How should my center channel be positioned here?

[vovin]

My left and right speakers have the tweeters almost exactly at ear level, but the center channel is placed well below ear level. Is this something I should be concerned with? My thought is to place something small underneath the center channel to point it at slight angle upwards, but I wanted to get your thoughts first.

 

[Montucky]

Your thinking is correct. Just grab some cheap black composite shims from your local hardware store and angle up toward your ears. Normally one or two on each side will do the trick just fine. You can usually buy a stack of them for a couple bucks. Something like these: https://www.lowes.com/pd/TimberWolf-Actual-0-1875-in-x-1-5-in-x-7-9375-in-12-Pack-Composite-Shim/3377156
Boom. Problem solved. It really can make a noticeable improvement.

 

[fuzz092888]

Depends. If you’re ear height isn’t more than 10-15 degrees above the center it shouldn’t be an issue. If it doesn’t sound wonky to you and things can move from left to right or vice versus across your center stage it’s not a problem. If things don’t sound “off” then there’s nothing to fix.

Yes, ideally you’d want it the same height, but within a certain +- degree it shouldn’t make a huge difference.

 

[Montucky]

Depends. If you’re ear height isn’t more than 10-15 degrees above the center it shouldn’t be an issue. If it doesn’t sound wonky to you and things can move from left to right or vice versus across your center stage it’s not a problem. If things don’t sound “off” then there’s nothing to fix.

Yes, ideally you’d want it the same height, but within a certain +- degree it shouldn’t make a huge difference.

As a rule of thumb that is generally true. All depends on the dispersion of the loudspeaker as well as the distance/height of the listener's ears. That said, I have indeed found a simple adjustment of the center channel to make a HUGE difference at times. Sometimes they need to be pulled toward the front of the cabinet. Sometimes they just need to be angled up a bit. Either way, at least it's free to play with it and see what sounds best and dirt cheap fix to make a more permanent, fairly sleek solution.

 

[fuzz092888]

Also as mentioned above, pulling the speaker out to the edge of the cabinet might help because speakers are designed with a certain amount of floor “bounce” of the sound waves. Also the stacks of CD’s could have an effect since you are effectively making the cabinet wider and the sound waves wrap around the sides/top/bottom of the cabinet and changing any of the dimensions could alter frequency response.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I would also move the left speaker closer to the TV to match the right speaker's distance from it.

 

[little wing]

I use something similar to this. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FGCC2FM/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01FGCC2FM&pd_rd_wg=PSOQu&pd_rd_r=3PEGXE2HRCCG9KK6SZ31&pd_rd_w=E27fp.

I slid it under my center speaker to raise it up a bit. I normally sit on the couch to watch and listen, but one day I found myself on the floor, I think I was playing with our cat, anyways, I noticed the center channel sound MUCH more prominent when my ears were closer to the floor. So positioning makes a pretty big difference from my experience.

 

[lovinthehd]

Rubber door wedges also make good speaker anglers....and does look like your cd's deserve a separate rack/stand.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I use something similar to this. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FGCC2FM/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01FGCC2FM&pd_rd_wg=PSOQu&pd_rd_r=3PEGXE2HRCCG9KK6SZ31&pd_rd_w=E27fp.

I slid it under my center speaker to raise it up a bit. I normally sit on the couch to watch and listen, but one day I found myself on the floor, I think I was playing with our cat, anyways, I noticed the center channel sound MUCH more prominent when my ears were closer to the floor. So positioning makes a pretty big difference from my experience.

Yeah these are fairly popular and definitely effective.

Ymmv, but IME, being closer to on axis is better than not. I don’t know the vertical dispersion window of your center, but I doubt it’s very high. You can experiment with odds n ends at home then buy the pads if you like the results. I would definitely try. I would also bring that speaker all the way to, if not just over the edge of the shelf.
And as stated above, it would be worth evening out the L/R speakers to be equidistant from the display.

 

[fuzz092888]

FWIW

Seating distance at 5 ft

10 degrees vertical off axis = 11"
15 degrees vertical off axis = 16"

Seating distance at 8ft

10 degrees vertical off axis = 17"
15 degrees vertical off axis = 25.7"

 

[STRONGBADF1]

What are you... a math teacher or something???

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[fuzz092888]

What are you... a math teacher or something???

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Past tense. Was a math teacher