Nice room, nice setup! Did you get the muffled sound figured out? As Moderator dude said, I would pull it all the way to the front of the cabinet to prevent early reflections off the shelf.

I've been playing the speakers all day while at work and with 30-40 hours of break in they are sounding nice. The center seems to still have a slight chesty / box sound compared to the old Snell. I might do an A/B comparison just for kicks. Regardless, the improvement in having matching speakers for the main 5 is noticeably more cohesive. I plan on watching a movie tonight and that should give me a better sense of how the center sounds compared to the TV shows I've been watching all week. Thanks for the help, I'll try pulling the center to the front edge of the cabinet as suggested.

A+B TV, the new Goldener dealer in Austin, called me two days ago to tell me they just got a SuperCenter Ref to audition. Went there yesterday, for the first time, to have a listen vs. the XXL in a room with just Goldenear speakers set up (impressive place in total, lots of gear!) .

I've always loved the XXL, still do, but the SuperCenter Ref definitely takes SQ a step further. Human voices , male or female, were just that much more natural, clear, rich. Instruments also. And bass is tighter for sure. A short listening comparison was enough to convince me, brought the SuperCenter Ref home with me.

Icing on the cake, the SC Ref and the Triton Ref's are sonic soulmates. SO sweet sounding together! Dialog in movies clearer than ever. I haven't played with crossovers, started out with the SC Ref at the same 80 HZ I had for the XXL.

I'll let the SuperCenter Ref break in a bit, and enjoy the ride!!!!

Rick

It's great to hear how the new center is noticeably better since I was on the fence when I bought mine. My new Anthem AVM 60 doesn't have a mono option like my old parasound C2 which made it easy to listen to the center by itself. I'm still using an Hz crossover as well at the moment but I'll be curious to see if you eventually change your settings. All of my speakers are improving as would be expected during the break in and I'm waiting to run the ARC adjustments until they are finished and the new Emotiva amp arrives. Hopefully this will further improve the already great sound. Enjoy your new center !

SuperCenter Ref update

I now have about 50 hours of break in on the new center. Started out at the same settings I had for the XXL, 80 HZ crossover and no change in gain. After about 40 hours of play time, I changed the crossover to 60 HZ. The XXl at 60 HZ didn't quite match the T Ref's for bass sound, but was perfect at 80 HZ. Almost, but not quite at 60 HZ.The SC Ref DOES match and keep up at 60 HZ, perfectly. Just a sweeter, deeper bass. About the same time, I noticed that the center channel was more "noticeable". I had meter checked the dB SL's before and after changing over to the Ref from the XXL, and a dB check showed no change, which I would have expected from a speaker with the same 91 efficiency rating. Well, 40 hours of break in later, I needed to reduce the gain on the the SC Ref by 1.5 dB to get a balance with the fronts again. Maybe some SL gain is typical with speaker break in?Even with crossover back at 80 HZ, still needed to reduce gain. Whatever, at 60 HZ and -1.5 dB gain, that SC Ref is rocking!!!

So some observations. I wanted to hear a variety of voices and instruments. Played everything in Blu-ray from Beethoven symphonies to Roy Orbison to Phantom of the Opera to Bohemian Rhapsody to A Star is Born. EVERY voice, from soprano to bass, gorgeous solos by Lady Gaga, Sarah Brightman, everything was "in the room" goosebump making!!!! Bass voices also. (The nine GEt channels playing together is a subject for another thread, but wow. Blows away theater sound systems by a mile.)

The T Ref's and the SC Ref PLAY together, BLEND together, in a way I guess I couldn't have imagined. Perfect!!!!

Rick

My center now has around 60-70 hrs of break in on it. My impressions are mixed. sounds moving side to side are perfectly matched to my T-ones and the tone of music and voice seems very natural. However, the volume from the center always seems low even though it measures higher than the T-ones with a meter and I still find myself feeling as though dialog is coming from a box. After hooking up a new Emotiva XPA-5 for the 5 main speakers, I noticed an immediate improvement in the sound quality for the T-ones but not much at all for the ref ctr. This weekend I plan to reconnect my old Snell center for a direct comparison. It would be unfortunate if the snell still sounds better since I would hate to give up the matching front soundstage.