Centre Channel Speaker Upgrade

[aakashr]

Hi,

I am thinking of getting matching towers for my centre and surround channels. Has anyone had any experience with replacing them with towers? Would 2 way or 3 way towers work? Also, this would be of a different brand altogether, hence there might be an issue of timbre matching, if at all that is relevant. Luckily I do have enough room below the TV for a small tower speaker. I am looking at Polk Audio T50 or XT60 / Mission MX3. My current front towers are 3 way dual 8" drivers kenwood speakers with kenwood horizontal 3 way centre speaker, powered by a Denon 1610 AVR. If I do use towers for surrounds, I would need to place them on stands to get the driver to ear level.

Any additional power requirements to drive the towers? I am pretty happy with my current 5.1 setup but always welcome to make it sound better, moreso with the centre channel which holds so much of information. Looking at better overall acoustic experience.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[saurabhpach]

There are many things to consider here:

1. Centre is usually playing mid frequency so getting a tower for that is overkill.

2. You’d have placement issues for sure.

3. Selling a single centre (read tower) / odd number will be nearly impossible. So return on investment will be poor. In the game of audio you will repeat you will replace them with better ones in future.

4. Sticking to a dedicated (classical) centre speaker will be much better and economical choice.

5. Similar logic for surround. Your power requirement to drive the speakers will be higher with towers, this will have a negative impact on all other channels, your AVR will struggle to run them.

That’s my two cents bro