Review on 🔊 Dayton Audio C452-AIR: High-Performance Dual 4-1/2'' 2-Way Center Channel Speaker with AMT Tweeter by Tammy Freeman

I bought this as an experiment because I wanted to see if these AMT tweeters were as good as dome tweeters. My point of comparison was the $400 Polk speaker set. I placed this on the center channel and compared it to the Polk center channel it replaced. Empirically, the tone is more sensitive in volts per sound level, so I had to lower the signal level to the center speaker. However, I think this is due to the superior base response rather than sensitivity of the AMT compared to a dome tweeter.2. far exceeds the base response to the regiment. strong. not boom. only noticeably warmer.3. high frequencies sound great.4. Although AMT is said to be more directional, I found it covered a room better than a regiment. So I don't think the directionality is an issue. Overall it sounds a lot better on movies because of the underlying response. The music doesn't sound too bass-heavy. The lack of a basic feature in the polka is perhaps not surprising. Polks uses 2.5" woofers and Dayton uses 4.5" woofers. I think the reason is in physics. Polks in particular need to cover the mids with their woofers, so they have to use smaller woofers to cover those. Since the AMT tweeters also cover mid-range frequencies up to 2.3 kHz, this allows the designer to specialize the woofers on the bass and thus use larger woofers. Upon further listening, I believe this is an artifact of the lack of bass. That is, if you emphasize the high frequencies, the sound will of course become clearer, but not more natural. It's like increasing the contrast in an image editor. This will make all edges sharper, but you'll lose smoothness. But that doesn't mean the shelves are battered. I have loved her for years. I've just realized I'm missing more bass than I thought (just increasing the bass balance wasn't enough). . The difference is how the center channel is used. In movies, Dolby 5.1 redirects voices to the center channel, while music emphasizes stereo separation. I found that when I switched the Yamaha receiver from 6.1 channel Dolby Pro-Logic to 6 channel stereo I had to change the mid gain by about 6dB. Otherwise, either the voices are too quiet when watching movies or the center channel is too loud when listening to music. Also, my system is now a bit unbalanced in bass as more of it is coming out of the center channel now. But damn, when you listen to movies, it's just insanely better. What I need to do is replace all my speakers with these Daytons to restore the power balance! But for now I can only change the gain depending on what I'm doing.