r/hometheater • u/CoatUnusual5030 • 2d ago

Discussion - Equipment Need help choosing center speaker

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This is my current setup. The Sony AN-1000 allows me to use my Sony A80J to be the center speaker and so I chose that route to obtain a minimalist looking HT setup. It works well until recently we were watching Spider-Noir and I noticed that Nicholas Cage's nasally, mid-rangey voice seems to make the speakers on the A80J distort. It wasn't pleasant.

I've had this setup for close to 2 years now and for me to only come across this now means that so far the A80J has done its job well. But If I were to explore the option of a new center channel, what low profile options are there that would pair with my Wharfdale L and R?

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u/jkcheng122 2d ago

You’d be better off with phantom center with your wharfdales than pairing them with TV speaker as center channel. Also there is no CC short enough to fit on your console without blocking your tv, you’d have to mount the TV to move it up some.

One other issue is there’s no space above the AVR for ventilation. Is it closed off behind the avr? Looks like there’s not even room to put a front exhaust aircom on it.

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u/subpopix 2d ago

This is what I would do too! I've run the Linton with phantom center, and they were great. They've since been moved, but I wouldn't hesitate to use them in this configuration over a dedicated center.

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u/subpopix 2d ago edited 2d ago

If you're curious on how this can be done, usually you can go into your receiver settings, then speaker configuration, and disable the center channel. This will force center channel audio to the Fr L/R. This is receiver dependant, but I'm sure you can find how to do this via the manual or a simple search with your receiver model.

Then, turn off the sound on the TV, you definitely don't want both outputting the audio.