building a TV stand with speaker stands with emphasis on best possible sound

[j_garcia]

What kind of TV? If it isn't a CRT there should be no issue. The S3s may even be shielded, but I can't tell because there are conflicting reports as to which it is.

Regardless of a gap, it WILL affect the sound. I'd leave a little room to add some sort of decoupling under the speaker (packing foam or maybe rubber feet at least). To your benefit they are front ported, so I don't think a big gap will be useful to you.

 

[afterlife2]

Nearly a year ago. How times flies...

 

[twylight]

If possible have the front edges of the speakers all clearing the cabinet, not recessed in it. Put some black hole type foam all in the center channel compartment.

I would consider a low piece of furnitire, the center on top of it, and the TV mounted directly to the wall...all speakers would be clear of obstructions (assuming stands for LR).

Just my 2c

 

[JerryLove]

I'm assuming they are not rear ported or the like.

In short you have two problems with any such setup.

The first problem is the baffle. Some frequencies bounce off the baffle and basically fill half the room. Some frequencies wrap around the baffle and fill the whole room. The former are 6db louder than the latter. Which frequencies do which is determined by the size of the baffle. This is why speaker stands have little skinny legs in the middle rather than being cabinets you can store your CDs in... to try to avoid adding baffle.

The good news on the first front is, if all you do is add baffle, your AVR should be able to clean it up with a frequency/spl adjust curve (assuming you've got a sufficiently advanced room correction program in there).

The second issue you are going to have is diffraction. This occurs when a soundwave meets a corner. You've got a lot on the center in the second design and all over in the first design.

The optimal option would be to suspend all three speakers from wires in a large volume of empty space. If you are going to hide the speakers in a cabinet, you'd do well to make sure there is zero gap between your speaker edge and the beginning of the cabinet. In essence: make a larger face-plate for the speaker. Then you can adjust the baffle-step.