Seas centre (center) channel

[Paul H]

I've finished (for now) some massive 4-way active dipoles for my mains, as captured in another thread. The speakers include a Scanspeak 9700 tweeter, a W18 (6.5") Seas Excel and two L26 (10") Seas.

I want to build a matching centre, which would also be dipole and use a Seas midrange and a 9500 or 9700 tweeter.

Can a high-quality centre dipole speaker be built with a two-way using say a single W22 (8") and the tweeter, or should I be looking at a 3-way wmtw?

The intended use is for a home theatre centre (not multi-channel music) under a projector screen. The primary concern is clarity. The crossover to the sub can be high, and the baffle size is not a major concern.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Paul

[ThomasW]

I'd copy the mains with a WTMW, place the 10"s flanking the TM section.

[Paul W]

I haven't used a center for a couple of years but, when I did, the demands on the center were at least as high as the left & right channels. My vote goes to the wmtw rather than the 2-way...maybe using the same drivers as your big dipoles.

Edit: Thomas types faster than I do

[Paul H]

Yeah sure, everyone recommend the expensive and complicated ones

I'm thinking (for an wmtw) of crossing higher to the tweeter and don't need the mid to reach as low as in my mains - the mains were designed to coast along at 105 dB - not necessary for the centre.
If I go the wmtw route, would there be any benefit in using a smaller mid (ie 4 or 5" excel rather than 6.5")?

Paul

[Dennis H]

It would be nice to keep the drivers, or at least the XOs, the same across the front. The 3 speakers are so close together that you might get into weird phase/imaging stuff if one were crossed much differently than the others. Imagine, for example, using different crossovers and/or drivers on the left speaker than on the right.

Or not..... just thinking out loud.

[KeithM]

I'd just use the same drivers, crossovers, and cabinets. There would be nothing new to design and you'd have a perfectly matching fronts.

[Paul H]

... There would be nothing new to design ...

We wouldn't want that



If I'm using the same drivers and doing a wmtw I would lean towards doing a passive version, maybe with similar crossover points to the completed active speakers.

The suggestion to use a smaller midrange was geared towards getting that single driver covering more of the 300 to 3000 Hz range in a speaker geared towards primarily producing clear vocals - thoughts?

Paul

[Paul W]

I'm an Excel fan but, personally, wouldn't use any of the metal Excels above 2k.

[mante]

Hi Paul H.

Steve Dodd might be a good resource with his Bob and Roberta combination.

Craig

[ThomasW]

I'm with Dennis, I think the L>C>R should be identical whenever possible

[sfdoddsy]

I experimented with a few different centers with my dipoles, but ended up going with the simplest. I use the same tweeter as my mains (Seas Millenium) and a single eight inch driver (L22, although a W22 might be even better). I cross over via my prepro at 80Hz to the mains. I use a single midrange because of an unusual positioning issue, but two would make me feel a little more comfy on loud passages.

The very best sound was when I had a full three way center using Focal 10L4611s, but I was running out of amplifier and crossover channels then.

Steve

[Paul H]

I'm a little concerned about the number of amplifier channels required also, as if I do an active three-way I'll need 11 channels just for the front three speakers. Besides my receiver I have 5 two-channel amplifiers now - needing more seems .. excessive?

This is one reason I'm considering a passive centre, the other reason being I'm just interested in doing a passive/active comparison with very similar speakers.

Thanks for the feedback - the three-way wmtw seems to be the right configuration for me.

Paul