center speaker height relevance ?

[cheapskete OCer]

ok .. need some input..

Here goes, im planning placement of the rocket center speaker which is 12" high. this will not fit on the middle shelf of my tv stand, so i have 2 options, but before i get to those do you think a speaker placed level right at the very bottom of the screen would sound (blend) better than one place almost on the floor angled up perfectly to ear height will sitting on the couch?


the reason i ask is this ..first i will show you my tv stand

now for the stands the first one being the best looking approach
would be if i removed the center shelf on the tv stand and put this stand there, when this stand is tilted at a 45 degree and it it is 6" high making the total of 18" witch is exactly what i have under the top shelf of the stand

http://www.surroundsolutions.com/cgi-bin/surroundsolutions.cgi/100740.html

the second option is this stand

but id have to put it in front of the tv but it is 17 inches and the speaker is 12 witch ofcourse makes 29" putting the top of the speaker exactly at the bottom of my screen itself, and it would stick out like a sore thumb


thanks for looking

 

[croseiv]

I can tell you that center channel placement can have a large impact on the quality of the dialogue/sound coming from the center. I used to have mine in an entertainment center above the set, maybe 3 ft higher than the mains. Now I have the center lined up more with my mains and the whole phase thing improved the sound tremendously. Before the center was very constrained in my previous set-up. I would try to get it as near as possible to your mids iin your main speakers.

 

[jliedeka]

I think it's best if the center is within about a foot of the screen and angled up or down toward the listening position. (if necessary)

I used to have my center about 2 1/2 feet below the screen. Even though it was angled up, I notice a huge improvement when I raised it up over a foot. It helps the illusion that the sound is coming from the screen.

Jim

 

[chadnliz]

You and many others can place center wherever it will work from cabinet to spouse issues they are all over the map but for the best Panning performance (sound that teavels from one side across center to other side then a small distance apart from mids and tweeters on your main speakers is called for, as others noted close to screen will make it disapear better aswell.

 

[supervij]

Is there no way of mounting the centre speaker above the TV? The reason I ask is twofold: Do you have more than one row of audience? If so, that second row would appreciate having the centre channel over the TV, no question! But even if you don't, I've read that the human ear can more easily pinpoint a sound coming from below ear height than above it. Which means if you put the centre below the TV, you'll notice the sound coming from there. But if you put the centre above the TV, the sound will seem to come from the TV, which is as it should be.

Given the choice between at the very bottom edge of the TV and the floor, go for the bottom edge! You can still angle it upward, even if it's on one of those very smart looking stands.

cheers,
supervij

 

[cheapskete OCer]

i dont know how i would. and a 50pound speaker sitting above my fragile big screen is SCARY

 

[Tod]

I'm with the others - right under the screen or over it seems like it generally sounds best. If you're handy at all, you could probably construct a stand that will hold it over your TV safely. If you have a little space behind the speaker, just build a larger platform than the speaker and put a counterbalance behind it so that the stand won't either tip or bend forward. Sufficient weight and stability in the base of the stand should make everything fine. If your center channel is rear-ported though, you might not want something behind it.

If funds aren't an issue, a way to have all the challenges and benefits of over and under placement is to use two center channels. I have a large screen and a very close viewing distance, so a single speaker would have been far too localized. They say to make sure the speakers are in the same plane with respect to the listening location to avoid phase problems. I love having mine that way - it does put the sound right from the screen. Power source does become an issue then - make sure you make the right decision to wire parallel or in series. I run mine off separate channels in the Emotiva, another option that might not be for everyone.

 

[Tod]

Here's a drawing - either a strong wood, or if you know a friend who can weld or something and could build one out of steel would work well. Either could be painted to match whatever it needs to match.

 

[gkelly]

I am dealing with this issue my self. Should the center be above or below the screen? As close as possible to the same vertical height as the left and right? Angled towards the listening area? Maybe good ol' trial and error would be best...

 

[gkelly]

A picture is worth a thousand here:

Does something like this exist? It needs to be about 24"x10" and able to hold a 50 lbs. LCD TV. I do not have a center speaker yet, but obviously the riser would need to be the right dimensions so the center speaker can fit inside of it.

Suggestions?

 

[Tod]

Again, not something for everyone but when I started running into challenges making things be the way I wanted, I got into woodworking. I actually do something I haven't seen often anywhere else - running the main towers at screen level. To do that, I built stands angled back with the top angled forward, and bolted the speakers to the stands with the floor spike threads on the speaker base.

I include the photo just to show a few fairly simple solutions to speaker placement. The room it's in now is a bit cramped, but I just bought a house, moving in a month, and dedicating its massive den as quickly as possible. The handmade oak furniture will look much better there, and I won't have to have a pull-down screen hanging from 2x6s or black sheets on PVC pipe. Sounds fine with the lights off, anyway...

 

[cheapskete OCer]

Here's a drawing - either a strong wood, or if you know a friend who can weld or something and could build one out of steel would work well. Either could be painted to match whatever it needs to match.

thats a fantastic idea so obvious yet i completely overlooked it ..still kind of scary but im really going to think about that one. the stand would be completely hidden that way, the only problem i see is that at that height the center maybe further away from the mains tweeters than when its on the stand in front of the tv..but i can always build it and buy the stand and see witch one sounds better or if there as any noticeable difference at all...thanks

 

[amnesiac]

i was in a simiilar situation as you in that my beta 360 center is far too massive and a coffee table gets in the way of any lower mounting options. i ended up with this stand mounted to a stud on the wall behind the tv with the glass shelf "floating" the center right above the tv and just angled the center down. i went with that stand because it was the first i found, but you could also just go with any CRT tv stand, though the brick wall behind your tv could pose problems as far as installation... you might just want to go with the full stand idea...

as far as mounting the center above the tv goes, when i'm being really picky, i can localize the sound as coming from slightly higher than it should, but that's also because the vertical gap between my L/R and C is a bit more than i would like. I've heard it's harder to localize sound from above ear llevel compared to above but that's just what i've heard (no pun intended). I can tell you from my experience that when you angle the speaker down it blends better.

 

[Alex2507]

I like option #2 because it gets the tweeters as close as possible to the same plane. Option #1 is pretty....expensive. I'm thinking you could achieve similar results with an old shoe box and 3 romance novels that you don't want anybody to know about.

The above the TV approach IMO puts the center too far away from your seating position and from the L&R speakers. However should you like it, the last thing to worry about is fasteners holding 50 lbs. I'm pretty sure that you could hang a Volkswagen from 1 drywall screw. 2 drywall screws should be able to handle a Lincoln Navigator. If you just want to try it out, build a little angled shelf an go for it.

I doubt that's real brick but what ever the case is, I am like a genius when it comes to fasteners. Ask me anything, I know everything. Kidding, kind of.

 

[cheapskete OCer]

option 2 i can get at amazon for 119.00 shipped ,the site i linked to just had a bigger photo, were you wondering if my walls were real brick? yes my whole house is brick ive only put 3 holes in the brick as i try not to tear it up, 2 for my rear surrounds and and one for a big lighted picture.

 

[DD66000]

The best solution is to have the center just below, and out in front of the screen. Having the speaker inside (behind) the screen is not good.
I have my 24" tall center setup so the top of the speaker is below the rptv screen about 1 inch, with the speaker tilted back.
In your case, setting the speaker on a stand, in front of the tv stand would be best.

 

[Alex2507]

option 2 i can get at amazon for 119.00 shipped ,the site i linked to just had a bigger photo, were you wondering if my walls were real brick? yes my whole house is brick ive only put 3 holes in the brick as i try not to tear it up, 2 for my rear surrounds and and one for a big lighted picture.

Wow, a brick basement huh? 3/16" Tap-Cons work great on that. What fasteners have you used on them? Yep, I'm taking a survey.

With option 2 you may need to raise your TV stand an inch or two to accommodate lay down viewing. How many romance novels you got?

 

[cheapskete OCer]

yes i used tap cons

 

[no. 5]

I've read that the human ear can more easily pinpoint a sound coming from below ear height than above it.j

I have heard that too, but I have yet to find anything that supports that idea. All that I have read on the subject suggest that the ear is pretty adapt at locating a sound source regardless of position.

 

[Tod]

It does look though like the absolute difference in elevation between the center and the tweeters on the l/r would be much greater for the op with the center placed above than below. That alone should make it sound less like being there and more like three speakers doing different things. Although I love having a speaker above the screen, I'd say in this case below is probably better unless you can lower the tv a bit or raise the l/r, or both....