Center Channel Height

[moondawg]

I'm in a quandary over center channel speaker placement and would appreciate your input.

I have a 27" regular TV in a regular 6' entertainment unit. The opening for the TV allows me 8" to place a center speaker on top of the TV and in the cabinet where I have the current center speaker. I want to replace the crappola speaker with a Klipsch center to mach the Heresy mains. There's not much of a choice. I can use an RC3-II or build a home brew with tweeter and midrange to match the Heresy. An Academy won't fit.

The other option is to place an Academy or, better yet, some would say, a third Heresy as the center on the top of the entertainment unit. However, this would place the center of the speaker about 36" above the center of the TV and coincidentally, about that distance above the listener's ears. (And, at about the same height above the floor as the surrounds). The Heresy mains are on the floor slightly angled upward. The room is relatively small with a couch against one wall 11' from the TV on the other wall. The mains are about 6' apart.

So anyone care to speculate how the heck that might sound with say a Heresy laid on it's side as the center channel so far above the mains and the TV?

Might it sound "better" if I raised the mains 16" so that the tweeter/midrange is at about the listener's ear level? (This will put the center channel 45" above the mains, center to center, the same distance apart as the current setup). Isn't that too high for a center channel?

Thanks,

[tankhokie]

mike,

from what i hear, you don't want your center to far up or down from your mains. i creates a break in the flow (movies) and makes the voices seem off from the picture. ideally you want the center as near the screen as possible and not too far above or below the mains.

imo it creates a much smoother flow during panning and puts characters voices near the picture where the are supposed to be.

this is all my experience from the reference's but i think it is true in general. i had mine on a mantle for one movie and the floor the next and it was distracting how detached it sounded.

hope that helps somewhat.

[j-malotky]

Mike

I like your proposal of putting your Heresy mains on stands to put the tweets and mids at ear height. That always helps with the smaller Klipsch speakers.

Putting your heresy on its side will not sound any different than with it upright.

If you can not put your center in line with your mains like most of us, myself included, it is always better to put it OVER the mains rather than UNDER! If you need to put it over, I would also suggest you angle it to point slightly downward to your sweet spot instead of streight out into the room. Doing this will sound the same as if it was on a riser like your mains.

The 3 Heresy setup should sound VERY NICE.

Keep us posted on your project.

JM

[moondawg]

Thank you both for your replies.

I realize my setup is considerably less than "ideal".

I'm just trying to make the very best of it. I kinda sorta wish I had gone with Forte's which come with a base, (and bass, too).

The eBay Academy "frenzy" the past few weeks really ticked me off, so I was thinking home brew or Heresy as a center. Then I got lucky and "won" a Heresy pair on eBay. They're the same HWO as the ones I have and were built 4 days later,if I understand the SN code correctly, (the ones I have are 136X and the ones on the way are 140X).

I wasn't too keen on placing the center up on top of the entertainment unit until I did the measuring and found out that raising the mains 16" would not only put them at ear level, but it would also maintain the same relative

mains/center height that I have now. Although I'm still a bit concerned that the center channel is way too high at 30" center to center with the TV, (about double what it currently is). But, there's not much I can do about it.

As I said, I'm just trying to make the best of a less than ideal situation.

I'm really anxious to hear how this is all gonna sound...

Thanks,