Micca RB42-C Premium Center Channel Bookshelf Speaker with Dual 4-Inch Woofers and Silk Tweeter, Clearer Dialogue for Home Theater Surround Sound Systems, Single, Dark Walnut

Objectively, these are absolutely amazing speakers for the price.First off: as these are budget speakers, It seems fitting to write this review based on my experience with them in a budget system. I ordered two of these center channel speakers and am using them in a stereo setup. I am using my computer's DAC and feeding it to an SMSL SA-50 stereo amplifier to power these speakers.These are far more efficient than the RB42's. The RB42's are rated at 83dB; these speakers, the RB42-C's, are 86dB. For reference, the RB42's would need twice as much power to play at the same volume as these. That makes far easier to run, and far less anemic at the low end with amplifiers below the 75-or-so watt output per channel.Instrumentals are more transparent than most speakers in this price range and lower bass is very punchy, with no muddiness in the subbass range. Instrumentals just sound cleannn at any volume.Vocals are also open and unmuddied; I'd say veering on transparent. At least, more transparent than any speaker in this price range that you don't have to build yourself. Vocals are, however, a tiny bit more recessed than instrumentals. That's not a bad thing, and Micca even describes these speakers as having that characteristic; they're warm speakers, so of course they're going to sound like that. That being said, my bias leads to me preferring more sibilant speakers. I really like accentuation on the S's and T's of singers' voices, and i prefer forward sounding speakers because they're really good at just tearing recordings apart and showing me how good the recording quality is. If you want piercing vocals, these may not be for you.Now, these are definitely speakers for small to medium sized rooms. My bedroom is about 14x14ft, which i consider to be smaller side of medium sized rooms. Around 20x20ft is where you really start getting to large sized rooms, which these speakers might have a hard time filling.Before you continue reading: note that the below info only applies to you if you want to put these in a larger room than like 18 or 20 square feet. In my room - which is smaller than that - this isn't an issue and these sound great. If you are looking for speakers for a room the size of mine at this price point, then just buy these speakers because holy crap they're good.These speakers are not good for large rooms because they have the MOST egregious port chuff at loud volumes I've ever heard in my life.Let's set the stage. I got one of my two speakers a few hours before the other one. I immediately set up this single speaker in my living room and played it without a subwoofer. Pushing about 20-30 watts into it, I genuinely thought it was broken. At first, I thought one of the two woofers was already getting coil rub. The second speaker arrived and it made the same noise! Statistics say the likeliness of two DOA speakers is unlikely, so I investigated further. Turns out, the ports on these speakers are just extremely loud at living-room-volumes and boy do they RUIN music and movies with any signal below the midrange, so you better have a crossover set at 80 hertz or so and have everything below that sent to a sub.Overall:These are frickin' amazing speakers. Especially at this price point. I've heard speakers for $300 and $400 range that just can't compete in the RB42-C's capacity for transparency. Vocals and instrumentals are clean. They're easy to listen to and they make me want to listen to my collection again to hear how beautiful pianos and female vocals are.They're worth $200 for a pair.

Chances are, if you're diving into reviews of the RB42-C, then you may be looking to make a modest investment into a better AV experience like I did. I had been using a Samsung soundbar & subwoofer combo from a few years ago. For some media sources, certain titles in Netflix, etc. I could not hear the voices clearly enough, even from the sofa about 6-8 away.I did a fair bit of research before purchasing anything. I eventually caught wind of "Micca" and dove deeper into reviews for their products. Z Reviews and Joe and Tell (Joe N Tell, I can't recall) both had great reviews on a number of their products. Micca really seems to be a nice entry point into Hi-Fi audio in terms of bang for the buck. My second choice was the Pioneer Andrew Jones entry level bookshelf speakers and center channel. I though the Miccas had a better look to them, personally.I purchased a Denon AVR-S950H receiver (paid $500), along with a pair of Micca RB42's (paid $150) for my front Left and Right speakers and the Micca RB42-C (paid $100) as the center channel. For streaming movies and games, I use surround processing and bring in the center channel. For music, I prefer the stereo imaging of just the pair of RB42's. The receiver has plenty of power per channel (rated about 125W per channel) to push these drivers, which I believe are listed at 100W. The bass the beefy 4" woofer can put out is impressive. I think the improved crossover design used in the RB42's/RB42-C is great and well worth the price difference to Micca similar "42" models.I had planned it from the start, but after a week of the LCR (Left-Center-Right) setup of the Micca RB42's, I saw a great sale (yearly around Black Friday) on a Klipsch subwoofer (R-120SW, paid half - $250) and pulled the trigger to complete my 3.1 system. I set the receiver to crossover the speakers and subwoofer at 80Hz. Now that the RB42 LCR can focus on the frequency range it's designed for, the system really shines. The subwoofer has far more power than I need, but the receiver made it painless to adjust the distances from the speakers and although the subwoofer is tucked away far to the right in the room, it sounds like all the bass is coming right from the TV.You may be able to tell that I'm still thrilled and in the glowing honeymoon stage of my recent purchase, but I think it would be hard to beat this system for the all in $1000 I paid and the $100 in cables and accessories (I made my own speakers cables out of 12-gauge Oxygen-Free Copper cabling). I use the HEOS app to stream Ultra HD Flac content from Amazon Music HD. I was so amazed by the clarity that I began ripping my CD collection into FLAC.Highly recommend. I think the center channel completes the front surround experience. The voices just feel that much more present and projected, so-to-say, from the action on the screen (even if it just two characters in dialogue, the sub-tones of their voice add immersion to the playback of even sitcoms) The bookshelf speakers would be plenty for a near-field setup on a desk, even without a sub.