So I had an audio rebirth and I'm once again an addict. I spent much of my teenage years swaping out audio gear in hopes of best performance. Well I'm doing it again.
My home theater started life with a $500 Epson Pro Cinema 800 on clearance. It is an awesome 720p projector and I soon had a 100" screen and I started dragging in my old audio gear that had been boxed up or rarely used. I won't bore you with details but I now have a bluray player feed to an Integra 9.8 pre/pro, to a Rotel 985 (100x5) and then to a Def. Tech. PF1500 sub, BP2 (bipolar) rears, and I have taken a liking to the Studio Monitor 350 front firing bookshelves that Newegg had on sale on black friday($180 shipped a pair!) for the fronts.
FWIW. They are really great monitors for the money. I typically like a well laid back warmth for 2ch but these things rock in 5.1 as they stay neutral until they are pushed hard and they do tend to get a bit foward. Thats perfect for home theather in my book. Ive done some 2ch listening and they are...fine. They have good detail, fair to good bass extention and tightness, and a surprisingly good soundstage. Probably great for most people but I still prefer my Snell K.5s for critical listening in my office.
I was using a Snell c.5 for the center channel but I wanted to round out an all Def. Tech. system. I picked up a C-1 last week but 5 mintues of listening told me it was a terrible match to the SM350s. So that will be up for sale (anyone?). So I did a search for a center to match the SM 350s and I see the CLR 2002 is a good match, but at the same time I see Newegg is having the crazy sale again ($180 shipped for a pair) for the 350s.
So what is better performance? A CLR2002 or a single SM 350?
Edited by miatame - 1/7/13 at 6:51am
My home theater started life with a $500 Epson Pro Cinema 800 on clearance. It is an awesome 720p projector and I soon had a 100" screen and I started dragging in my old audio gear that had been boxed up or rarely used. I won't bore you with details but I now have a bluray player feed to an Integra 9.8 pre/pro, to a Rotel 985 (100x5) and then to a Def. Tech. PF1500 sub, BP2 (bipolar) rears, and I have taken a liking to the Studio Monitor 350 front firing bookshelves that Newegg had on sale on black friday($180 shipped a pair!) for the fronts.
FWIW. They are really great monitors for the money. I typically like a well laid back warmth for 2ch but these things rock in 5.1 as they stay neutral until they are pushed hard and they do tend to get a bit foward. Thats perfect for home theather in my book. Ive done some 2ch listening and they are...fine. They have good detail, fair to good bass extention and tightness, and a surprisingly good soundstage. Probably great for most people but I still prefer my Snell K.5s for critical listening in my office.
I was using a Snell c.5 for the center channel but I wanted to round out an all Def. Tech. system. I picked up a C-1 last week but 5 mintues of listening told me it was a terrible match to the SM350s. So that will be up for sale (anyone?). So I did a search for a center to match the SM 350s and I see the CLR 2002 is a good match, but at the same time I see Newegg is having the crazy sale again ($180 shipped for a pair) for the 350s.
So what is better performance? A CLR2002 or a single SM 350?
Edited by miatame - 1/7/13 at 6:51am
