Posted by josh358 (P) on December 29, 2024 at 09:06:35

In Reply to: RE: Center channel to go with Maggies (not a Maggie center) posted by dclamb2 on December 29, 2024 at 06:00:26

Funny, I was discussing this just yesterday because I have a very similar setup -- AT screen and skyline diffusers (but just at the first reflection points).

The problem is that while there are a few sealed line array speakers, they're going to sound different from the left and right, and the center reproduces 60% of the sound. Even if the amplitude and phase response were the same, the quality of the sound and the radiation pattern would be different and dipoles dump less ambient sound into the room, making it hard to match both on-axis and power response at the same time.

If you took two Maggies, put them in a "V" with the narrow part against the wall, and disabled the tweeter on one of them, the sound might be a bit more consistent, but I imagine there are problems here, e.g., with cavity resonances.

Another possibility, similar to something that Magnepan suggested years ago, would be to take two Maggies and put them at an angle against the wall like their on-wall speakers, but with wider spacing. Magnepan suggested a similar setup years ago. In this case, you still have a phantom center, but since the speakers are closer together running in mono there will be less of an issue with interaural crosstalk and pinna response and you'll have a more solid image. And check out the tri-center system -- URL is below. I've heard it and it's impressive.

Another good but not necessarily practical solution is to bring the screen forward and put a single Maggie behind it but out from the wall. Not practical in many cases.

Finally, the BAACH system could correct for the interaural crosstalk and allow you to use only two speakers. Only about $1000 for the entry-level version if you have a Mac, $2000 with a Mac. I'm not sure how well this would work with diffusion behind the speakers -- you'd have to ask them. Absorption might be a possibility.

• https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/magnepans-tri-cent   (Open in New Window)

Edits: 12/29/24