Centre speakers play a large role in a home theatre system, often delivering up to 70-80 per cent of the sound recorded on a 5.1 soundtrack. And it’s not just dialogue that centre speakers reproduce; they also carry music and sound effects, depending on how a particular soundtrack is mixed.

A great performing but little known centre speaker is the Yamaha NS-C515, which is part of Yamaha’s PMD Series speaker range. The C515 is a medium sized centre speaker, black in colour, and measures 500mm wide, 170mm tall and 218mm deep. It is a 2-way design incorporating dual mid-bass drivers and an aluminium dome tweeter. The speaker is ported at the rear, has gold-plated dual binding posts and is magnetically shielded to eliminate interference to a CRT television.

The C515 is a weighty unit at 8kg and build quality and general fit and finish is excellent. This speaker looks especially attractive with the grille removed. It is rated at 6 Ohms with a claimed sensitivity of 90dB (2.83V, 1m), meaning it is relatively easy for an amplifier to drive. Power handling is a claimed 300 Watts maximum (!) with a nominal power rating of 100 Watts.

In the past we’ve been disappointed with the performance of several Yamaha speakers, but the C515 definitely bucks this trend. If you have a poor performing centre speaker it can make for a frustrating listening experience, especially if the dialogue is hard to hear and your front main speakers overpower your centre. The NS-C515 can fix this problem as it is exceptionally clear and forward in its presentation.

Dialogue is crisp and natural, whether it be a high-pitch female voice or the lower tone of a male voice. A dialogue-driven scene in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones (Chapter 4) contains a range of voices – both alien and human – and the C515 reproduces the higher and midrange frequencies of this piece very well. Bass is a little light but this is of no great concern, as most lower frequencies are sent to the front main speakers and subwoofer.

The soundstage that the C515 creates is slightly wider than a couple of similarly priced Paradigm centres that we compared it to, and that is really saying something, as we have always praised the wide soundstage of Paradigm centres. A wider soundstage allows people sitting off-axis to the centre speaker to hear sounds as if they were sitting in the central listening position.

The C515 is just as capable with music and sound effects as it is with dialogue. This is a robust speaker that can play at high volume levels without distorting or colouring the sound. We incorporated the C515 into several multi-channel speaker set-ups from a range of brands, and found it integrates surprisingly well from a tonal perspective. So the C515 is flexible when it comes to matching with speakers that you may have bought previously.

If you’re looking at adding a centre speaker to complete your home theatre or considering updating your current centre, the Yamaha NS-C515 is well worth a listen. In comparison to our benchmark Paradigm centre speakers the C515 performs admirably, even bettering the Paradigms in some respects.

We are very impressed with the performance of this centre speaker, and while the C515 is not cheap at a RRP of $499, it is a considerable step up in sound and build quality in comparison to lower and similarly priced brands. However we’re doing a great deal on these centre speakers at the moment, so head to our ‘SPECIALS’ page to check out the hot price.

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Product: Yamaha NS-C515 Centre Speaker

Price: $499

Warranty: 2 years

Availability: now

Website: http://www.yamahamusic.com.au/products/avit/speakers/bookshelf/NS-C515.asp