Conventional wisdom around here is that, ideally, all three front speakers be identical. It makes sense. And when I bought my Swan speakers, Jon Lane at The Audio Insider was kind enough to break up a pair and sell me an individual third speaker. So for the past 6 years, I've been enjoying the virtues of 3 Swan D2.1SE speakers for my front stage.
As you likely know, I've been in love with the Swans since I first heard them at Craigsub's GTG in '08 (and subsequently bought my own in '09). I've never kept a pair of speakers this long. In the past, I would upgrade speakers every year or two. But I have been so enamored with the Swans, there was just no point. Why get rid of something you're incredibly happy with?
For the last year or two, the upgrade bug has been nibbling on me but I kept fighting it off with "Why? You're happy with the Swans. Don't mess with it." Plus, I told myself long ago "No more upgrades until the room gets remodeled." Yeah, you know how that goes.
So recently, Batman mentioned that Dynaudio was discontinuing its Focus line. Well, one thing that's been nagging at me was my center channel. Yes, it matched the mains but the Swans aren't terribly efficient and I tend to boost the volume a bit. While I'm on board with three identical speakers up front, I do believe the output of the Swan as a center was not ideal, at least not in my room/setup. Plus, I've been wanting to lower my screen a little bit but couldn't because of the vertical center. So I struck while the iron was hot and got myself a Dynaudio Focus 210C before they were gone.
I'm not at all concerned with off axis lobing because my room is so narrow. The center speaker is 11 feet away from the seating and even the outside seats aren't more than 10-15 degrees off its axis. It just simply isn't a factor for me. However, the 210C is gobs more efficient and has significantly more output and it's those things that are factors for me.
So far, I've listened to a few multichannel discs and if I had been blindfolded, I wouldn't have known there was a mismatched speaker in between the mains.
I'm happy.
As you likely know, I've been in love with the Swans since I first heard them at Craigsub's GTG in '08 (and subsequently bought my own in '09). I've never kept a pair of speakers this long. In the past, I would upgrade speakers every year or two. But I have been so enamored with the Swans, there was just no point. Why get rid of something you're incredibly happy with?
For the last year or two, the upgrade bug has been nibbling on me but I kept fighting it off with "Why? You're happy with the Swans. Don't mess with it." Plus, I told myself long ago "No more upgrades until the room gets remodeled." Yeah, you know how that goes.
So recently, Batman mentioned that Dynaudio was discontinuing its Focus line. Well, one thing that's been nagging at me was my center channel. Yes, it matched the mains but the Swans aren't terribly efficient and I tend to boost the volume a bit. While I'm on board with three identical speakers up front, I do believe the output of the Swan as a center was not ideal, at least not in my room/setup. Plus, I've been wanting to lower my screen a little bit but couldn't because of the vertical center. So I struck while the iron was hot and got myself a Dynaudio Focus 210C before they were gone.
I'm not at all concerned with off axis lobing because my room is so narrow. The center speaker is 11 feet away from the seating and even the outside seats aren't more than 10-15 degrees off its axis. It just simply isn't a factor for me. However, the 210C is gobs more efficient and has significantly more output and it's those things that are factors for me.
So far, I've listened to a few multichannel discs and if I had been blindfolded, I wouldn't have known there was a mismatched speaker in between the mains.
I'm happy.
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