Suggestions on Center Channel Speaker pairing with Ovator S400

Home Theatre
#1

Hi there,

As we moved house, our Totem in-wall speakers sadly didn’t move with us, so we are now in lack of surround sound. Our setup with AV-receiver -> pre-out -> 272/250 with Ovator S-400 is working fine, but we are having trouble following conversations in movies.

The search for a matching center channel speaker is somewhat challenging. I can find a lot of centers to audition for around €1000, but can’t really do any up-front research as to the mids clarity and punch of some of the likely candidates. Brands that are relatively easy to audition in the netherlands are the usual suspects (b&w, focal, paradigm, dynaudio, q acoustics, martin logan, dali, sonus faber and such). I think Neat also made a center, but can’t really find a dealer near me.

Hoping anyone had to deal with this and has some suggestions.

#2

Hi,

Where about are you in the Netherlands? The Naim Dealer in Arnhem does also carry Neat and proposed me to borrow loudspeakers for the weekend …

I do think though that adding a centre speaker does not necessarily solve your problem. Since you are moved to a different place, it might well be that reflections in your new (empty/relatively modest decorated?) room make it much more difficult to follow a conversation. Our telly is in a little room having a lot of glass and when we close the velours curtains, the conversations are very clear.

#3

Hi
The naim centre speaker comes up on ‘the bay’ (saw one recently) at very reasonable cost - is that an option? :slight_smile:

#4

Naim made three centre speakers; the little N-Cent, which matches best with N-Sats and Arivas, and the Axent and Axess, which matched best with the rest of the range. The Axent was a real beast and I knew one dealer in France who swore by it as a stereo pair just for music use…

Anyway, getting to the original question, I’m afraid I don’t know which would match best with the Ovators.

#5

We move house every 4 years, at the moment near Groningen for a year now. As we can up the dialogue volume in the center and lower the rest it makes for a quite comfortable situation with sleeping kids in the house. So a definite yes on the center.

Hoping that someone knows for a speaker company with comparable design thoughts, but if even Richard is blank on this, I might as well try anything.

Really didn’t know about a Naim center, will definitely search for one!! Maybe go for a low budget old 2nd hand b&w in the meantime.

#6

If you feel like trying a Naim centre then look for an Axess or Axent.