Ames100's Full Review: Celestion F35c Main / Stereo Speaker
The F35c is a compact center-channel speaker, one of Celestion's F-series home-theater speakers. It's bigger and delivers more power than the small speakers that come with theatre-in-a-box units, but it's not as big as the serious room-shakers favored by those willing to build their decor around the AV system. It has two 4" midrange speakers, a titanium dome tweeter, and a vented port at the back. It's nicely styled and finished, mine in a Dark Apple wood veneer (there's a couple of other options available). The front cover is removable. It has standard wire/banana-plug posts for connection. No controls. No feet or stands included.
I've learned never to underestimate the importance of the center channel speaker in a surround-sound AV setup. It carries most of the midrange, including almost all of the dialog. If the sound is colored or unpleasant, or it can't handle sufficient power without distortion, the whole system will sound bad. However, it's somewhat difficult to evaluate the sound of a center speaker on its own, since it's intended to be used only as part of a multi-channel system. A center speaker is normally not able to reproduce deep bass. Its primary job is to handle sufficient midrange power without distorting.
I would characterize the Celestion F35c's performance as modest, in keeping with the size and price. When I listen to it on its own, it obviously doesn't have a very strong high end or low end, and it does suffer from some distortion when pushed to higher volume in the mid range (not the obvious crackling kind, I mean the kind that makes the sound a little edgy and induces listening fatigue). The best thing I can say about the F35c is that when integrated as part of my 5.1 system (with a mixed set of Advent surrounds and Polk subwoofer), it doesn't stand out sonically. I've listened to my favorite movies and DD 5.1 live concert DVDs with it, and normally all I hear is the music and the dialog, just as it was intended to be. It handles enough maximum power for my medium-sized room (70 watts). The sensitivity rating is a fairly normal 90db, so most amplifiers should have enough power to drive it properly (I'm using an 85w/ch Denon amp).
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