Center Speaker for HT with S5?

NC Lee · Dec 3, 2014

Have a pair of S-5's in route from a dealer (yay!).
They will double as 2 ch and HT. I am looking for a center speaker hopefully around $1000 or so that is in the tonal neighborhood of the S5's- close enough not to draw attention to the difference.
Thoughts?

Tand · Dec 3, 2014

Pardon me for asking, but do you need one? I use my Q5s in phantom mode! Works very good. What size is your room?

And, Congrats with the S5

stereo · Dec 3, 2014

I use a Magico SCC. It doesn't cost 1k but it integrates perfectly with the rest of my magico system.
I don't know any speaker brand which will be close enough to the S5 and very cheap at the same time. If you don't want to spend the money for the SCC, I would second tand suggestion to use phantom mode, this would give better results in term of sound coherence - and would be cheaper than the 1k ;-)

NC Lee · Dec 3, 2014

stereo said:
I use a Magico SCC. It doesn't cost 1k but it integrates perfectly with the rest of my magico system.
I don't know any speaker brand which will be close enough to the S5 and very cheap at the same time. If you don't want to spend the money for the SCC, I would second tand suggestion to use phantom mode, this would give better results in term of sound coherence - and would be cheaper than the 1k ;-)

I'll try phantom mode. I'm not paying $16k for a speaker that, to me, only needs to make speech coherent. I don't understand high fidelity for sound that is only there to enhance the video, excepting the sub woofer lows. Thanks.

Room is 23x29x10.

stereo · Dec 4, 2014

NC Lee said:
I'll try phantom mode. I'm not paying $16k for a speaker that, to me, only needs to make speech coherent. I don't understand high fidelity for sound that is only there to enhance the video, excepting the sub woofer lows. Thanks.

Room is 23x29x10.

I understand where you stand, it depends how important for you is audio in HT mode. But keep in mind that in 5.1, there is still some mixing of content across channels (so voices may come partially from LR speakers, even if predominant part is from center. Or ambient music may also use the center...). That's why you are better off going with phantom than mixing speakers which don't have the same sound.
Very nice room for a S5! send pics when you got them.
What will you use as electronic?

NC Lee · Dec 4, 2014

stereo said:
Very nice room for a S5! send pics when you got them.
What will you use as electronic?

Ah, the next journey! I have an old ARC SP9 ll and an Aragon 4004 ll to get started. I'll appreciate help and direction for alternatives. I don't want to fuss with tube amps or vinyl, so content will be FLAC files and such. No mono blocks sitting in the room; electronics will be in a rack behind a couch. I hope spending less than $10k on electronics will satisfy my ears, but I am able to go higher if I must. Open to used. A Rogue Audio Medusa has been suggested. Tube pre amp would be OK.

I was fortunate the dealer had a room approaching my size and stocked both the S3 and S5, allowing me to clearly determine the S3 just couldn't carry the room volume.

stereo · Dec 4, 2014

for sure given your room size, S5 is a much better choice than S3!

stereo · Dec 4, 2014

if you want a cheap amp sounding very well, have a look at Hegel product line. Very good value for money and works well with Magico

edorr · Dec 4, 2014

I have gone through a number of centers, revel, kef, Salk, linn. Just yesterday I took possession of the evolution acoustic center (basically a flipped mm micro one), to match my mm3's. Very nice speaker - 2k. I'll probably try to,drive them with the new job 250 monoblock (now shipping). This may be a good affordable top notch amp to drive your s5 as well.

CKKeung · Dec 7, 2014

NC Lee said:
Ah, the next journey! I have an old ARC SP9 ll and an Aragon 4004 ll to get started. I'll appreciate help and direction for alternatives. I don't want to fuss with tube amps or vinyl, so content will be FLAC files and such. No mono blocks sitting in the room; electronics will be in a rack behind a couch. I hope spending less than $10k on electronics will satisfy my ears, but I am able to go higher if I must. Open to used. A Rogue Audio Medusa has been suggested. Tube pre amp would be OK.

I am a S5 user too. It's quite power-hungry. Not easy to find a suitable tube amp for it.

For poweramps : please consider HEGEL H4SE or even the top H30.
Or you may consider to buy Devialet as an all-in-one option.

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Center Speaker for HT with S5?

NC Lee

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Tand

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stereo

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NC Lee

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stereo

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NC Lee

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stereo

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stereo

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edorr

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CKKeung

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