Center Channel Position

[Droff]

I'm finishing a room to be a theater room in my attic. The screen wall/TV wall is 60" high due to the roof/ceiling/rafter slant. I have framed an area in the wall to hold a 50" flat panel TV and the cabinet is about 9" from the floor. I have about the same distance above the cabinet but the ceiling is slanted so I don't have much room at all above. I'm planning on going with a projector and a screen, with a TV option if I want it. The screen would be roughly 47"x96" and would leave no extra room at the top unless I set the screen on the floor which I don't want to do. It would be roughly 9" from the floor as well.
I'm not sure where to mount my center channel. I'm thinking my only option is to mount it below the screen/TV but that would make it basically on the floor. How bad of an idea is this? My only other option would be to mount it above but it would stick out from the wall a good ways and it would be hard to center in the middle of the screen/TV due to the rafters.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[MDS]

I would mount the center below the screen and angled slightly upwards. You can buy center channel speaker stands or perhaps buy one that has a built-in stand that can be angled. Auralex (room acoustics panels type company) has something called MoPads (or something like that) that can be used to angle speakers as well. Might want to check them out too.

 

[Seth=L]

Pretty cool that you are making a home theater in your attic.

 

[Jack Hammer]

A couple of ideas...

I don't know if any of these would work for you.
I'd try to put the center channel on top of the screen. Maybe you could move the entire assembly forward about six inches, that might give you enough room to fit it on top. Or you could try moving the assembly over a bit, allowing it to fit between the rafters. You could place the center speaker to one side of the rafters (slightly off-center), it may not be perfectly ideal, but with your size screen it may be better than putting it on the floor. Lastly, you could possibly pick a slightly smaller screen size, and maybe move it down an inch or two, then mount the speaker in the top center. I think having the center speaker sticking out a few inches on top would be better than having it on the floor, but I'm no acoustics expert.

A lot of those ideas depend on your speaker dimensions and how perfect you want everything to look. Again, I don't know what your room for play is, or if you even have any. And/or if it is even feasable for you to do. I'd say play with everything and see what you can come up with. If you are going to make changes, its better to do them now before everything is completed.

BTW, it looks like you're going to have a nice little setup in your attic.

Jack

 

[Droff]

I thought about placing on above the screen and not having it centered but wasn't sure how that would work out with the rest of the surround setup. If it isn't a problem sitting on the floor and then being angled up, I'll probably go that route.
I'm not sure what type of system I'm going with so I don't know the dimensions of the speaker yet. I'll frame it as large as I think I need to and then go from there.
Thanks for the input.

 

[MDS]

I'll frame it as large as I think I need to and then go from there.

Measure twice, cut once.

I would look at a few center channel speakers first to see which ones you may be interested in and then get their dimensions. The better speakers that can go fairly low in the frequency range tend to be larger. You wouldn't want to bring your new baby home and find out you made the opening 1 inch too short or worse - not deep enough. Also take into account that the binding posts and speaker wires will add a few inches to the depth.

 

[KevInCinci]

I asked a similar question a few months ago about mounting above or below the screen. The advice then was to put it above. Something about how the ear localizes the sound. I put it above and angled it slightly downward. The other option was to have it about 1' off the floor in the cabinet. I'm glad I didn't do that, since I now have plenty of room for components below it and the speaker is just using up space in a cabinet above the screen that's pretty much useless for holding anything else.

Cheers,

Kevin

edit - here's the link to that thread, but only one reply: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24031

 

[JKL1960]

Just another thought for you to consider. How about putting speakers behind your screen and using a perf screen?

 

[Johnd]

I don't believe that to be a hard and fast rule. Without taking anything away from any poster here...the general rule is to have the three fronts;
1) the same distance from the prime listening position;
2) at or about ear level (tweeter); and,
3) the mains equidistant from the center.

I have my mains ideally located, but I was forced to "squeeze" my center under the pool table. It is about six inches off the floor and angled directly at the ear. The sound emanating from my center is crystal clear and "localizable" as it should be...it should sound as though it's coming right off the screen. The center is the one channel that should be localizable. Bottom line: I don't think you'll have any trouble with the center below the screen provided it is off the floor (and as high as possible), and angled toward the lp. Cheers.

 

[Droff]

Thanks for all the tips.
I'm opting for below the screen as that seems to be the best location. I'm doing a DIY screen so the perf screen is out.

 

[AVRat]

You can still do an acoustically transparent DIY screen. A bit of light reading!! http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=640385&page=1&pp=30