Help me design a center channel

[Hal]

My current home theater 5.1 setup consists of 2 JBL Century L100A’s with fresh crossovers with clarity caps and new pots.( Thanks to Zilch) They sound better than they have for years and I don’t mind the bump in bass.

I am currently using a center channel with 3 Fostex FE 103 full range drivers and my rear channels are single Fostex FE103 units. I also am running a sub woofer that gets down below 20 hz. The center does fine, but when I try balance the levels with white noise, they do sound different.

I had a plan to get some LE5’s and LE25’s to put in some small cabinets to pass the wife factor for center and rear, but as I am learning here, they won’t go very low (My reasoning was that with a sub, I didn’t need to go too low) I am a mortgage banker, not an audio expert, but have a lot of woodworking experience and built a Heath kit as a kid. At present I have 3 good LE25-2’s and one good LE25-4’s and one marginal (wrinkled cone) LE25.

Size is my second main concern for the center and rear channels. I would like to build a good 2-way or even a small 3-way out of vintage JBL drivers. I am not sure what drivers will voice match the mains. (I have jet engine hearing loss at 4500 hz and I say huh a lot, so I can’t be an audiophile).

So what drivers should I look for etc.

Thanks!

[speakerman1]

ive been an aircraft mech for over 20 yrs. i get disibility for ringing in my ears. you can still be a hi-fi buff. i can still tell if a system sounds good. so dont cut yourself short.

[Robh3606]

The Decade series will voice very well with L100's. L19's would be the choice for smaller cabinet sizes. You can get the woofers on Ebay they are the 116A's if you want to try a DIY. Those 8's are the smallest JBL woofers from that time unless you try later speakers like L20T't3. You could go with 6" L20T/T3 woofers 115h-1 with the LE-25 tweeters to keep the voicing closer.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/specs/home-speakers/1974-decade.htm

Rob:)

[Hal]

Thanks for the replies!

Speakerman1, I am a Hi-Fi buff, I just crank it up and just don't hear everything my wife says either, like "no more speakers in my living room". :D

Rob,

Thanks. I found one pair of L20t's on eBay but no drivers. I do see some LE8's fairly regularly though and I suppose that I could go outside the JBL product line for the driver if I can't find any 115h-1's. I am not in a hurry, so I can search for a while.

Thanks,
Hal