Should center channel be different from other sats?

[thecoolguy11]

While looking around for speaker packages, I've noticed that while most packages have a centre channel speaker which is different from the rest of the stats, there are some packages out there where the center channel is no different from the other sats? Is that an advantage, disadvantage or does it make no difference?

 

[Unregistered]

The center channel may not have as many drivers as the mains, but I think should have the same type as the mains.

Gene Thomas

 

[Leprkon]

Center channels

the center channel carries most of the conversation from a movie. if you have a long, spread out center channel, you get the vocals spread across the width of your sofa. if you choose the all-the-same-speakers, you get a center channel that only sends out from a single point and won;t get a very good dispersal. it would be ok if you only had one person listening all the time, as you could direct that one speaker to the normal listening point, but if you have two or more people, you want to spread the sound out a little better.

 

[cbraver]

I'm going to disagree. I think there is a huge benefit to having the same speakers across the front of the room. For realistic theater sound you want the speakers to have exactly the same characteristics and thus they have to be the same speaker in every shape and form. Look at what M&K and Snell picture for theater systems... or what Genelec shows. Or THX theater, Ultra, Ultra2 specs.

Also, the width of a speaker doesn't tell you how wide the "sweet spot" is of it is.

There is even a name for it, LCR speakers - Left, Center, Right.

-Chad

 

[GeorgeM]

...and I agree with you Chad; I've certainly heard the difference and there is a difference!!!

I think timbre is the operative word here.

-GeorgeM

 

[mtrycrafts]

I'm going to disagree. I think there is a huge benefit to having the same speakers across the front of the room. For realistic theater sound you want the speakers to have exactly the same characteristics and thus they have to be the same speaker in every shape and form. Look at what M&K and Snell picture for theater systems... or what Genelec shows. Or THX theater, Ultra, Ultra2 specs.

Also, the width of a speaker doesn't tell you how wide the "sweet spot" is of it is.

There is even a name for it, LCR speakers - Left, Center, Right.

-Chad

Yes, as GeorgeM stated, Timber matching. That should hold for the surrounds too but the also have a different radiation pattern that needs to be designed for.

 

[Karp]

In my opinion, there are several reasons why manufacturers design the center channel differently than the mains/surrounds, but it has nothing to do with sound dispersal. First of all, they design them to fit on your television. Try to find a place to put a large bookshelf (or a floorstander!) on your TV. The second reason is that because they are often placed in an entertainment center, they are rarely ported, while most mains/surrounds are. Thirdly, a horizontally placed speaker looks better.
Most center channel speakers are tuned for midrange, and the manufacturers TRY to match the timbre of the other speakers despite the difference in design. Some get it right, others aren't as successful. Having matched drivers doesn't guarantee that they will have the same timbre.
Some HTIB's left and right channel speakers cannot reproduce midrange very well, and they try to make up for it by adding additional drivers in the center channel, since that is where 90% of what you hear comes from.
As far as sound dispersal goes, having the drivers placed horizontally rather than vertically causes voids from standing waves if they have multiple speakers producing the same frequencies. Vertical speakers do this as well, but the voids are vertical rather than horizontal, so you will not notice them from a seating position.
If you have room to place a speaker that matches your mains in the center, you will have much better transition than if you are using a regular center channel. Many people who use front projection do use three matching speakers across the front.

Just my 2bits.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Center channels are designed with an even distribution of speakers off of dead center on the speaker. If you ever look at L/C/R speakers vs. mains you will see that the L/C/R speaker is designed with (typically) tweeters in the middle and woofers out to the sides. This way the sound from the center channel can truly come from the CENTER of the screen evenly for vocals. The more left and right of center the audio is, the more it is mixed with the left and right channels.

Now, if you look at dedicated mains, they usually will have a tweeter near the top and woofers near the bottom. Especially in a floor standing design. This is all about positioning the tweeter towards the viewer and letting the woofers send audio in a less specific direction. A tweeter halfway up a large floor standing speaker would shoot it at your knees, not your ears.

This is the best of my knowledge at least and matching speakers has as much to do with the room, location of speakers, amplifier, etc. as it does with what type of speakers you use.

 

[av_phile]

There is only one reason why center speakers should be matched with the mains - timbre. Or sound coloraton. Every commericial mass made speaker has one. Doesn't really make for a realistic listening experience for a 12-cylinder Ferrari to sound like a 4-cylinder toyota when it crosses your screen from L to R. Same with the rear speakers, you expect a 747 to sound like a jet when it flies from front to back, and not sound like a cessna when it reaches the back. So timbre-matching is the minimum condition I would consider in a multi-channel configuration, whether for HT or Hi-res music.

The d'appolito array configuration for drivers in a speaker in a horizontal position are common among center speakers. Maybe just for a wider dispersion. In fact, the same configuration are used for some brands for the rear, like those Coincident speakers, except no shielding. But there are also some center speakers that have the same tweeter-woofer vertical position as in the mains. The center speaker for the B&W 800 or 700 series, if I recall right, has such a config. The important thing is to localize the voice or some other hapenning right where the screen is. Once that is done, sitting anywhere on a regular 4-seater sofa gives such a localization effecitively. A longer sofa or where you have to seat a dozen people in a row may not be as effective. YOu may have to widen the center sounds like putting L and R floorstanders/bookshelves in mono to flank a large monitor. I think center speakers in a cinema are arrayed 4 or more behind and across the width of the screen, precisely because you have 50+ seated in a row in front of the screen.

 

[Unregistered]

First let me say that I agree that the front 3 channels/speakers should be identical. Second, let me recommend you take a look at what I have found to be the best answer to my months of research and auditioning. The Von Schweikert Audio System 12 home theater package (http://www.vonschweikert.com/surround_systems.html) answered all of my "but what about this" questions. To your question in particuler, this system would give you three large bookshelf matched front channels. They aren't ported bass reflexes, so you can place them most anywhere. They aren't sealed, so they're flat down to 35 Hz (see their website to sort out the aperiodic loading conundrum/solution. In short, they have 90% the bass of floorstanders, but lack the sound coloration imparted by floorstanding cabinets. The LCR's can be place on a stand vertically or on their sides. As to inherent M-T-M design issues, that is solved by the LCR's woofers being crossed over differently, so by having a tweeter, a mid-woofer and a woofer, you avoid any lobbing issues. Another great part of this package is their mono-pole/di-pole surround speakers - If you want really good 5 channel music, you've undoubtedly heard the case for mono-pole rears. Likewise the dispersion case for di-poles for movie rears. If you place the TS150's on the rear wall, you can get the directionality you want by switching them to monopole and the diffusion by switching to dipole. Note that in monopole, they are designed to radiate forward in a full 180 degree arc - hence fullness, with direction. Oh yeah, don't forget the VRS/1 sub that's petite, but puts out a fast, seriously flat (w/in 2db) from 20-100Hz and has it's own internal EQ. Unless you've got a huge room, I cannot find any other system in terms of combined reputation, price, and audition performance that matches this setup. Yeah, I'm buying em' & this is just my opinion, but you should see if you can find a local dealer to demo them with & let us know what you think. By the way I also auditioned B&W cdm 7's, Monitor Audio Silver 6's, Polk LSi's, Paradigm Reference 20's/40's and Klipsch Reference - all great speakers in their own rights. Hearing though is believing.

 

[Leprkon]

it looks like I took a pretty good beating on the technical aspect of horizontal speakers providing better sound dispersal... let's see what others have to say while reviewing a center channel:

(from our buddy Clint) The dual aluminum woofers were relocated to the outside of the speaker enclosure about two years ago to provide a wider listening area and reduce lobing effects. The result is the ability to move off-axis from the sweet spot without a drastic change in sound reproduction. Our discussions with Axiom yielded the following statement from Ian Colquhoun, Founder of Axiom Audio:

"We found in our experiments that the best off axis performance is achieved by having the tweeters to the outside of the Center Channel. We tried a WTWTW array but we could not get proper off axis performance. The current array of TWWWT gives the VP150 a very smooth response both on and off axis."

- Ian Colquhoun, Founder, Axiom Audio

Looks to me like sound dispersal (aka off-axis performance) is a little important for a center channel....