.

@acman3 Guilty as charged. 🙄

High-end speaker companies like Magico and Wilson make center speakers but never use them at audio shows despite most listeners not being able to sit in the sweet spot. Wonder why? Hmmm. What’s wrong with them???  They must have not gotten the 3-channel stereo memo. 🤔🤭🤪😝

I totally understand why they don’t use a center channel. I’ve been to audio shows and listened to plenty of high-end 2 channel systems. I know what they can do. A center channel used the way I use it does something they can’t do.

@asctim Uh, so what you’re saying is these high-end speaker manufacturers spend a ton of $$$ to hump their gear to various audio shows and choose to set them up in a way that’s sub optimal? If they thought their very expensive speakers sounded better with a center speaker, along with the added prospect of being able to sell more of their center speakers, don’t you think they’d do so? Or are you just smarter and know more than they do about their own products?

The only ways I’ve found that work for me to my satisfaction are to either use a divider wall between two speakers that comes all the way up to my face to keep the speakers from playing into the wrong ear, or use an array of 3 speakers that are fairly close together and employ channel summing in the center and differencing on the side speakers.

I’ll just repeat, I can’t even.  Let me ask you this — when you’re at a live concert how do you prevent the strings on the left from bleeding over into the woodwinds on the right?  Do you bring your own personal divider with you to make it sound more “right” to you?  To each his own I guess.

Dude that means whatever you think your rocking, it is far, far NOT the ultimate. Serviceable? Probably but LOL.🤡  Me and the Toole can rock everything from stereo, to surround sound, to Auro 3D and Atmos.  Priceless.

So I guess that makes you right and the rest of the high-end stereo manufacturers and listeners wrong.  U do u dude.

at an orchestral concert there is no crosstalk. Each instrument is producing sound from it’s actual location, each producing a single stream of sound that crosses my head once. If the instrument is straight in front of me, the stream of sound from that instrument will hit each ear simultaneously with one pass.

It’s physically impossible that the sound of a violin coming from the left hits your left and right ear simultaneously and is how we as humans can perceive depth and location of sound Plus, no instrument produces a “single stream” of sound — all instruments radiate sound in a 360 degree sound field that cannot be captured in a single stream. With your logic we should all just listen to one center speaker alone and be done with it. No thanks. But I suggest you bring your theory to the best speaker manufacturers and see if any of them bite. My guess, after they’re done laughing, will be a big fat NO. But by all means let us know how that goes. In the meantime I won’t hold my breath waiting to see center speakers make even one appearance at a high-end dealership or audio show — never gonna happen dude.  Oh yeah, and recordings aren’t made or mixed with a center speaker so why the hell would you wanna listen with one?  Whatevs.

@kota1 Uh, maybe my math is off but that’s a surround system, not a 2-channel system.  I also don’t have a TV between my stereo speakers, but that’s me.  Maybe you should bring this thread to the Home Theater section where it’ll likely find a more receptive audience, and then you can discuss which preamp/processor sounds almost as good as a stereo preamp but at quadruple the cost.  Yay!