center speaker above or below screen?

[KevInCinci]

I set up my home theater with a front projection screen such that the middle of the screen is right about (or slightly above) ear/eye level. I'm not fond of craning my neck to watch TV, so I went with this setup that puts the screen a bit lower what is typical. The problem I've run into is where to put the center speaker. Does it sound more natural to have it above the screen or below it? My screen with frame is 52" tall, with about 28" above and 24" below my eye level. Putting the speaker below means the bottom of it is about 18" off the floor and putting it above means the top is about 18" from the ceiling. The architecture of my entertainment center is such that I can just as easily put it in either place. I've tried both locations temporarily and can't say either really seemed better than the other, or even all that great. What's the philosophy here?

Cheers,

Kevin

 

[MDS]

It can work well either way as long as the speaker is pointed roughly at your ears.

The philosophy behind which would be 'better' though is that the ear does a better job of localizing sounds (determining exactly where they are coming from) when the source of the sound is below the ears. Therefore it may be better to have the speaker slightly above your ears so you maintain the illusion that the sounds are coming directly from the center of the screen as opposed to the case where the speaker is below the screen and in some instances you can tell that the sound is coming from the speaker.