Center Speaker Placement/Tweeter Alignment

[Chitown2477]

My question in a nutshell - is it better to have the center channel speaker on the top or bottom of the TV/display? Additionally, does putting the center channel speaker more in line with the front L/R speaker tweeters make for better dialogue clarity and better front sound stage mix?

Here is my current situation:
Currently the center channel speaker is above the TV via a stand I made. This puts it about 53" off the ground and about 20 inches above the front L/R speaker tweeters. The center channel speaker is aimed slightly downward towards the sitting position. The TV sits on a stand that is about 20" tall. I am considering building a box (for lack of a better description) to sit on top of my TV stand that the center channel speaker will fit into. The TV will set on top of the very stable and secure box I will build. Once completed, the center channel speaker will be 20" off the ground, below the TV, and best of all within about 6" of the front L/R speaker tweeters.

Any thoughts?

 

[Phil Taylor]

Placing the center either above or below is acceptable - but whichever is closest to the level of your ears (and your R&L speakers) when seated is best.

 

[tattoo_Dan]

My question in a nutshell - is it better to have the center channel speaker on the top or bottom of the TV/display? Additionally, does putting the center channel speaker more in line with the front L/R speaker tweeters make for better dialogue clarity and better front sound stage mix?

Here is my current situation:
Currently the center channel speaker is above the TV via a stand I made. This puts it about 53" off the ground and about 20 inches above the front L/R speaker tweeters. The center channel speaker is aimed slightly downward towards the sitting position. The TV sits on a stand that is about 20" tall. I am considering building a box (for lack of a better description) to sit on top of my TV stand that the center channel speaker will fit into. The TV will set on top of the very stable and secure box I will build. Once completed, the center channel speaker will be 20" off the ground, below the TV, and best of all within about 6" of the front L/R speaker tweeters.

Any thoughts?

I built a shelf for over the top of my tv and used rubber door stops and a laser level to point(angle)the CC right at our ear level.

I want to put the CC on top of the tv,
so I came up with this,
mounted base blocks to the back of the stand
(don't look at the wires,that got cleaned up)

and made these

.

.

bolted them to the base blocks.

.

.

[/QUOTE]

And the finished brackets work perfect !

 

[tattoo_Dan]

.nothing touches the TV at all

.

.

I have made some mods to this project,

,

,

 

[Chitown2477]

This is nearly the exact same stand I have now. I saw your previous post. Nice job!

 

[the grunt]

I built a shelf for over the top of my tv and used rubber door stops and a laser level to point(angle)the CC right at our ear level.

Nice work Dan! Much simpler that what I came up with.

My question in a nutshell - is it better to have the center channel speaker on the top or bottom of the TV/display? Additionally, does putting the center channel speaker more in line with the front L/R speaker tweeters make for better dialogue clarity and better front sound stage mix?

What’s wrong with the sound now?

If it’s just that the dialogue sounds odd coming from above the TV then getting it more inline with the tweeters of the L/R mains, as suggested by Phil Taylor above ,will help.

However, if you have problems with timber or the dialogue is hard to understand then you may be getting some reflections off the TV screen. As an experiment you could move the center temporarily out in front of and below the TV on a small stand or something and see if that improves the clarity. If it turns out that it is reflections causing your problems then just putting it under the TV may not help much and you might be better off making a permanent stand for in front of the TV.

Also have you checked to make sure all the drivers in your center speaker are working. If a driver is out or not working properly that will cause problems.

 

[businessjeff]

Oh man thats funny as heck!!! But in a good way. I just love the simplistic engineering that went into that.

Positioning of a speaker IMO is really only important in terms of forward or back. Meaning, as long as the center isnt closer than the fronts, then you will still be in balance.

Whats more important in your case, and seen from the pics above, is the positioning of the speaker in terms of where its pointing. Meaning, use rubber door stops to ensure that you center remains pointing at your sweet spot.



Your speakers are going to be balanced from the factory so that if its a 2 way or 3 way, horn, flat, baffle, w/e, the sound leaving the front of the enclosure is all timed to leave at the same time. So keep your fronts and center in line with each other in terms of distance from your couch, same goes for the backs. The sub as far as placement goes, does not matter nearly as much as acoustic resonance from ambient object does.

 

[Pyrrho]

Placing the center either above or below is acceptable - but whichever is closest to the level of your ears (and your R&L speakers) when seated is best.

This is absolutely right. When sounds pan across the front, the sounds should not appear to go up (or down) in the middle; they should just go across.

So whether you put your speaker above or below the screen should be done with that in mind.

 

[Pyrrho]

My question in a nutshell - is it better to have the center channel speaker on the top or bottom of the TV/display? Additionally, does putting the center channel speaker more in line with the front L/R speaker tweeters make for better dialogue clarity and better front sound stage mix?

Here is my current situation:
Currently the center channel speaker is above the TV via a stand I made. This puts it about 53" off the ground and about 20 inches above the front L/R speaker tweeters. The center channel speaker is aimed slightly downward towards the sitting position. The TV sits on a stand that is about 20" tall. I am considering building a box (for lack of a better description) to sit on top of my TV stand that the center channel speaker will fit into. The TV will set on top of the very stable and secure box I will build. Once completed, the center channel speaker will be 20" off the ground, below the TV, and best of all within about 6" of the front L/R speaker tweeters.

Any thoughts?

I think it is a good idea to do what you are planning on doing, assuming that the right and left speakers are currently at the right height. Ideally, the center channel speaker will be at the same height as the right and left (use the position of the tweeter for the determination if your center speaker is not identical to the front right and left speakers). However, it is generally considered to be fine if they are within about a foot of each other, so 6 inches should be fine. In any case, within 6 inches is certainly better than 20 inches apart.

 

[croseiv]

.nothing touches the TV at all

Nice build there. Very creative.

 

[Chitown2477]

The reason for the change is the sound does seem to be a little strange or different sounding at times - primary dialogue. I doubt it is a reflection and all drivers are working fine.

I will run a test to see how it sounds on a temporary stand. If it indeed sounds better, I will go with the box design I have mentioned.

 

[Soundman]

I just had to post when I saw the pics. That is creative improvizing, my friend. nice job!

 

[DD66000]

The center baffle needs to be forward of the front of the tv, and the box.
And the dialog should be better with it below the screen, first, because its closer to your ear level and more in line with the mains.
I have my center below and in front of the tv.

 

[Chitown2477]

Well I built the box and moved the center speaker below the TV. The results are good. The dialogue seems much clearer and front sound stage sound is much sharper. The TV image actually looks better with the added height. That was a big surprise to me. Perhaps because the eye level is higher relative to the screen now.

And the wifey noticed the image improvement without me saying anything. That is my proof a real improvement because generally she thinks I’m nuts with the tweaks that I do for in her words "no apparent reason except for the sake of doing it!”

Here are before and after pictures.

 

[Chitown2477]

After

Here is the after pic

 

[Phil Taylor]

Very nice - looks good! WAF bonus points too - congratulations!

 

[tattoo_Dan]

Here is the after pic

looks good,

glad to hear about the improved aspects

and ya! and it's always good to get the wife on board with our addiction !

 

[Pyrrho]

Here is the after pic

It looks much better, and I am glad it sounds better. It is interesting that, in many cases (though obviously not all), things look better when they are set up to sound better. I have often noticed audiophiles posting pictures of their systems, which show their rooms are pretty bare, and it looks not very good. Bare rooms, of course, also tend to have unpleasant echos, so in such cases, putting things on the walls would not only improve the looks of the room, but most likely, the sound as well.