[yetis]

Hi,

So I have a set of SS8's. They are bi-wired and have fully upgraded caps. So having purchased these and then built a Hyper ncore three channel amp, I decided I needed to slow down and purchased a HTC center channel on Audiogon, bone stock and not bi-wired.
The purpose of the post is, I feel like the htc isn't meshing well with my ss8's. I know there are mixed views on cap upgrades. I guess the question; Is it the caps, lack of bi-wired or that I really need the ss8 center.

Any insight would be great.

Thanks

[audiotom]

Sounds more like the sc doesn't measure up then the cap upgrades
If the ss8 is too rich for your blood look at the ss 7 center

[JonnyFive]

Wouldn't it most likely be the drivers causing it?  I think it would be pretty hard to tell an A/B difference with/without bi-wiring and with/without cap upgrades (I'm not judging, I'm upgrading the caps in my SS8s as well).  My guess would be the Accuton driver sounds much better than the SEAS Excel driver for handling vocals?

Jon

[Austin08]

That was a reason I asked Jim to build me the SS8c. It cost a lot more money but I know that I have a "perfect" match.

[yetis]

I have some serious space constraints. SS7 or 8's just won't fit. I have depth and width, just not the height. So I guess I need an SS6!

[benguin]

You might want to check in with Jim.  He can likely work up some magic for the dimensions you supply.

Height may be a bit of a challenge though!

[yetis]

Wouldn't it most likely be the drivers causing it?  I think it would be pretty hard to tell an A/B difference with/without bi-wiring and with/without cap upgrades (I'm not judging, I'm upgrading the caps in my SS8s as well).  My guess would be the Accuton driver sounds much better than the SEAS Excel driver for handling vocals?

Jon

You are probably correct.

My issue is still that I live in Nyc, so space is an issue. I have some fairly sub-optimal placement issues. I use a Meridian 861 for room correction and have also used REW. Though admittedly, I have only scratched the surface of REW (do I really need to calibrate my mic?...) I also use all three channels for music, as that is one of Meridians little specialties.
For action movies, it's not an issue, but for music, there is definitely a bit of a disconnect. It was probably silly to think there wouldn't be.
I will reach out to Jim. I have him contemplating something else for me as well.

[JonnyFive]

I agree that for movies a mismatched center is probably not the end of the world (depending on if it's voiced similarly).  Probably for multi channel music it's more of an issue.  I'm sure Jim could cook something up.

[JonnyFive]

You are probably correct.

My issue is still that I live in Nyc, so space is an issue. I have some fairly sub-optimal placement issues. I use a Meridian 861 for room correction and have also used REW. Though admittedly, I have only scratched the surface of REW (do I really need to calibrate my mic?...) I also use all three channels for music, as that is one of Meridians little specialties.
For action movies, it's not an issue, but for music, there is definitely a bit of a disconnect. It was probably silly to think there wouldn't be.
I will reach out to Jim. I have him contemplating something else for me as well.

And since you brought up room correction...you may want to make sure that something bizarre isn't being applied to the center channel vs the L/R.  Put it all on bypass, is it still terribly mismatched?

[yetis]

And since you brought up room correction...you may want to make sure that something bizarre isn't being applied to the center channel vs the L/R.  Put it all on bypass, is it still terribly mismatched?

Yes, that is tomorrows project.  The REW is great, the waterfalls actually help me discover I had done a terrible job terminating some speaker cables.   I doubt it is the issue.  It is something I have been hearing for a while.  I actually spent a couple weeks with room correction, trying to get it to sound better.  Then Meridian announced a major update , so then I obsessed about getting this, along with a network audio card.  I didn't want to drive myself crazy, knowing that I was going to have to redo it in a couple months.   Now that I am done with that obsession, its back to this one! 

[guf]

i have an htc center with my ss8's that used to be paired with ht2-tls.  i'm not as critical when listening/watching to movies so my experience is that it's a legit solution.