Center Channel recommendations for Amati Futura

[RLF]

I will soon be moving my Amati Futuras to our small intimate dedicated Home Theater room due to my soon to come Stradivari for my stereo at my main home. As can be seen from my signature, my Amati will be replacing my ProAc D80. I also have a ProAc dedicated center channel speaker. To more closely match my Amati Futura which will be used as L+R speakers in the home theater, I will probably soon resource a Sonus Faber center channel speaker. I called my local dealer who carries Sonus Faber and was recommend an Amati Tradition which lists for a whopping $29,900. Ouch. It appears to be overkill, but my dealer said that it would more closely match the timbre of my Amati Futuras for scenes which pan across the screen from left to center to right. That being said, my current ProAc center channel speaker does a wonderful job with voice and timbre matching to the large ProAcs now in there used for Left and right channels.

Is anyone using a Sonus Faber Amati Futuna or similar SF in a home theater have any suggestions? Maybe a less expensive SF center channel speaker which would be closely matched to the Amati Futura?

Thanks.

Bob

[W9TR]

Bob - I use an Amati Homage VOX Center with my Futuras. The timbre matching is near perfect. It uses drivers with similar materials as the Futuras. It was about half of the cost you quoted. Highly recommended.
Tom

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Bob - I use an Amati Homage VOX Center with my Futuras. The timbre matching is near perfect. It uses drivers with similar materials as the Futuras. It was about half of the cost you quoted. Highly recommended.
Tom

I concur!

[RLF]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Bob - I use an Amati Homage VOX Center with my Futuras. The timbre matching is near perfect. It uses drivers with similar materials as the Futuras. It was about half of the cost you quoted. Highly recommended.
Tom

Originally Posted by Masterlu

I concur!

Yeah, I have break the news to my wife. I did quote the price wrong though. It is not $29,900, but only $12,900. Such a deal

[Robc33]

I use a Cremona M as a center speaker with my Strads as my main speakers. Not nearly as good as the Vox, I'm sure, but for $2,500, I think it works ok.

[80B]

+1 with Tom's recommendation on the Vox. Am looking forward to getting it and my AFs out of storage once our house is finished.

[RLF]

Thanks to all for the helpful input. For now, once that I get the Amati Futuras setup in my home theater room, I’m going to leave the ProAc CC in for now to see how it integrates with the AF and then go from there.

[daveneumann]

RLF: My bet is that you are going to be so engrossed in listening to your new Strads that your HT set-up won't get much use!

[nicoff]

I know that the center channel is very important since most dialog is coming from the center. But, looking at the equipment listed under your signature it looks like your displays sizes are not greater than 77in. in size.

If that is indeed the case, IMO, your biggest impact would be getting a much larger display. That may mean going to a projector/screen combo. A +100in. Screen will let you enjoy a true theater experience and you will be so entranced with the image that you will not worry too much about the center channel anymore.

[RLF]

Originally Posted by daveneumann

RLF: My bet is that you are going to be so engrossed in listening to your new Strads that your HT set-up won't get much use!

That is my wife’s sincere hope. Then she has 100% control of what movies are played

Originally Posted by nicoff

I know that the center channel is very important since most dialog is coming from the center. But, looking at the equipment listed under your signature it looks like your displays sizes are not greater than 77in. in size.

If that is indeed the case, IMO, your biggest impact would be getting a much larger display. That may mean going to a projector/screen combo. A +100in. Screen will let you enjoy a true theater experience and you will be so entranced with the image that you will not worry too much about the center channel anymore.

Thanks for the suggestion. To give you a few more details, while my stereo resides in a 28’x 14’x 8’ room, our home theater is located in an dedicated, light controlled intimate room which is approximately 12’ x 12.5.’ Therefore, a 77” video source at under a 8’ viewing distance is probably appropriate and it is not even possible to fit a much larger screen in our room.

In my opinion and that of many others, audio is at least 50% of the movie experience, so getting the sound right is most important including a CC speaker to compliment the L+R channels; not to mention surround and Dolby Atmos height channels.