Centre for Bipolar Mirage M3

[Bayboy63]

Looking to find a speaker to centre between Mirage M-3's in a home theatre behind an acoustically transparent screen. I can get a Mirage OM-C2 that matches for $350 Cdn but was curious if I might find a contemporary neutral floorstander/bookshelf that could do a better job. I'm considering a Kef LS50 ($400) (I read their Concentric driver is rather neutral.) , Polk Rti A9 ($245), Klipsch R820F ($250), Totem Sttaf ($370) ( Apparently not so strong at higher HT volume levels.) , etc.
As I can support a floorstander behind my projection screen, I feel there might be better centre speaker options than the Mirage OM-C2. Am I correct in that assumption? Is a contemporary speaker capable of handling dialogue better than the 25 year old Mirage? As this is my first steps into a bipolar HT, can a traditional speaker present a more defined space for dialogue?
Any help is appreciated.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I've got 9 Mirage speakers in my room/system. With bipolar main speakers your center channel does not have to be a bipolar type of a design to do some small fill in work and do vocals and dialogue. You're not likely to find speakers that will best the old Mirage. Have you replaced the midrange foam surrounds?

 

[kfa888]

I would stick with a quality center speaker. Voiced for that. The bigger deal to me is do you have a HT receiver with a mic and software to Auto-setup your listening position? My Pioneer with measuring mic and autosetup does an amazing job when I swap in new speakers. With this you can almost use any good speaker. It will ballance and set levels etc. I keep upgrading my speakers and running the setup and it sounds SO MUCH BETTER after. IF you have this I would look at the Energy CB-20, a Canadian made robust little 2 way that is nice and balanced and can put out.

 

[Bayboy63]

Thanks for your reply. I'm just working on the theatre room so I had some time to get this auction win checked out. The M-3's have rubber surrounds that were in good condition and simply needed some preservative. The caps were in good shape and the essential ones were of good quality. All drivers and cross-overs were gone through and they tested well. There was one wire on a tweeter that was out of phase. It looked like it had been like that right from the factory. They sound good now but I'm anxious to get them into their spots behind the screen and get a better sense of what they can do. I just need a centre speaker and to scope out some subs (just in case).

 

[kfa888]

I have swapped in many centers and somehow like the Energy CB-20 a lot. After the Autosetup. My Focals sound real good to but overkill for that use. Big speakers seem to congested or chesty for this application in my setup.

 

[Bayboy63]

I would stick with a quality center speaker. Voiced for that. The bigger deal to me is do you have a HT receiver with a mic and software to Auto-setup your listening position? My Pioneer with measuring mic and autosetup does an amazing job when I swap in new speakers. With this you can almost use any good speaker. It will ballance and set levels etc. I keep upgrading my speakers and running the setup and it sounds SO MUCH BETTER after. IF you have this I would look at the Energy CB-20, a Canadian made robust little 2 way that is nice and balanced and can put out.

I agree that something of quality should go between the M-3's. I do have a Denon with Audyssey to give me a hand with placement. Thanks for the recommendation of the Energy. It's a shame what happened to them.