S*** it's the center speaker

[bmwuk]

I finally got a chance to sit down tonight and swap out channels to determine if the center speaker or the receiver was the issue of muffled sound. Well, it's my center channel speaker. Sounds like the tweeter isn't working. That said I have some questions.

1. Is this a repairable thing? If so, how do I get it repaired (Paradigm cc370 v2)? How much is it typically? Or is it just old
2. I used a newly ebay purchased mini monitor to replace the center as a fix. Can you hook up two speakers to one channel? Without being too technical with ohms, explain please

I want to eventually swap out speakers for much higher end speakers but I need a little time. Thanks

 

[AndySTL]

It could be an easy fix depending on the issue. If these were in a garage for a long time it is possible that a rodent climbed inside the port and gnawed on some speaker wire. You should remove the drivers from the cabinet and inspect the inside. Paradigm may have a replacement tweeter if the actual driver failed in some way. But, that's a pretty old speaker so I don't know how far back they go.

OTOH, using a single Mini Monitor by itself should also serve just fine.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

You also might consider running without a center speaker at all and let the center image be phantom by setting the speaker setup in the receiver to 'no center speaker'. I've been running that way for years, and at least to my ears, the sound quality is more coherent, and I can hear the dialog just as well as when I had an actual center. There's no law that says that a center speaker is necessary or even the best option for home listening.

 

[Haywood]

You also might consider running without a center speaker at all and let the center image be phantom by setting the speaker setup in the receiver to 'no center speaker'. I've been running that way for years, and at least to my ears, the sound quality is more coherent, and I can hear the dialog just as well as when I had an actual center. There's no law that says that a center speaker is necessary or even the best option for home listening.

That somewhat depends on where you sit. A phantom center does not work well for off-axis seating. My room is a good example with a ten foot wide couch ten feet from the screen and about 8 feet from the speakers. Without a center, people sitting on the ends of the couch would get a pretty inferior experience.

 

[Flint]

That somewhat depends on where you sit. A phantom center does not work well for off-axis seating. My room is a good example with a ten foot wide couch ten feet from the screen and about 8 feet from the speakers. Without a center, people sitting on the ends of the couch would get a pretty inferior experience.

Extreme off axis seating is a poor situation to start with, introducing lots of compromises in the name of comfort, room design, and large groups. If you can accept compromises in one area, I feel that as long as the listener can understand the dialog, all is good until the "high end" speakers can be purchased.

 

[bmwuk]

Extreme off axis seating is a poor situation to start with, introducing lots of compromises in the name of comfort, room design, and large groups. If you can accept compromises in one area, I feel that as long as the listener can understand the dialog, all is good until the "high end" speakers can be purchased.

Higher quality in sound. Perhaps you took exception to my description but hopefully you know what I mean.

Thanks everyone. With it being less than functional, i will pop it open to see if any disconnect. Awaiting a reply from paradigm as well.

Please take a look at my floor plan for any help on the room. I will post today

 

[Flint]

Higher quality in sound. Perhaps you took exception to my description but hopefully you know what I mean.

Thanks everyone. With it being less than functional, i will pop it open to see if any disconnect. Awaiting a reply from paradigm as well.

Please take a look at my floor plan for any help on the room. I will post today

I am supporting the idea of not using a center speaker. As our brilliant friend stated, they are not absolutely necessary.

 

[bmwuk]

I am supporting the idea of not using a center speaker. As our brilliant friend stated, they are not absolutely necessary.

Cool. I will see.If you have a chance I just posted my floor plans. You and anyone else. Thanks a bunch

 

[TKoP]

Could this be an easy fix? It sounds a lot like the issue I had a long time ago. In my case, it was simply reconnecting the bridge between the two sets of binding posts (i.e., there were 2 pair for a total of four) that had come loose. I could be something similar on the inside -- maybe a wire was jostled free or something similar. What do you folks think about removing the terminal cup and checking to see if all the wires are all connected? Seems relatively easy and with a low chance of really mucking it up.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Whatever you might give up in having absolute localization of dialog for people off axis will be made up for by the much more natural imaging of music, sound effects, and yes, dialog by a true stereo pair. Three speakers in front is a "solution" which I don't agree with for home environments, especially when music listening is involved too.

Also, a center speaker can suffer from reflections from the monitor, and the floor reflections are going to be different from the front left and right speakers by virtue of the difference in height.

 

[bmwuk]

Could this be an easy fix? It sounds a lot like the issue I had a long time ago. In my case, it was simply reconnecting the bridge between the two sets of binding posts (i.e., there were 2 pair for a total of four) that had come loose. I could be something similar on the inside -- maybe a wire was jostled free or something similar. What do you folks think about removing the terminal cup and checking to see if all the wires are all connected? Seems relatively easy and with a low chance of really mucking it up.

I will give it a go

 

[bmwuk]

Whatever you might give up in having absolute localization of dialog for people off axis will be made up for by the much more natural imaging of music, sound effects, and yes, dialog by a true stereo pair. Three speakers in front is a "solution" which I don't agree with for home environments, especially when music listening is involved too.

Also, a center speaker can suffer from reflections from the monitor, and the floor reflections are going to be different from the front left and right speakers by virtue of the difference in height.

I understand and I'll be interested to see . Thanks

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

That somewhat depends on where you sit. A phantom center does not work well for off-axis seating. My room is a good example with a ten foot wide couch ten feet from the screen and about 8 feet from the speakers. Without a center, people sitting on the ends of the couch would get a pretty inferior experience.

However, keep in mind that someone off axis is going to hear the imaging from the left and right speakers out of kilter anyway, no matter if there is a center speaker or not. A center speaker does nothing to solve the differences in distance and axis problems of hearing something on the left speaker if you're seated to the right off axis. In film mixing, the center channel almost always contains just dialog and some sound effects.

True three channel stereo is something which used to be routinely done in the early days of HiFi when three channel Ampex tape machines were the norm. In this instance, three (usually) microphones captured a coherent curtain of sound between all three speakers, with the center speaker filling the imaging space between it and the left and right speakers. Early on in the 1950s there was debate about what was "true" stereo; three channels or two. Eventually it was found that two channels was preferable and that the center speaker added essentially nothing in home listening.

Discrete three channel sound was found to be useful only for film reproduction in large theaters, however even then if somebody was well off axis, they would still not hear the farther speaker from their seat all that well.

 

[Haywood]

Whatever you might give up in having absolute localization of dialog for people off axis will be made up for by the much more natural imaging of music, sound effects, and yes, dialog by a true stereo pair. Three speakers in front is a "solution" which I don't agree with for home environments, especially when music listening is involved too.

Also, a center speaker can suffer from reflections from the monitor, and the floor reflections are going to be different from the front left and right speakers by virtue of the difference in height.

We agree on music. I always listen to music in stereo, unless it was specifically mixed for surround.

 

[bmwuk]

Well I took apart the speaker, looking for any issues of connections but none were found. I had contacted Paradigm and they said they could repair crossover for $100. For that I can buy a used version for close to that. So I'm going to use @Flint advice from long ago and have the tweeter and drivers for education for my girls so they can poke them, not doing it to the actual working speakers.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

They will repair the crossover for $100???? WTF????

I cannot for the life of me think of a component in a passive crossover network which would have failed. Actually I can think of a few, but I seriously doubt that anything in the crossover is at fault. I also doubt that the crossover has anywhere near $100 worth of parts (or labor) anyway. Heck, if you piled on enough power to blow the crossover, the voice coils of the drivers would likely be a melted blob way before anything in the crossover blew.

If I had to guess, I'd vote for a simple driver failure, an open voice coil. An ohm meter would sort that out in an instant. A nominal 8 ohm driver should read about 6 ohms on a DC multimeter if the voice coil has continuity.

Oh well, good excuse for a new set of speakers....

 

[bmwuk]

They will repair the crossover for $100???? WTF????

I cannot for the life of me think of a component in a passive crossover network which would have failed. Actually I can think of a few, but I seriously doubt that anything in the crossover is at fault. I also doubt that the crossover has anywhere near $100 worth of parts (or labor) anyway. Heck, if you piled on enough power to blow the crossover, the voice coils of the drivers would likely be a melted blob way before anything in the crossover blew.

If I had to guess, I'd vote for a simple driver failure, an open voice coil. An ohm meter would sort that out in an instant. A nominal 8 ohm driver should read about 6 ohms on a DC multimeter if the voice coil has continuity.

Oh well, good excuse for a new set of speakers....

Thanks that was very educational. I figured it probably wasn't the crossover but what do I know. However they don't have replacement parts for that older speaker .

I can find the same speaker to replace it for about $100 anyway. This is a short term resolution because I am looking to upgrade to better speakers, but that's probably 6 months to a year out. I'll probably do it bit by bit since the next ones will be more expensive

 

[Zing]

If you know you're going to be upgrading speakers, I wouldn't even bother with replacing the center speaker. Just continue to use the substitute Mini until upgrade time and save the $100.

 

[yromj]

I am a proponent of going sans center.

$0.02,

John