boomac Posted September 2, 2004 Share Posted September 2, 2004 Ok, I plan to incorporate three like speakers across the front of my HT set-up. What is the best way to position the center speaker? Is it best laid on its side? ( the best choice cosmetically and for positioning ) Is it best positioned above the screen or below the screen or is it important to try and keep it at ear level, when seated? If positioned on its side, should the mid and tweeters be inverted in the motorboard? In this particular set-up, Forte IIs will be used across the front with Quartets as surrounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popbumper Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 You already answered your questions - yes, on the side (makes sense), above the screen (you have no option if the screen is a rear projection TV), ear level is not important though you MAY want to keep the L&R within 6" of the center, height wise... Popbumper PS - I have two Forte's and an Academy center, I have often "toyed" with the thought of a Forte center - but what a BIG speaker to have as a center!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomac Posted September 3, 2004 Author Share Posted September 3, 2004 No rear projection screen for now. I'll be using a 36" Sony so I think the center could go either above or below. If above the TV screen, it will also be well above the other speakers. TV 25" off ground plus 30" TV height equals 55" plus shelf. If below, the speaker could be from 6" to 12" above the ground. Either way, I suppose it could be tilted up/down depending. For the price of an Academy I can almost pick-up two Forte lls. One front center one back center in a 6.1. What about inverting the mid and tweeter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiob Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 Tilt it down, that what I have done. Measure the distance from the tweeters of your front speakers and center speaker to your nose in you listening position,and calculate you Ms delays accordingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoker Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 Ideally they should all be at the same level. But the next best thing is if they are all pointed at the same position. Above or below it does not matter just tilt the center either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 I wouldn't worry about inverting the horns. It'll sound great anyway. Those are the kinds of things fanatics do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 My Forte center was on a shelf suspended from the ceiling over my RPTV. I had it vertical, but inverted, so the mid/tweet was just over the TV, pretty much in line with the mid/tweet on my Chorus mains. When I was using Forte mains, I had them on 8" risers (cinder blocks covered with protective top and black cloth) to get the mids/tweets a bit higher up and closers to the center's. I had the Forte's shelf tipped up in the back, so the horns pointed at the listening position. I admit - it looked a bit ungainly. But in the dark, when watching a movie, I never noticed it. A possible project is to convert your Forte to a horizontal layout - after discussing this with Fini, we agreed it might be easier to just build a new cabinet, mimicking the internal volume of the Forte, and re-mount all the drivers so that it could be laid on its side and have the mid/tweet in the center of the motorboard in their normal horizontal orientation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwatkins Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 ---------------- On 9/3/2004 7:40:47 AM gcoker wrote: Ideally they should all be at the same level. ---------------- Yes, yes and yes again. I have tried many variations and beyond compare having the speakers on a similar level produces the best results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sivadselim Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 i wouldn't lay a speaker on it's side if it's not really designed to be. with some speakers, it may not make so much difference, but those fortes are really not designed to be laid on their side. center channel speakers are made to be "laid on their side" by design, but not those forteIIs. you'll probably have dispersion problems, which is not what you want to have at your center channel. and simply swapping the mid and tweeter won't help that. the horns are designed for dispersion in one orientation only. if you could rotate them 90 degrees that would probably help, but i doubt they're square. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 Boomac I have found the question to the lay on the side issue really depends on the width of your listening area (where your seats are). Since the 2 uses a tractrix horn, I would say you will be OK in most any situation. I have seen your room, and I don't think laying on the side will be an issue in your room. If you remember my room, I have heresys on the sides and rear, all mounted on there sides. Being on there sides, the exponential horns have a much narrower dispursion field. I get away with it because my seating is fairly localized in my room. If you look at my speakers, they are all pretty much pointing right at your head. Make sense to you? Worst case, we redo the Forte2 and remount the squawker and tweeter horizontally. I really don't think that will be an issue and you will be able to use it on its side. As for placement, I have found it sounds better over the screen than under. JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 ---------------- On 9/3/2004 5:40:17 PM j-malotky wrote: As for placement, I have found it sounds better over the screen than under. ---------------- I just wanted to comment on this because it's interesting how the ear is designed... When listening in the horizontal plane (ie, the stereo signal coming from the L and R speaker), having two ears symmetrically placed on each side of our heads allows us to tell which direction things are coming from. But when listening in the vertical plane, both our ears are hearing the sound coming in at the same angle...thus, we aren't supposed to be able to differentiate a varying height in sound. However, if you look at your ear you'll notice that the top and bottom of the ear aren't symmetrical. There are little hairs on the outside of your ear, partically near the top underneathe the top fold. It is inside this concave location that we obtain some level of directionality in the vertical plane. If you follow the direction that the concave part opens up to, you'll notice that it points down towards the ground (it's more complicated than this, but it gets the idea across). When humans interact, it is beneficial to be able to hear children crying (who just happen to be shorter). There is no real advantage to be able to hear something way above us (we don't exactly live in a jungle, though some might argue that) Anyways, to make a long story short...our ears get more directional in the vertical plane as the source of the sound moves downward. All that to say; when we place our center channel speaker below our mains, it easier to localize and thus it doesn't blend in as well. When we place our center channel speaker above our mains, we don't notice as much because we're not as directional in that direction. Another thing to consider is that when we go to the movies or when we go to live concerts, or even when we go shopping...the speakers are always mounted high above our heads. It then becomes unnatural to hear recorded sounds eminating from below our ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sivadselim Posted September 4, 2004 Share Posted September 4, 2004 great post, dr. who Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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