Summary:
I found this center channel to be amoung the best that I have trialed. Especially for the price!

I have found that using the Gladiator and MI2 DVDs as my consistent test software I have been able to easily narrow down the speakers, especially center channels, that I personally would want for my home theater system.

In the beginning of the Gladiator movie there is a scene where Russel Crowe is on horseback and addressing some of his warriors. During this scene I have found that MANY center channel speakers cannot produce anything other than a muffled or garbled presentation of the actors speech, with all of the background effects that are foleyed into that particular scene.

The second movie, MI2, includes another test that I like to call the dance test. In this movie, the scene in which Tom Cruise meets his "love interest" for this movie, they are in a room that has as cengter stage a raised wooden platform on which there are flaminco dancers, and spread in a circle around the stage are a number of peope who clap and talk along with the music and the dancers. What I listen for here is the crack of the dancers heals on the wooden platform. I want it to sound like wood. I want a sound that reporduces the hollow space under the stage and the echo of the sound in the room. At the same time I expect to hear the very clean and distict sound of the audience hands claping to the music. If either of these sound unnatural and I cannot determine what is causing the oddity to occur I consider that speaker as unacceptable for my personal taste.

Now, how do I feel about this speaker? It easily reproduced the sound as I felt it should sound. I had to turn down the subwoofer in the audition room, to get rid of an unnatural low frequency emphasis.

The center channel sounded great!

Strengths:
clean undestorted sound. passes russel crowe test

Similar Products Used:
linn 5120, aerial acoustics, meridian 5000c

Summary:
I was first attracted to this speaker because one magazine claimed it sound as natural as Martin Logan centre speaker costing 5 times more. I have not heard that particular centre unit but judging by ML speaker like SL3 then that is a tall order. However, I got the Dialogue mainly to partner my other Ruarks little speakers the Templer Mk1. They are my long-term love-hate affair. They are warm and coloured. However, they can best demonstrate their ability by listening to how they play woman vocals sweetly all day without getting tired of their singing. The Dialogue on the other hand sounds very much faster and a bit more neutral. The sound mellowed after about 1 month later and sound better together with the older speakers. It plays the bullets zipping around in Saving Private Ryan very convincingly and all vocals as close to natural voices as possible. It can sing very well and in fact more neutral then a few other centre speakers in the shops demo like ProAc, Tannoy, Sony, AE and MK in similar price range. The ProAc is twice as pricier but I cannot get along with the 'boxed' sound. If I do not own any speakers and wants 5.1 sounds then I will get the Dialogue and built around it with 2 pairs of Epilogues for front and back, they sound like identical twins. Then when one can afford it the Ruarks or other subwoofer.

Strengths:
Very much like natural human voices. Easy to drive even with 50 watt amp.

Weaknesses:
Take time to break in, otherwise sound very bright.

Similar Products Used:
ProAc, Tannoy AE and MK centre speakers. Ruarks Epilogues.

Summary:
This center channel is the match to the Prologue One, and has identical drivers, oriented horizontally instead of vertically. The tweeters in these units (silk domes) are by far the most realistic I have heard. They are very detailed, without that "metallic" harshness I have heard in other speakers. Midrange is similarly excellent. As I mentioned above, voices sound like real people, not just speakers. Little to no bass, but that is not expected from a center channel so I do not count that against it.

These speakers are well constructed, bi-wireable, and have several finish options for the sides to match your Prologues. This is definitely the best center channel I have ever heard, well justifying the $600 pricetag.

Strengths:
Voices sound like people, not speakers

Weaknesses:
None