Best center speakers for dialogue clarity?


Since I use my center speaker both for the surround sound system and as the main speaker for my HDTV, I would like one that optimizes on the dialogue on TV. (Most of my music listening is in 2-channel mode.) I have the Vandersteen VCC-5 Reference center speaker, which received very good reviews, but suspect that there are better center units out there for dialogue. Any thoughts?
lloydj
I have a Paradigm Reference studio V2 that is excellent and I happen to be selling for $349 plus shipping.

check out reviews at audioreview.com
Aerial CC3 or CC5. I owned the CC3 and you can adjust it's tonal qualities with two switches on the back to match your main speakers (I did this with my NHT 3.3's). Unfortunately I had to put my system in-wall now.
Dialog clarity is best with a speaker that has quite restricted frequency response, and therefore is lousy for music. For music you should have a center speaker that matches the Left and Right speakers, and use of a dialog speaker, alas too common, is the reason why some folk think that center speakers are a bad idea. So the solution is to have two center speakers, switched in and out as appropriate. The dialog one could be cheap.

Actually, I suppose it would be possible to make a good wide range music speaker with a built-in switchable circuit to alter its response for dialog use.
On the flip side, I have found my Thiel SCS3 to excel at both music and dialog clarity. I had heavily considered the larger of the two NHT centers to go along with my Thiel 3.6's, but once I compared it to the SCS3, I was immediately blown away by the SCS3. The NHT sounded like a speaker reproducing music, whereas the Thiel sounds like musicians right in front of you. Very transparent and very smooth. The drivers interact very well, and you really can't hear the crossover points. For dialog, I have also been very impressed. Both DVDs and sports broadcasts sound great and are very easy to understand.

Hope this helps, Tom.