jostenmeat,
The primary cause of these pitfalls are the "dinky mtm centre" shoved into small cabinets as you've stated. My only contention is that most of us here at this site and most A/V enthuisiasts are either knowledgable enough or on their way there to avoid such poor choice of centres. The only real dinky centres I know of are the ones that come from HTIB setups. My roomate bought a panasonic HTIB and his centre channel probably weighs the same as my 4 - 1/2" midrange driver in my CC-690 centre. Thus, if the person is using a HTIB setup for their HT then they're probably not even aware of proper speaker placement and it really doesnt matter to that individual.
Yes, htib speakers are even dinkier.
cheers, and I hope you have fun filling the system out...
I do not want to jack this thread, but believe it these comments should be addressed. Due to this I will only reply once here. If more discussion is needed a thread can be created by someone and devoted to the subject of center channel design. Secondly, I have no authority in this field, but do love to learn about the subject and am planning on building my own speakers thus am doing
much research. Now that this is out of the way my response
.
Educational I am sure. Sounds like a lot of fun.
I cannot entirely argue that most centers are not compromises in design, but why is this? Many people have the paradigm that a center is a horizonal MTM configuration ingrained in their head, thus speaker manufacturers fall into a self fulfilling prophecy making this arrangement. A couple companies even made a TM configuration originally and under complaint from their customers for "not having a proper center" released a MTM replacing it. I believe Aperion is an example of this.
ok, this is some sort of preface. I might see it as people being unaware. You might agree.
Though the MTM design is not necessarily the best, there are ways that it can be designed to function optimally.
This article is an example of what can be done by manufactures to do a better job in center design. While this article does not completely answer the problem it does show that this problem can be dealt with with some success with proper knowledge.
and even your typical Audioholic is educated in such matters?
Now I realize this is all theory and much has yet to be implemented by conventional speaker designers so what is one to do if they want a center and the best frequency response possible? Buy a matching bookshelf to the towers if they have one and use it horizontally or put it on a smaller stand and angle approprialty! Most dealers will hook you up and many ID dealers will be willing to work. This will probably be cheaper than buying a center as their price is usually inflated too. The other option, buy a center and use it vertically placed below the source with proper angling as well. I have suggested both of these to many people and have had great success.
I cannot possibly agree anymore, and I have already set-up a friends system just two months ago with 6 vertically arrayed bookshelves on my advice.
Proper placement of a center within a cabinet will not effect sound quality, but again this is Audioholics in general there is a greater knowledge of subject matter here it isn't your run of the mill big box store so hopefully if one posts here they plan to do things right. Yes this is conjecture, but one can easily argue that people have any one of their speakers placed improperly. The sub is especially hard to place and often placed in an unideal location, does that mean we shouldn't have one?
Yes, it might be conjecture, whatever, but my point was only for breadth of education; possibilities. Nothing wrong with that, right? I never said that not having one was best. I said having the center is ideal. I said that I myself will always have one in the foreseeable future.
Agreed, which is why I usually say get the matching bookshelf as they aren't as expensive and do a better job than a center
.
cheers
When I am all growed up I will have towers everywhere!!!!
A dream we share indeed!
From what I have seen acoustically transparent Da-Lite screens suck. I have seen
SeymourAV and they are great. Granted you do lose some some PQ, but the gain in audio quality is well worth it in my opinion.
good to know, thanks for your opinion.
I would say that you are generalizing here. I find it difficult to believe that a reputable speaker manufacturer would cut corners on their center channel so that they can invest the money on their towers. Speaking from what I own, PSB image series, I would definately say that the center channel is of the same caliber of workmanship as are my towers, conatianing the identical drivers that are contained in my towers
I agree that PSB makes a good center channel. Have you noticed how big their centers are?? They are waaaaay bigger than many other commonly found center channel speakers (which of course might make placement a bit trickier)!
Again, I find this a really broad brush opinion. Like I said above, my center channel contains the identical drivers as my towers and is built as solid as my towers.
Did I say "always"? *shaking head*
Your also assuming that you have the correct room layout to ideally place your towers so that a number of viewers can sit within the sweetspot. But more often than not, this is just not possible and the sweet spot disappears rather quickly when sitting closer to one of the towers. Thats where a good center channel helps again to anchor the sound back to the screen.
This situation
does arise from
time to time. What, do
you assume that every room
always has numerous viewers outside of the sweetspot. That would be also be a broad-brushed assumption. Again, when the heck did I ever say always?
Isn't a different situation even conceivable???
I am having a very difficult time with the inability here to comprehend what I have typed. When did I ever say "always"? It is a possibility to be considered when regarding particular listening positions, budget, room, space, cabinet, etc. Do you think it is always best to never consider the possibility of phantom? IMO, that would be a greater fault.
I have my center channel which measures a 24" across and is 11" deep protruding out from the audio unit just so I can diminish as much as possible, possible reflections from the audio unit.
But you are still getting them. Also, mid-bass and bass waves emanate from all around the speaker, not just forward. Hey, I have a similar setup, I have multiple viewers over to watch, time to time, and I always see myself having a center channel. However, I believe to
summarily dismiss its situational advantages is a mistake.
I am sticking with "silly"...
I am going with "provincial".
some AVS threads
My experience with a phantom center
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=921590
Center channels as fronts?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=867867
The Perfect Center Channel Speaker
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=819897
A non MTM cc?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=820065
how practical is 4.1??
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=916869
I am done here too. I
only wanted to say that phantom setups
CAN be a good thing to consider for
particular situations.
I have no idea why some persons have such an impossible time in understanding that.
