![]() In this case, their feeling probably is that "accuracy" is best off taking a backseat to "believability." I can't disagree, based on my time with this system's center channel speaker, though the low level intelligibility drop off had me sometimes turning the overall volume up higher than I'd like during some late night movie watching. No doubt Sonus chose to shelve down the presence region somewhat to compensate for the processed and somewhat hyped sound of most dialogue tracks. While I have heard better low level intelligibility from a few center channel speakers I've reviewed over the years, few have matched or beat the Center DOMUS's combination of intelligibility, believability and freedom from mechanical artifacts at normal to relatively loud listening levels (one such center channel is the far more expensive, more massive and more capable Aerial CC5). Go for intelligibility by lifting the presence region and you often get discontinuity in male voices, shrillness in female voices, and "mechanicalness" in both, particularly on sibilants, which take on a distinct, easily identifiable life of their own, thus destroying any hope of believability. There's too much chest and not enough throat. Make the speaker too warm, and male voices sound boxy, muffled and difficult to understand. Voicing a speaker to reproduce the human voice is a daunting task. In either location, the Center DOMUS produced the some of the most believable dialog I have heard yet from a home theater system. Later I put the Center DOMUS atop my reference Hitachi CRT-based RPTV. I began the review with it mounted on a sleek, dedicated stand ($395) placed in front of a display then under review that did not accommodate a center channel speaker. If the weak point in Sonus's Concert line was the two-way center channel speaker, the Center DOMUS may be the new line's major achievement.
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