Kain Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 I am thinking of getting a projector rather than a TV. However, I wanted to know if it better to place the center speaker below the screen and angle it up or place the center speaker above the screen (by using a speaker stand) and angle it down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornEd Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Raising Kain... an international Forum service: Today's episode... The Ideal Center Piece for a projected video would be a front center speaker that was equal to your left and right mains... and located smack in the middle behind an appropriately perforated screen. Such a placement ideally anchors the center channel sound to the screen... and, after all, that's the reason upwards of 75% of DVD sound is channeled through the front center! Barring the very expensive alternative of a sound permeable screen, the next best choice is above the screen angled to cover the largest area of one's sweet spot (the area where one's combination of speakers has it's best audio effect by one's own hopefullly carefully biased ear). The higher location has the potential of having a better "line-of-sight" (errr make that sound) between center speaker and eager ears... which may be in more than one horizontal row. Center speakers mounted below the screen can work for one line of seating without various munchkins or over-indulged party-animal floor dwellers soaking up the sound. Also a consideration is that a floor mounted center speaker tends to reflect more sounds off the ceiling thus increasing the amount of ambience perceived in the sweet spot. A factor which has its pros and cons depending upon personal orientation. This brings to mind such controversial stuff of di-pole vs. monopole vaulting in a particular acoustic environment. Center speaker ambience, however, tends to have a negative impact on the clear speach quality perceived in the sweet spot. Many of the newer center channel Klipsch speakers feature "tapered-array" technology which reduces two woofer sound to one woofer sound in the range of human speech. The concept is that having the same speech coming from two woofers has the potential to garble the speech if everything is not exactly in sync. The current RC-7 uses this technology while the venerable KLF-C7 does not. As an advocate of converting floorstanding mains to center channel duty for better-timbre-matched systems I have yet to encounter a problem with speech clairty... even for guests with hearing impediments. But, awareness of the tapered array concept has me constantly alert to the potential problem. May the "kanes" of the world reap a sweet sonic harvest... as do we San Franciscans of the "beet" generation strive to do in our own envelope pushing way. =HornEd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kain Posted December 30, 2002 Author Share Posted December 30, 2002 Great! Thanks for the reply! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardre Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 While HornEd's dissertation is once again right on the mark, regrettably I am logistically challenged to hang the center above as the screen extends to the ceiling line. Here's a pic of my center sitting below the screen. This setup very solidly anchors the sound to the screen. Singular 'sweetspot' has been eliminated due to replacing the mid-horn with a 511b, it's dispersive qualities make every seat in the house sweet...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornEd Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 It just goes to show that two 'eds are better than one. Actually, Ed, I was thinking about your solution when writing the "disortation" but elected to keep it simple this time around. (Not a trait for which I am often noted ) Of course, Ed, your solution is an elegant one for putting the high end high cuts down on loss through bodys... and putting the low end low allows the longer waves to snake around to all your guests. As long as the timbre-match characteristics are good, and your in to Ed's speakerset, Kain, have at it! =HornEd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.