Maxwelhse
09-09-2013, 10:33 PM
After updating my signature (some day I may mature beyond listing most of my speakers in my sig... but not today!!) I realized a common trait: My absolute love affair with the very affordable (Ebay, Craiglist, etc), discontinued, JBL S-Center speaker.
www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/center-channels/jbl/s-center/prd_123813_2743crx.aspx
http://www.jbl.com/images/media/S_CENTER_OM_EN.pdf
This will probably be an epically long tale... I'll try to restrain myself.
So.. How did I fall upon the S-Center as my go to guy and why I am I using it today in the midst of far more expensive speakers?
LARGE AMOUNTS OF HISTORY ALERT and possibly rambling (skip to the bottom if you just want the meat of the topic)
The story begins 15 years ago, when I was a much younger lad with almost no cash, but had a passion for home theater. My L100Ts sat, mostly unused, for a little over a year while as a broke student I scraped together enough cash to buy a used (incredibly terrible on both accounts) Pro-Logic Sony AVR and SL/SR/C package of JBL G Movies speakers (they're so terrible I can't even find a good link for them) for $70 and make my system play! I was over the moon! :)
After enjoying my L100Ts titanium domes, powered by my Dad's now retired Sansui G8000 on seldom occasions when he would permit it, and later my cruddy Sony AVR, I felt that my center was what was holding me back from movie bliss. The G Movies center sounds exactly like what you would expect any $50 (in 1995) box store JBL to sound like... Awful... Not knowing much about what I was looking for, I decided to continue my brand loyalist streak and seek out a new JBL center, that would no doubt make my home theater (in a bedroom at my parent's house... which my Dad was cool enough to let me run surround wires in under the carpet when it was being replaced) an experience to bring tears to the eyes of women and make babies cry for miles around!
That's what I needed to fix my problems... A new center channel...
I knew I really liked the sound of my L100Ts and I had decided that whatever I picked, it must be a titanium domed tweeter (a trend I still stand behind now) and it must appear, on paper, to be a good match to my highly coveted, no-doubt-in-my-mind-at-all-the-best-$500-a-19-year-old-could-spend-in-the-world, L100Ts. SO... To the JBL web site I went...
Enter my lust after the S-Center...
2x 5.25" "PolyPlas" midbass (What's PolyPlas?)
1x 4" "PolyPlas" midrange (They liked it so much they did it 3x!! PolyPlas MUST be good!)
1x 1" Titanium dome tweeter (TITANIUM... Just like my L100Ts!!)
150W power handling (that's the entire output of my receiver!!!)
*side note... It has a removal grill, just like "big" JBLs!!! (The "Movies" series does not....)
That was my educated, 21-year-old, consumer decision. It looked way cool, the grill came off, it had a 2-way midrange, 150W power handling, and it had a titanium tweeter... As I recall, I think MSRP was around $300... I couldn't afford that...
To Ebay I went... I snagged an open box series II for $170 as I recall (spoiler alert: this is the exact same S-Center that I play today in my primary HT rig w/200W behind it).
For the next several days I was giddy with excitement waiting for the solution to all of my audio problems to arrive in the mail. The first night after I bought it, I don't think I slept more the 2 hours fantasizing about how awesome my home theater would be. I conjured dreams or luring attractive women out of theaters all over town to behold the glory that was my insane home theater... All powered by an honest (in my 34 year old knowledge) 175W of power (maybe...).
In typical Ebay time (no... really... not excessive... under a week) it arrived. When I first unboxed it all of my dreams were fulfilled without ever having played it. It looked elegant. It had a modern color scheme (nifty orange drivers and gray baskets), a shiny tweeter, and a removable grill! I turned it over and discovered that it had BINDING POSTS and it was PORTED! Surely this was a piece of pro audio gear that was accidentally shipped to me... Oh, my good fortune!!! The grill was broken in shipping, the seller ultimately boned me on that, but I didn't care (bought one from the JBL man for around $40... making me feel even more foolish for messing with Ebay with this purchase). It was the most glorious speaker, save for the mighty L300 (the best speaker on the planet @21 years old and little frame of reference) and it's close runner up, the L100T (see previous comment).
Be still my heart, the beast has arrived.
With furious precision and drive that I have seldom had in my life, I made up a new 12awg speaker lead (complete with gold plated pin... because what the hell is a binding post? I guess I just unscrew that nut and tighten it against the pin?), cast my horrendous G Movies center into the abyss of my closest, and set in for a night of true bliss...
Do you know where the story is going yet? You should...
----
I was woefully disappointed...
Yes, it sounded "better", yes, it was obviously better matched to my L100Ts than the G Movies center, but male voices in movies still sounded like transvestites, and with music it was close to no improvement at all when driven "loud"... At very modest volumes (studying music playing at studying volumes, with other people in the house) it was quite nice... but I'm not into this hobby for "modest"... Say what you may about the model, but there is nothing modest about a set of L300s with some power... That's the dragon I was chasing in the next room...
At that point I was convinced that the answer was to add a powered sub to the center channel to add some bass to the voices. Thankfully, I never got that far.
----
Time marched forward... My Sony AVR died... I bought a mid-model, box store, 5.1 Pioneer (with full preouts... always looking to the future), graduated college, bought a couple of hobby cars, wrenched A LOT, had a couple of girlfriends, moved out of my parents house, and my home theater pretty much remained unchanged from 2003-2008 over 2 rental houses. In mid-2009 I bought a Hitachi rear projection 57", CRT, HDTV off of Ebay for $360 (still my current primary HT TV). That was it... For 7 years I let the dragon sleep, save for buying a used, 165lb, HDTV of an "ancient" technology that no one wanted. I had become convinced that what I had was "good enough" and those that experienced it seemed to have a much higher opinion of it than I did... I told myself that I must be too harsh of a critic... It's certainly as good as any theater in town... right (in many ways, it actually was)?
However, that sleeping dragon still had dreams... Dreams of more LXXT series JBLs because I love my L100Ts so much...
In late 2009 I upgraded jobs, bought a house, and suddenly had an unexpected amount of room and a little more disposable income. I also had a girlfriend that LOVED movies... It was ON!
First goal, ditch the crappy G movies rears... Enter the L80Ts... That was an amazing upgrade, but that isn't what this story is about...
Second goal... Seek out L20Ts to replace the S-center... Clearly, the S-Center was the weak link here... After 8 years (at this point) I had never forgiven it for letting me down...
Whilst searching for L20Ts, I ran the structured wiring in my own house and started playing what I had with a bit more "guts" than I could while renting or living with my parents... Suddenly, the S-Center wasn't so bad... It still didn't sound "good", but it wasn't as disappointing as I remembered. I still looked upon it scornfully for being a crappy box store item (which it is... it was sold at all the box stores in its day) that couldn't perform with its big brothers...
I played the L100T, L80T, S-Center configuration off of my Pioneer AVR for about 2 years... In the meantime, I came across my empty 240Ti cabinets... *PERFECT* I thought... I'll run the 240Tis as mains, build a shelf for the L80Ts as centers, and move the L100Ts out back! Finally, the perfect solution!!! (amplifier power was never really a thought in this debate)
So, the plan was hatched, and much Ebay scouring was had to build the 240Tis into playing speakers over the next couple of years.
Again, in the meantime, my empty SR4719A cabinet came up for sale at a very reasonable price, on this very forum, and I had a way to transport it home! Oh my.. What an upgrade! Not just a .1 channel, but an absolutely huge .1 channel!!! JOY JOY JOY!!! (Still looking scornfully at the S-Center that had let me down... I'll fix that later... I thought)
I immediately started collecting parts to make the 4719 play.... I'm a bass head and a pair of 18s became the paramount goal for the future of my system.
Got another new job with a slight perk at the start, so I picked up my Crown XLS-2500 and had my raw 2241H baskets built into playing drivers...
I hooked it all up and it nearly shot my mind out of the back of my head. The most power I had even experienced was in the car audio world (which really isn't a fair analog because its such a different environment) running 1500w of class A power via my Adcom GFA-4404 and Phoenix Gold ZPA 0.5... The Crown and 4719 vs. my car audio exploits wasn't even a fair fight. The 18s won, hands down, no argument. I was mesmerized.
Once I was able to get my head around what I had done, I gradually noticed that my center channel no longer sounded like a Justin Bieber concert. As if I flipped a switch (which in fact I did), not only was my center quite detailed and refined (it always was... it just never impressed me as I'd hoped) it suddenly filled out male voices with authority. The deluge of stupidity and lack of research nearly knocked me over... It was the home mixing of 5.1 tracks that had been screwing me this entire time (maybe its mixed that way in the theater too?)! A 10" powered sub, on the .1 channel, would have fixed it 8-10 years ago!!!
After that, I rebuilt and played the 240Tis for about a year and retired the L100Ts to the corner, always planning to follow through with "the plan" of moving the L80Ts up to center and putting the L100Ts out back. I just needed more amplifier to make that happen...
Finally, more amplifier came and as a dork I decided to play the L100Ts and 240Tis next to each, simultaneously, with a legitimate 200w/ea across all 4... I came to the quick decision that I couldn't live with undoing that arrangement (sacrilege? maybe... but it sounds nuts)...
Well, there I was with an extra 200W amplifier channel... Guess I'll plug it into the S-Center? Holy crap... Adding the .1 to my experience brought it up about 50%, adding real power brought it up the other 50% (considering its cost). After 10 years of struggle and bad logic, the little Ebay S-Center was blowing my hair back.
The meat...
While on the route through all of the evolutions of my main home theater, I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to build a couple of others... I bought a full 5 channel Control-1 setup (off of this forum at an incredible price) for the bedroom. Upon receipt of the shipment I immediately piped all the speakers into my Pioneer and let it rip... Incredibly decent for what I paid for them with music. Movies? Not bad at all... However, the Control-1C center channel just sounded terrible to me... Perhaps I had been too critical of my S-Center and had slowly been spoiled?
With post haste the S-Center replaced the Control-1C and the impact was immediate. Even without my .1 channel running, the S-Center just sounded GOOD in that setup... The Control-1C plan was immediately scrapped for a $70 Ebay S-Center 1st gen. Knowing what it could do if given a real chance (and frankly, knowing the Control-1C was probably worth more money on the used market) I didn't hesitate. Later, after adding the SB-2, that rig is a very compact, inexpensive, and impressive system. When I had it running with the 4719A, it was jaw dropping.
Again, I just couldn't leave well enough alone... But this time I had a definite goal in mind... Only speakers that I could "hide", get off the floor, and I had to get it done for under $200... Enter the Bose AM series (ohhh... yuck... they're genuinely, and truly, terrible... but for the confines I listed above they aren't bad at all). Over the course of about 2 months I pieced together an AM-5 (2 channel) and AM-7 (3 channel) setup and tucked them up in the corners and behind some curtains in the upstairs living room. I played some music on them... Not bad for what they are, but not great (this isn't a Bose AM review... they're total crap, but with a handy application in unique circumstances, at flee market prices, is the only impression you should take away about them). They would certainly smoke any $200 box 5-channel surround system, look nice, and had the added benefit of setting the stage for unknowing strangers before going downstairs. :) Yes, I somewhat purposely built a "teaser" HT rig... :) I take extra joy in that because everyone thinks those little POS cubes are so great...
Then I played a movie.... Oh dear god... I don't know what is going on inside that cross over module in the AM-7, but ANY midbass (forgetting about bass, because you're not going to get that out of the Bose AM systems no matter what you do, and I knew that going in) was a forgotten hope. Speech in movies sounded like they were coming out of the dash speaker of '60 Ford.... Absolutely the worst thing ever. I simply couldn't tolerate it.
Again, enter the S-Center substitution... 0-Hero in $70...
Even the lowly Bose trash is elevated to at least a tolerable standard with an S-Center.
The Punchline
Now that I'm running a bit of power into the S-Center, and a .1 channel, I'm really not sure where I should go next. I'm positive that there are far better choices out there, but it doesn't leave me wanting for much of anything in my current rigs. When I reflect on its current market price I can't think of a better speaker for the job. Highs are very detailed (but not incumbering like the L100T/L80T), mids are very present and clear, and it integrates seamlessly into my 240Tis and/or L100Ts (honestly.. it just vanishes and does its job). I'd still love a set of L80Ts running on the center, but I'm left thinking that is an unnecessary upgrade. I'm just a tick under 4000W of amplifiers in my main HT rig and I can no longer point out any obvious short comings in the S-Center. It's just a damn good speaker, at its price range, if you let it be.
Ebay examples can be had for $60-$100 (shipped). For it's price point it's absolutely the way to go if you are growing your HT into "something more" on a budget. I've got about $2300 in my L100Ts/240Tis and my little box store center is still doing just fine in that mix, and it's doing it damn well. They're also elevating the standard in 2 other systems in my home; bringing one to the next level, and making another one tolerable. ;)
Even if you have more cash and just want to play around, pick one of these guys up (I'll buy all you have at ebay prices if you hate it). I'd love to hear some other folks thoughts on this budget monster.
Anyhow, that was quite a rambling tale. If you're stuck with me this far, my hat is off to you!
Final thought (challenge?): You will find no better center for $70... If you do, I want one too!
www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/center-channels/jbl/s-center/prd_123813_2743crx.aspx
http://www.jbl.com/images/media/S_CENTER_OM_EN.pdf
This will probably be an epically long tale... I'll try to restrain myself.
So.. How did I fall upon the S-Center as my go to guy and why I am I using it today in the midst of far more expensive speakers?
LARGE AMOUNTS OF HISTORY ALERT and possibly rambling (skip to the bottom if you just want the meat of the topic)
The story begins 15 years ago, when I was a much younger lad with almost no cash, but had a passion for home theater. My L100Ts sat, mostly unused, for a little over a year while as a broke student I scraped together enough cash to buy a used (incredibly terrible on both accounts) Pro-Logic Sony AVR and SL/SR/C package of JBL G Movies speakers (they're so terrible I can't even find a good link for them) for $70 and make my system play! I was over the moon! :)
After enjoying my L100Ts titanium domes, powered by my Dad's now retired Sansui G8000 on seldom occasions when he would permit it, and later my cruddy Sony AVR, I felt that my center was what was holding me back from movie bliss. The G Movies center sounds exactly like what you would expect any $50 (in 1995) box store JBL to sound like... Awful... Not knowing much about what I was looking for, I decided to continue my brand loyalist streak and seek out a new JBL center, that would no doubt make my home theater (in a bedroom at my parent's house... which my Dad was cool enough to let me run surround wires in under the carpet when it was being replaced) an experience to bring tears to the eyes of women and make babies cry for miles around!
That's what I needed to fix my problems... A new center channel...
I knew I really liked the sound of my L100Ts and I had decided that whatever I picked, it must be a titanium domed tweeter (a trend I still stand behind now) and it must appear, on paper, to be a good match to my highly coveted, no-doubt-in-my-mind-at-all-the-best-$500-a-19-year-old-could-spend-in-the-world, L100Ts. SO... To the JBL web site I went...
Enter my lust after the S-Center...
2x 5.25" "PolyPlas" midbass (What's PolyPlas?)
1x 4" "PolyPlas" midrange (They liked it so much they did it 3x!! PolyPlas MUST be good!)
1x 1" Titanium dome tweeter (TITANIUM... Just like my L100Ts!!)
150W power handling (that's the entire output of my receiver!!!)
*side note... It has a removal grill, just like "big" JBLs!!! (The "Movies" series does not....)
That was my educated, 21-year-old, consumer decision. It looked way cool, the grill came off, it had a 2-way midrange, 150W power handling, and it had a titanium tweeter... As I recall, I think MSRP was around $300... I couldn't afford that...
To Ebay I went... I snagged an open box series II for $170 as I recall (spoiler alert: this is the exact same S-Center that I play today in my primary HT rig w/200W behind it).
For the next several days I was giddy with excitement waiting for the solution to all of my audio problems to arrive in the mail. The first night after I bought it, I don't think I slept more the 2 hours fantasizing about how awesome my home theater would be. I conjured dreams or luring attractive women out of theaters all over town to behold the glory that was my insane home theater... All powered by an honest (in my 34 year old knowledge) 175W of power (maybe...).
In typical Ebay time (no... really... not excessive... under a week) it arrived. When I first unboxed it all of my dreams were fulfilled without ever having played it. It looked elegant. It had a modern color scheme (nifty orange drivers and gray baskets), a shiny tweeter, and a removable grill! I turned it over and discovered that it had BINDING POSTS and it was PORTED! Surely this was a piece of pro audio gear that was accidentally shipped to me... Oh, my good fortune!!! The grill was broken in shipping, the seller ultimately boned me on that, but I didn't care (bought one from the JBL man for around $40... making me feel even more foolish for messing with Ebay with this purchase). It was the most glorious speaker, save for the mighty L300 (the best speaker on the planet @21 years old and little frame of reference) and it's close runner up, the L100T (see previous comment).
Be still my heart, the beast has arrived.
With furious precision and drive that I have seldom had in my life, I made up a new 12awg speaker lead (complete with gold plated pin... because what the hell is a binding post? I guess I just unscrew that nut and tighten it against the pin?), cast my horrendous G Movies center into the abyss of my closest, and set in for a night of true bliss...
Do you know where the story is going yet? You should...
----
I was woefully disappointed...
Yes, it sounded "better", yes, it was obviously better matched to my L100Ts than the G Movies center, but male voices in movies still sounded like transvestites, and with music it was close to no improvement at all when driven "loud"... At very modest volumes (studying music playing at studying volumes, with other people in the house) it was quite nice... but I'm not into this hobby for "modest"... Say what you may about the model, but there is nothing modest about a set of L300s with some power... That's the dragon I was chasing in the next room...
At that point I was convinced that the answer was to add a powered sub to the center channel to add some bass to the voices. Thankfully, I never got that far.
----
Time marched forward... My Sony AVR died... I bought a mid-model, box store, 5.1 Pioneer (with full preouts... always looking to the future), graduated college, bought a couple of hobby cars, wrenched A LOT, had a couple of girlfriends, moved out of my parents house, and my home theater pretty much remained unchanged from 2003-2008 over 2 rental houses. In mid-2009 I bought a Hitachi rear projection 57", CRT, HDTV off of Ebay for $360 (still my current primary HT TV). That was it... For 7 years I let the dragon sleep, save for buying a used, 165lb, HDTV of an "ancient" technology that no one wanted. I had become convinced that what I had was "good enough" and those that experienced it seemed to have a much higher opinion of it than I did... I told myself that I must be too harsh of a critic... It's certainly as good as any theater in town... right (in many ways, it actually was)?
However, that sleeping dragon still had dreams... Dreams of more LXXT series JBLs because I love my L100Ts so much...
In late 2009 I upgraded jobs, bought a house, and suddenly had an unexpected amount of room and a little more disposable income. I also had a girlfriend that LOVED movies... It was ON!
First goal, ditch the crappy G movies rears... Enter the L80Ts... That was an amazing upgrade, but that isn't what this story is about...
Second goal... Seek out L20Ts to replace the S-center... Clearly, the S-Center was the weak link here... After 8 years (at this point) I had never forgiven it for letting me down...
Whilst searching for L20Ts, I ran the structured wiring in my own house and started playing what I had with a bit more "guts" than I could while renting or living with my parents... Suddenly, the S-Center wasn't so bad... It still didn't sound "good", but it wasn't as disappointing as I remembered. I still looked upon it scornfully for being a crappy box store item (which it is... it was sold at all the box stores in its day) that couldn't perform with its big brothers...
I played the L100T, L80T, S-Center configuration off of my Pioneer AVR for about 2 years... In the meantime, I came across my empty 240Ti cabinets... *PERFECT* I thought... I'll run the 240Tis as mains, build a shelf for the L80Ts as centers, and move the L100Ts out back! Finally, the perfect solution!!! (amplifier power was never really a thought in this debate)
So, the plan was hatched, and much Ebay scouring was had to build the 240Tis into playing speakers over the next couple of years.
Again, in the meantime, my empty SR4719A cabinet came up for sale at a very reasonable price, on this very forum, and I had a way to transport it home! Oh my.. What an upgrade! Not just a .1 channel, but an absolutely huge .1 channel!!! JOY JOY JOY!!! (Still looking scornfully at the S-Center that had let me down... I'll fix that later... I thought)
I immediately started collecting parts to make the 4719 play.... I'm a bass head and a pair of 18s became the paramount goal for the future of my system.
Got another new job with a slight perk at the start, so I picked up my Crown XLS-2500 and had my raw 2241H baskets built into playing drivers...
I hooked it all up and it nearly shot my mind out of the back of my head. The most power I had even experienced was in the car audio world (which really isn't a fair analog because its such a different environment) running 1500w of class A power via my Adcom GFA-4404 and Phoenix Gold ZPA 0.5... The Crown and 4719 vs. my car audio exploits wasn't even a fair fight. The 18s won, hands down, no argument. I was mesmerized.
Once I was able to get my head around what I had done, I gradually noticed that my center channel no longer sounded like a Justin Bieber concert. As if I flipped a switch (which in fact I did), not only was my center quite detailed and refined (it always was... it just never impressed me as I'd hoped) it suddenly filled out male voices with authority. The deluge of stupidity and lack of research nearly knocked me over... It was the home mixing of 5.1 tracks that had been screwing me this entire time (maybe its mixed that way in the theater too?)! A 10" powered sub, on the .1 channel, would have fixed it 8-10 years ago!!!
After that, I rebuilt and played the 240Tis for about a year and retired the L100Ts to the corner, always planning to follow through with "the plan" of moving the L80Ts up to center and putting the L100Ts out back. I just needed more amplifier to make that happen...
Finally, more amplifier came and as a dork I decided to play the L100Ts and 240Tis next to each, simultaneously, with a legitimate 200w/ea across all 4... I came to the quick decision that I couldn't live with undoing that arrangement (sacrilege? maybe... but it sounds nuts)...
Well, there I was with an extra 200W amplifier channel... Guess I'll plug it into the S-Center? Holy crap... Adding the .1 to my experience brought it up about 50%, adding real power brought it up the other 50% (considering its cost). After 10 years of struggle and bad logic, the little Ebay S-Center was blowing my hair back.
The meat...
While on the route through all of the evolutions of my main home theater, I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to build a couple of others... I bought a full 5 channel Control-1 setup (off of this forum at an incredible price) for the bedroom. Upon receipt of the shipment I immediately piped all the speakers into my Pioneer and let it rip... Incredibly decent for what I paid for them with music. Movies? Not bad at all... However, the Control-1C center channel just sounded terrible to me... Perhaps I had been too critical of my S-Center and had slowly been spoiled?
With post haste the S-Center replaced the Control-1C and the impact was immediate. Even without my .1 channel running, the S-Center just sounded GOOD in that setup... The Control-1C plan was immediately scrapped for a $70 Ebay S-Center 1st gen. Knowing what it could do if given a real chance (and frankly, knowing the Control-1C was probably worth more money on the used market) I didn't hesitate. Later, after adding the SB-2, that rig is a very compact, inexpensive, and impressive system. When I had it running with the 4719A, it was jaw dropping.
Again, I just couldn't leave well enough alone... But this time I had a definite goal in mind... Only speakers that I could "hide", get off the floor, and I had to get it done for under $200... Enter the Bose AM series (ohhh... yuck... they're genuinely, and truly, terrible... but for the confines I listed above they aren't bad at all). Over the course of about 2 months I pieced together an AM-5 (2 channel) and AM-7 (3 channel) setup and tucked them up in the corners and behind some curtains in the upstairs living room. I played some music on them... Not bad for what they are, but not great (this isn't a Bose AM review... they're total crap, but with a handy application in unique circumstances, at flee market prices, is the only impression you should take away about them). They would certainly smoke any $200 box 5-channel surround system, look nice, and had the added benefit of setting the stage for unknowing strangers before going downstairs. :) Yes, I somewhat purposely built a "teaser" HT rig... :) I take extra joy in that because everyone thinks those little POS cubes are so great...
Then I played a movie.... Oh dear god... I don't know what is going on inside that cross over module in the AM-7, but ANY midbass (forgetting about bass, because you're not going to get that out of the Bose AM systems no matter what you do, and I knew that going in) was a forgotten hope. Speech in movies sounded like they were coming out of the dash speaker of '60 Ford.... Absolutely the worst thing ever. I simply couldn't tolerate it.
Again, enter the S-Center substitution... 0-Hero in $70...
Even the lowly Bose trash is elevated to at least a tolerable standard with an S-Center.
The Punchline
Now that I'm running a bit of power into the S-Center, and a .1 channel, I'm really not sure where I should go next. I'm positive that there are far better choices out there, but it doesn't leave me wanting for much of anything in my current rigs. When I reflect on its current market price I can't think of a better speaker for the job. Highs are very detailed (but not incumbering like the L100T/L80T), mids are very present and clear, and it integrates seamlessly into my 240Tis and/or L100Ts (honestly.. it just vanishes and does its job). I'd still love a set of L80Ts running on the center, but I'm left thinking that is an unnecessary upgrade. I'm just a tick under 4000W of amplifiers in my main HT rig and I can no longer point out any obvious short comings in the S-Center. It's just a damn good speaker, at its price range, if you let it be.
Ebay examples can be had for $60-$100 (shipped). For it's price point it's absolutely the way to go if you are growing your HT into "something more" on a budget. I've got about $2300 in my L100Ts/240Tis and my little box store center is still doing just fine in that mix, and it's doing it damn well. They're also elevating the standard in 2 other systems in my home; bringing one to the next level, and making another one tolerable. ;)
Even if you have more cash and just want to play around, pick one of these guys up (I'll buy all you have at ebay prices if you hate it). I'd love to hear some other folks thoughts on this budget monster.
Anyhow, that was quite a rambling tale. If you're stuck with me this far, my hat is off to you!
Final thought (challenge?): You will find no better center for $70... If you do, I want one too!