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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
draggcj
25 posts
 
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
cytocycle
1,034 posts
 
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.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
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.
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