Main speaker as center

Hide sidebar Show sidebar
Sef_Makaro

Sef_Makaro

Audioholic
Danzilla31 said:
Oh yeah shelves or towers it doesn't matter the important part like you said being all 3 are the same
Click to expand...
That’s something I’ve been thinking about for my next upgrade. Towers or bookshelves. If I went with bookshelves I’d potentially have more budget for even better subs. I have my towers crossed at 60hz as it is, so I may better off with higher quality bookshelves anyway.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Sef_Makaro said:
That’s something I’ve been thinking about for my next upgrade. Towers or bookshelves. If I went with bookshelves I’d potentially have more budget for even better subs. I have my towers crossed at 60hz as it is, so I may better off with higher quality bookshelves anyway.
Click to expand...
Considering my rig... good quality 3-way standmounts can't be beat. 3 BMRs up front is rad. Even when I asked Dennis about voicing between my ultimate 7.x speakers, He focused mainly on the matching tweeters over anything else, and wasn't concerned at all about tone/timbre differences in the two types of mid-range I will ultimately have.

I think the important take away is to pay attention when researching and shopping.

I found a lot of towers/centers/standmounts that were all over the place in terms of Impedance, FR, and Power Handling. It just didn't make much sense to me, then... and still doesn't. I know everyone's experience will be different, but that always stood out to me.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Sef_Makaro said:
That’s something I’ve been thinking about for my next upgrade. Towers or bookshelves. If I went with bookshelves I’d potentially have more budget for even better subs. I have my towers crossed at 60hz as it is, so I may better off with higher quality bookshelves anyway.
Click to expand...
This is a debate for the ages. FWIW, I’d never use BS speakers in my room. At 15’ away, I’ve found that the multiple, or larger drivers in towers(no not 5-1/4” book shelves with a built in base lol) deliver a much more life like presentation. Bookshelf speakers can go loud, but they don’t impact the room the same way. Even if they’re crossed higher. Good towers are a lot of times easier to drive too.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
And yes... given the option, I would go for 3-way towers over standmounts...
I could see using a standmount as center, though. :) If it meets the right criteria.
 
Last edited:
S

snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
William Lemmerhirt said:
This is a debate for the ages. FWIW, I’d never use BS speakers in my room. At 15’ away, I’ve found that the multiple, or larger drivers in towers(no not 5-1/4” book shelves with a built in base lol) deliver a much more life like presentation. Bookshelf speakers can go loud, but they don’t impact the room the same way. Even if they’re crossed higher. Good towers are a lot of times easier to drive too.
Click to expand...
I tend to lean this way but @shadyJ has that article where it shows 100hz bass is creating the chest slam. I’m thinking nice subs with bookshelves crossed over up high like 120hz might be fun too. :)
 
djembeman

djembeman

Enthusiast
Sef_Makaro said:
Matching LCRs is the way to go if you can pull it off. My SVS Prime towers almost fit under my TV anyway so I just moved the TV up a few inches.

View attachment 28234
Click to expand...
SEF_Makaro, This is exactly as I envision my setup after reading elsewhere on Audioholics about using a sound transparent projector screen. All of this just because we are trying to use the same speaker for left/right/center and a wall mounted TV. 100% what I am about to do. What is the wooden box in the far right corner? And absorption wall treatment above that?

I was wondering for my equipment racks, if it is better to have them wide open for air, or if it's better to have them enclosed with glass fronts so that they prevent dust from getting on the electronics? Need to buy a pair, since I currently have a TV stand I am using. Thanks for sharing your setup.

I will most likely upgrade my towers (eventually) because the Infinity Primus series is discontinued. I was thinking of using my Elac Uni-Fi center placed vertically on a speaker stand, or at least seeing what that sounds like. From what I've read the orientation of a center channel speaker horizontally is what causes problems. I might even be able to fit a regular bookshelf on top of my TV stand instead of the center speaker. When I upgraded to the Elac Center my front sound improved quite a bit. The Infinity Primus PC250 (something-model-number) sounded pretty bad and I always had to turn it up really high to hear dialogue. The Elac is 4 ohm and I don't have to crank it up. The design of the Elac with the tweeter built in to the midrange might be a good design for a horizontal center speaker. Maybe I don't even need to worry about all of this?!?! It sounds good, but I guess that's the problem with home audio. You always want to tweek something.

65" Samsung KS8000
Onkyo TX-RZ830 receiver
Infinity Primus P363 Towers
Elac Uni-Fi C5 Center
HSU VTF-2 MK5 Sub
Infinity Primus P153 Surrounds
Fluance XPBP Bipolar Rear Surrounds
NHT SuperZero 2.1 Satellite front heights
 
Last edited:
Sef_Makaro

Sef_Makaro

Audioholic
djembeman said:
SEF_Makaro, This is exactly as I envision my setup after reading elsewhere on Audioholics about using a sound transparent projector screen. All of this just because we are trying to use the same speaker for left/right/center and a wall mounted TV. 100% what I am about to do. What is the wooden box in the far right corner? And absorption wall treatment above that?

I was wondering for my equipment racks, if it is better to have them wide open for air, or if it's better to have them enclosed with glass fronts so that they prevent dust from getting on the electronics? Need to buy a pair, since I currently have a TV stand I am using. Thanks for sharing your setup.

I will most likely upgrade my towers (eventually) because the Infinity Primus series is discontinued. I was thinking of using my Elac Uni-Fi center placed vertically on a speaker stand, or at least seeing what that sounds like. From what I've read the orientation of a center channel speaker horizontally is what causes problems. I might even be able to fit a regular bookshelf on top of my TV stand instead of the center speaker. When I upgraded to the Elac Center my front sound improved quite a bit. The Infinity Primus PC250 (something-model-number) sounded pretty bad and I always had to turn it up really high to hear dialogue. The Elac is 4 ohm and I don't have to crank it up. The design of the Elac with the tweeter built in to the midrange might be a good design for a horizontal center speaker. Maybe I don't even need to worry about all of this?!?! It sounds good, but I guess that's the problem with home audio. You always want to tweek something.

65" Samsung KS8000
Onkyo TX-RZ830 receiver
Infinity Primus P363 Towers
Elac Uni-Fi C5 Center
HSU VTF-2 MK5 Sub
Infinity Primus P153 Surrounds
Fluance XPBP Bipolar Rear Surrounds
NHT SuperZero 2.1 Satellite front heights
Click to expand...
If you’re asking about the brown things attached to the wall, they’re both absorbers. I have the same setup on the other side of the room so it’s symmetrical. 1x3” wood frames with 4” of rigid fiberglass insulation wrapped in fabric. I got my wife involved in building those by having her pick the fabric.

Open racks is the way I’d go. It won’t protect from dust but it’s better for ventilation. I’d think too much heat would kill electronics faster than a normal amount of dusk would. I had to cut the back out of that rack to fit the A3080 in there, the thing is a beast. I’ve been looking at these, might pick them up when I feel like tearing the system down again.
https://www.audioadvisor.com/mobile/prodinfo.asp?number=PGVULRK
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Sef_Makaro said:
If you’re asking about the brown things attached to the wall, they’re both absorbers. I have the same setup on the other side of the room so it’s symmetrical. 1x3” wood frames with 4” of rigid fiberglass insulation wrapped in fabric. I got my wife involved in building those by having her pick the fabric.

Open racks is the way I’d go. It won’t protect from dust but it’s better for ventilation. I’d think too much heat would kill electronics faster than a normal amount of dusk would. I had to cut the back out of that rack to fit the A3080 in there, the thing is a beast. I’ve been looking at these, might pick them up when I feel like tearing the system down again.
https://www.audioadvisor.com/mobile/prodinfo.asp?number=PGVULRK
Click to expand...
Agree: open racks for equipment is highly recommended. I would go a step further with something like an AC Infinity T-series cooling unit on top. I recommend the rear venting model so long as you have room behind, at least 8 inches.
 
Sef_Makaro

Sef_Makaro

Audioholic
ryanosaur said:
Agree: open racks for equipment is highly recommended. I would go a step further with something like an AC Infinity T-series cooling unit on top. I recommend the rear venting model so long as you have room behind, at least 8 inches.
Click to expand...
I checked out their site, pretty cool stuff. I’ll have to keep that in mind if I go to an enclosed cabinet again.

Edit- Looked again and saw the component cooler you can stack on top of the amp/avr. I’ll be adding that to my shopping list, it’s pretty inexpensive too.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Sef_Makaro said:
I checked out their site, pretty cool stuff. I’ll have to keep that in mind if I go to an enclosed cabinet again.

Edit- Looked again and saw the component cooler you can stack on top of the amp/avr. I’ll be adding that to my shopping list, it’s pretty inexpensive too.
Click to expand...
If you are in a closed cabinet, you still need about 6-8 inches on all sides... that's a lot of room! The Front Vent AC Infinity worked well in that scenario... but you can hear the fans... Doesn't bother me that much when I'm listening to music (eco mode on the Marantz+external amp keeps the marantz pretty cool). But rear venting... That's on my list! ;)
Cheers!
 
M

m3incorp

Audioholic Intern
I would have loved to stay with the same size for fronts and centers, but I like to keep the TV as near to center of eye level as possible. No room up front for sub; luckily sub crawl allowed me to place it behind couch and near-field.
 

Attachments

ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
m3incorp said:
I would have loved to stay with the same size for fronts and centers, but I like to keep the TV as near to center of eye level as possible. No room up front for sub; luckily sub crawl allowed me to place it behind couch and near-field.
Click to expand...
For as much gets made about this, the question remains: what is audible? Is your center channel producing AUDIBLE lobing? It may, or may not.
Though crude, glad you tried the sub crawl and found a good home for it! ;)
 
Sef_Makaro

Sef_Makaro

Audioholic
m3incorp said:
I would have loved to stay with the same size for fronts and centers, but I like to keep the TV as near to center of eye level as possible. No room up front for sub; luckily sub crawl allowed me to place it behind couch and near-field.
Click to expand...
Lookin good! My wife would pitch a fit over the lamp on the subwoofer though lol. Her words “speakers are not tables!”
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis

Sitemap

Sitemap

Site Information

Site Information

HTML

audio forum
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Twitter
  • instagram
  • rss
Top