Def Leper Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 My Cornwalls are in corners and about 12 feet apart. I get the "split stereo" effect where sources mixed to center often sound like they are fairly well centered but with frictives/highlights coming from both left and right. The problem is also accented by moving around in the room. I have checked the phasing of speakers and components and all are connected properly and I do not have any bass problems. I suspect adding a center channel will help establish a more solid sound stage. Can a center channel be connected passively? I think a set of Heresy's would compliment my Cornwalls and putting a pair together in the center will work in my room. Can anyone share some ideas on how this type of system can be connected without resorting to a surround sound or home theater amplifier system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 You will get a wealth of information if you do a forum search on "passive center channel". I have a Dynaco QD-2 passive adaptor that does a very good, unobtrusive job of letting you drive five speakers (L,R,C & Sx2) with two channels of amplification. I no longer use it, but that is one way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonfyr Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 I think this is the 3rd post of this in 2 days! And that is only by me! ...No telling by how many others! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted September 22, 2005 Share Posted September 22, 2005 Does figure 2 still use a seperate mono amplifier for the center channel? I guess I don't see the purpose of summing two speaker level circuits and then dropping the signal back down to line level for a second amp to power...I thought there was a design out there to derive the center channel and still have it driven by the same stereo amp... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrestonTom Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 Dr Who, 1) Yes you still need a mono amp for the center channel 2) I built both versions. You are correct about dropping the level down to line level and having to amplify again. However, in the top version you lose a bunch of gain on the L & R channels. In my case, I was using a passive preamp and did not want that. 3) No way around it, you still need another amp (or channel) for the center Good luck, -Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 I am also running the top design for deriving a center channel. It works very well. However, I had no choice due to wall length, and no opportunity to move speakers closer together. Is it possible to move your speakers closer together to eliminate the need? If not, the choices on the schematic work very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 Dr Who, 3) No way around it, you still need another amp (or channel) for the center Well there's gotta be a way for a single stereo amp to provide power to 3 speakers...it'd basically be a summing circuit with an extra volume to control the output of the center channel (after all, the line level splitter is splitting a 2 channel opamp into 3 channels) - by next semester I should theoretically be able to design something like this myself - I could do it now but don't fully understand AC in regards to impedances (and the rules behind summing). Or is the problem in finding a pot that can withstand a few hundred watts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 "Well there's gotta be a way for a single stereo amp to provide power to 3 speakers..." The Dynaco QD-2 that was mentioned above does this. It also pulls out a mono rear difference channel to go to surrounds if desired.All with just a two channel amp. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 I often used to listen to Brian Eno's 'Ambient Music' series (I still do sometimes) in high school and college, and experimented with a three speaker system he (Eno) wrote about in one of the liner notes of one of the albums -- 'Music For Airports' I think... In any event a third speaker can in fact be passively incorporated into a two channel/stereo amplifier. In this case, the third speaker was placed above and behind the listening position, forming a triangular speaker arrangement. The extra speaker was both smaller in size and reduced in terms of LF response, and was padded down a few dBs (much like the center channel using the Paul Klipsch's minibox) using a variable L-pad (for those of you who know what this is, just pretend I never said it!) Wow I can type in boldface! cool! or even underline words! I was too dumb to figure out how to do these things before. Very nice work on this new forum. I like it! Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klewless Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 I use a home theater receiver for deriving a center channel. I tell it there are no rear speakers (which is true), effectively getting a three channel system. My receiver (Marantz) has a multi-channel stereo mode. Plus I can use any of the various decoders to get the center channel. Of course, the receiver has amps for all speakers. Works like a champ. On good quality mono sources, the left and right speakers are dead quiet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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