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Home theater center channel decision to make.

I intend to add home theater to my present two channel system. My front left and right speakers are Vienna Acoustics Mahlers. My question is can I use the VA Maestro center channel MSRP $1300 or do I have to use the Oratorio MSRP $3000? Is the extra expense worth it?

For the left and right rears I intend to use the VA Waltz wall mounted speakers. I'm going to put a 5.1 system together.
I intend to keep my two channel listening absolutely seperate and not go through a processor. I listen to two channel music 75% and home theater 25%.

System components:
CD Player, Meridian 588
Preamp, Jeff Rowland synergy 2i
Poweramp, Classe CAM 350 monoblocks
Speakers, VA Mahlers
DVD Player, Sony DSP9000ES
Piano DLP Projector
Daylite 7' front screen
hank
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
I would say that the extra cost may not be worth it. You need to ask yourself, "how many times do I actually need it"? then go from there
ghunter's avatar
ghunter
164 posts
 
In home theater, the center channel becomes the most important channel in the room. That's where the dialog and most of the foreground action is played, and it's a lot of the ambience that gets pushed into the other speakers. If you try to save money you may regret it or think your HT system is less than stellar. Either that or you'll phenomenal front ambience but less-than-focused dialog.

I decided to leave my 2-channel system in the living room and go with a completely separate system for HT in the family room. It really doesn't cost anywhere near as much for great HT gear as it does for good two-channel equipment.
mjcmt's avatar
mjcmt
479 posts
 
You deffinitely get more info in movies in the center than L&R. On the otherhand if your not a videophile and don't have much multichannel music it may not matter.

In movies the purpose of the center speaker is to lock the dialogue in the center for off axis viewers. If this is not an issue and you don't have multichannel music, then you can eliminate the center altogether.
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