Long Time Listener, First Time Poster

[Jungle Jack]

Hello All,
My name is Mark and today I placed an order for a pair of the Vantage. I have owned Aerius i's (still do) and Aeon's (for a day), and a Cinema i. Though new to the forum, I am a long time fan of the sound. I will be using a Parasound HCA-3500a amplifer to drive them with an Onkyo TX-SR875 as the pre-pro ( I feel like a complete moron that I did not wait for the Integra surround processor DTC-9.8 such that I am running outboard amplification all around). One question I have is how will my Cinema i integrate with the xstat?
Cheers,
Mark

 

[kcl]

"Long time listener, first time poster"

Best thread title in quite some time!

Oh, and :welcome:

 

[cstory]

Mark,

Congratulations on the Vantages, I'm sure you will love them. I went from Aerius i's to Vista's and I really like the sound of the newer panels. I have a Cinema that I am using with the Vista's, and I think that it blends OK, but I keep thinking that since the Vista's were a big improvement over the Aerius, so must the Stage be quite a step up from the Cinema. So even though the system sounds pretty good with the Cinema, I do plan on getting a Stage here in the near future so that I have X-stat panels all the way across the front. I'll be curious to find how you find the Cinema i with the Vantages.

Welcome to the forum. :music:

Chuck

 

[edwinr]

Hi. Welcome. Your Cinema should be a fine match. It's like anything though, you can always improve - but I would leave the upgrade for a little further down the track.

 

[amey01]

Why not get rid of it altogether and do away with any concern? The Vantages image fantastically so why bother with an extra channel? The best centre channel is none.

 

[Beakman]

Mark, . . .
Sparklehorse?

 

[Jungle Jack]

Thank you all for the welcome,
Beakman, I wish I was a tenth as talented as the musician/frontman of Sparklehorse. Sadly, all I can play is the recorder and really poorly played guitar,(lefty who learned as a righty, no rhythm). Amey, that is an interesting idea worth exploring in regards to running a phantom front stage.
Cheers,
M.L

 

[rudyslb]

Why not get rid of it altogether and do away with any concern? The Vantages image fantastically so why bother with an extra channel? The best centre channel is none.

Why would you say that the best 'center' is 'no center'?
Do you have listening to music in mind when you say this? On my current setup, I do prefer to use 2CH Stereo for music, but when watching movies I do use all my 5.1 speakers...

I've experimented with turning off the center (having a 'ghost center', with the mains simulating the center, but it sounded much better when using the center, which makes sense, since, unlike music that is designed as a two channel soundtrack, a movie soundtrack is designed to be played with 5.1 speakers...

 

[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
While I have always run a center channel, the reason I would consider it is how the new gen (xstat)panels integrate with a older design.(Cinema). I do wonder this, why do ML center channel speakers use tweeters? For the life of me I do not understand this.
Cheers and thanx again for the warm welcome,
M.L

 

[roberto]

Hello,
While I have always run a center channel, the reason I would consider it is how the new gen (xstat)panels integrate with a older design.(Cinema). I do wonder this, why do ML center channel speakers use tweeters? For the life of me I do not understand this.
Cheers and thanx again for the warm welcome,
M.L

Hola Mark...the tweeter is for high frequency dispersion...with small stat panels that are in the center channels, starting from the Logos to the Motif, the use of a tweeter is a must. Sound is a change of presure in the air. Bigger stat panels moves the air more than small stat panels. I made some tests with the Motif as LCR, as the pic of ML and the sound is good...put them vertical or horizontal...and did like boths ways...no big deal in Horizontal position as I was told there would be...not a big difference in my listening room...(5m X 4m). The tweeter made the high frequency dispersion...and my room was full of sound...used THX 80Hz cut with a Grotto i sub. Happy listening,
Roberto.

 

[amey01]

Why would you say that the best 'center' is 'no center'?
Do you have listening to music in mind when you say this? On my current setup, I do prefer to use 2CH Stereo for music, but when watching movies I do use all my 5.1 speakers...

I've experimented with turning off the center (having a 'ghost center', with the mains simulating the center, but it sounded much better when using the center, which makes sense, since, unlike music that is designed as a two channel soundtrack, a movie soundtrack is designed to be played with 5.1 speakers...

It was just a suggestion! - I wouldn't expect it to work if you fill the room with 10 people spread across the stage, but if it is only a few people then it makes sense. What's more - there is only one person that deserves the ultimate in sound quality, and that's us!

The reasons I said "The best centre is no centre" were because of:

1: You are dealing with a completely different speaker - it would be difficult to use a seperate Vantage as a centre!

2: That speaker is always in a different acoustic environment

3: Most people find it challenging getting two speakers positioned correctly - how about three (or five or more)?

4: They are expensive - money that could be used elsewhere in the system.

5: ML centres have a tweeter which further complicates things.