Buy whatever sounds best. Unless you can find an exact model match for your totem, it wont necessarily match anyway.
Look at Totem first, and if you find a match that you like,....great.
Dont rule out other brands though, because you may find another that you like better. With a $500 budget, there will be plenty of quality center speakers to consider.
Anonnnn
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Man Paul that is such a great advice! lol
Scott, Opposing to what our Audio Professional Paul recommends, I would say that matching the fronts and center channel would be the way to go. Perhaps you could try to contact Totem and inquire how a "Totem Mite-T" would match with your arros. Just a thought
Anon, Paul doesent believe in timbre matching,he can have a different speaker in every channel and it would suit him just fine as long he can hear big explosions.
I believe in timbre matching, especially so up front. I dont think buying speaker clones is necessarily the 'end all', because you can find speakers that work well together that arent from the same brand.
Unless your receiver is a vanilla one without features, it will be capable of equalizing each of the 7 channels frequency ranges individually from about 65hz on up, and then it will be even less of a factor.
Sure, some speakers will be hopeless causes(like mixing oil & water), but that doesnt mean that others won't work great together.
Just because you own a totem, doesnt necessarily mean that other totem lines will make a good match. If he owns new speakers, it wont be a problem, but that isnt the case if that specific model is no longer in production. Plus, totem doesnt exactly have a very good center speaker selection. What do they offer???....only a few? He might find something much better within his budget from another manufacturer than what totem offers, but I would never buy a center speaker before giving it a thorough audition.
Hear we go again, then why do you have matching left and right, and pleas don't tell me it for the stereo, I've heard them all, this is precisely why there has to be three-screen matching channels at the front with the same frequency response sensitivity power handling, they will then present to you what will be missing and compromised by misplacing.
Now if Paul where to place one more CV to replace the small centre channel, he will not only hear but feel as well what is on the centre channel, some of that rich Foley work must really be missing Paul, believe me, if you what the best don't
Hear we go again, guys, guys hold on why do you think most AVR that you buy now have equal power output from the left centre and right across the fronts, compromise the centre channel, why do you think that some film mixes sound great as they are now, just Imagine how fantastic it will sound and feel with matching three-screen.
If you have towers and don't want to but a tower on top of the TV, not a good idea magnet, then you'll have to change to some, very good state of the art bookshelf types that, will have the same characteristics good 6 ½ or dual 6 ½ with twin tweeters, or a single 8 inc with a wonderful sounding tweeter, and maybe Bi-wire as well.
We can all go around in circles all day chasing each others tails, but I'm sure Tawaun, including, myself have better fish to fry.
As for me I have three-screen matching JBL control 5, and in the future I'd like to buy some newer JBL with larger bass mid drivers and a smashing HF tweeter with bi-wire, but that doesn't stop me from making the JBL control 5 present there sound via an Active X-over, and the centre channel is running with an Active X-over at the moment and I'm looking at for two more to add on both the same.
If you where to play wideband pink noise and use a SPL db meter alone with an RTA as well as each speaker in the fronts will sound different, and with mismatched ones it's a pig to EQ believe me, now if you have matching three-screen fronts the EQ will be minimised with less fuss.
The EQ's for the fronts should be at best 1/3 octave one centred on ISO, these don't cost too much and "Alesis" are a good manufacture.
With an additional RTA with microphone and "boom stand" this will get every thing shorted.
Andy, My center speaker 'IS' a CV, and it's not small. It only appears that way in the photo because it's sitting on top of a massive 65" RP-CRT. It has dual 6.5" mids, and not sure what type of tweeter. It also has a 95db sensitivity rating.
Yes ok, but van she perform with the same authority as the mains, with slam depth and kick, I'm guess that will perform better over my friends B&W where his mains are B&W DM 602 I did an alignment test for him around 8 years ago add since he's only using the AVR Kenwood KRF-X9050D THX select, same as what I'm using it was a pig, the frequency response was a total mess, sure I can only use a few test tones to see the differences with checking the mains firstly and make written notes of the dba weighting and the dbc weighting and the checked it with the centre.
It was still out by much as 7db, that was using wideband pink noise on the dts music and calibration set up disc, the other test disc was the Denon CD check where I selected a single tones around 125Hz 1Khz and 8KHz and going though all the fronts for around an hour, and there best I could get the centre to near as the mains was around 5db still way out, and if he where to follow the same as what I have done with using all the pre-outputs along with matching amplifiers and EQ's he will still get the centre to within around 2db maybe spot on.
So matching is the way some people can EQ the sound chain within a few hours, others just a little bit longer, to achieve good results, so when you play the internal pink noise on the AVR when it goes from left centre and right it should not go upwards and downwards it should be the same straight across the front change in the lows mid range or the high range, that's timber matching.
Can you tell me more about the Centre's placement? Is it to fit into a cabinet or alcove above the TV, directly on top of the TV, or behind a projector screen?
Kano, sure. I'm doing some renovation that will include a build out from the wall. I'm going to hang a plasma flush into the new buildout and i'm trying to figure out where to put the (new) center channel. If we can make it work, i'd like to design a place (custom hole) in the buildout for the center channel too. Would love a center channel that is small and awesome like the arros...
Anonnn
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Totem Mite-T ....and Retails for $500.00....
Anonnnn
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Just because you own a totem, doesnt necessarily mean that other totem lines will make a good match. If he owns new speakers, it wont be a problem, but that isnt the case if that specific model is no longer in production. Plus, totem doesnt exactly have a very good center speaker selection. What do they offer???....only a few?
Here we go again...have you even listened to the Totem Mite T? So, a company must produce 15 different versions of center speakers so you can consider buying from them?
Anon, I looked at their website and 4 were shown. Not a lot, but plenty to pick from if a totem is what he wants.
Scott, I'd recommend against building the speaker into your wall. What if something happens, and you need to replace the speaker?? If a time came that you wanted to either upgrade, or needed to replace the speaker, you'd be in a world of hurt.
Kinda like those people with expensive entertainment centers who are 'stuck' with their current tvs because of a piece of furnature, but worse. It would be less hastle scrapping the ET center than recutting and refinishing holes in the wall. Even so, people end up doing neither, and suffer with a small TV because of it. Heaven forbid they consider a TV that wouldnt fit in the wood box.(or a speaker that wont fit in a hole)
Paul how could you not know what kind of tweater is in your center.Didnt you study it before you bought it?So you are a man who doesent even know what kind of tweater is in his center,but yet you can give someone advice,to go to another speaker company that does not timbre match with his front mains.Man you are getting more and more ignorant by the day.
Anonymous
Posted on
So now do you admit you were just talking out of your @ss as usual with that "Plus, totem doesnt exactly have a very good speaker selection" remark?
Congratulations, Paul---I've never met anyone who loves to babble on and on about things which he knows absolutely nothing about, so much and all the time.
Paul unlike you I have never claimed to be a great typest like you claim to be a A/V expert,sometime I go fast and mispell a few words,but dont try to use that as a scapegoat to cover up your ignorance on anything relating to audio or H/T,maybe you ought to study facts before you make your childish statements.
Vader you can go thru 90% of Pauls post and they are all the same childish rubbish time after time and 90% im probably giving him the benafit of the Doubt.
Anonymous
Posted on
Guys, play nice...I think that Paul flunked out of Special Ed!
Tawaun, I didnt comment on your typing skills. What I did say is that you must have dropped out of school because you write like someone with a 7th grade education level.
No drop out after 7th grade Paul,whats even more disturbing is you have good diction and punctuation and after reading thru your posts you still manage to sound like you are no where near 7th grade with your baby rattle like coments.
90% ! Tawaun, you are very forgiving, I would say more like 99.5% of his posts are useless.
I didnt comment on your typing skills. What I did say is that you must have dropped out of school because you write like someone with a 7th grade education level.
Says the man who has watched and enjoyed the Incredibles movie at least twice...which is not entirely a bad thing considering that my four year old has watched more than 5 times already so, Paul you have some catch up to do or do you?...lol
Anonymous
Posted on
OMG Paul, you of all people are in absolutely NO position to talk about ANYBODY'S education level.
That's like a heroin addict lecturing somebody on clean living.
Scott - I would look at the Dreamcatcher centre. The guys at Totem recommended it to me, and I use the same fronts as you do. Because the Arro's are a low sensitivity speaker, using a typical ~90dB centre will require some level tuning to sound right, and you still aren't likely to get any sort of timbral match. I'm using a Mission right now and it's a terrible match.
I'm looking at the Totem price list in front of me, and it says the retail on the Dreamcatcher is $470/520 (CDN) depending on finish option. That would put it right around $400 US...easily within your budget.
You understand my typing and diction it isnt that bad you are just embarrassed because eveyone thought you were saying these things for attention ,but now they are finding out that you really are a idiot.( Did you understand that)
I'm not sure if the Mite-T is meant to be placed on its side, or if its magnetically shielded to use around a TV. The Model 1 centre uses a alloy dome tweeter which won't blend well with the textile dome tweeter of the Arros.
The Mite-T Centre looks to be the best bet but another speaker may timbre match better with the Arros.
lol 