Pale Rider
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@Lon, remember that I have that big gaping screen in between the speakers, plus the two ZRACKs of components, and so, while I am not sure I would say dialogue was difficult to discern without the center channel [interestingly, it was my children and girlfriend who said that most, while I, tinnitus and all, had the least difficulty with the phantom center channel], I would say that it was decidedly different, and less "direct." But I also have that experience you describe, and in my case, on 5.1, part of it relates to the rear-firing ERR. These big towers now look even more inert and inactive, like they have nothing to do with the sound hanging in the mid-air. I like the way my girlfriend put it: "I can tell where everything is, but I cannot tell where it is coming from."
@will, I did skip a step here, one that I plan to post over in my thread in Home Theater. The DSPeaker difference was very nearly night and day, even before I created the "Ziegler Tower." This was true with and without the subs in circuit. The ERRs, before the DSPeaker, were very very good, though a tad bass-shy. With the DSPeaker, the bass curve falloff was smoothed, and imaging was improved.
But with a single sub in circuit [a 2.1 configuration], the full sense of depth was very impressive. And the bass is deep and tighter than a, well, that can go unsaid. Switching to a 2.2 configuration was even better, because I got the benefit of a deeper image, especially on the right side of the orchestra. But choosing to treat the subs as not subs, but extensions of the ERRs, and setting the DSPeaker for 2.0 was best of all. And it is when I did that that I got the idea of sticking the ERRs on top of the subs [subs have been in the house for months; shows how dense I can be]. And the combo of the vertical height [which works very well for creating a broad soundstage across the monitor], and the bass control/room control, was just amazing. To your point Will, the system was already sounding good by virtue of the DSPeaker. The tower was an improvement, but not as much as the other. The depth and speed of incredibly taut bass is a real jaw-dropper, and the integration of that into the freq curve, while adjusting it for the room, makes all the difference I think..
I have to say I will not run my system without something like the DSPeaker in it. I am not sure I am prepared to boot my PWD/Lumin/Ultra combo for the DSPeaker, as one reviewer said, in part because it cannot handle all the hi-res I play, but I will say that its presence in the system is the single biggest improvement since I drank the Decware Kool-Aid.
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