| Home Theater Setup [message #65918 is a reply to message #65915] |
Tue, 01 February 2011 10:09   |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18754
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Honestly, I don't like making the center channel speaker different than the left and right speakers. If you can't make them the same, I'd prefer not to even use a center speaker. Use a phantom center instead. You can configure the home theater this way, and it works very well for most plasma and LCD screens, even the large ones. They aren't so large that the phantom center configuration leaves a hole in the middle, especially when the right and left speakers provide uniform directivity and are toed-in, forward axis crossed in front of the listeners. That's how my system is setup.
Have you tried the crossed-axes configuration, pointing the left and right speakers to an imaginary place one or two meters in front of the listeners? If you haven't tried that, you should:
In my opinion, the best reason to run a center speaker is behind very large screens, so large they really need a center. Most screens that size are used with projectors, and are acoustically (semi) transparent, so speakers can be placed behind them. This also allows you to use speakers that are physically large, and not have to settle for a poorly designed center (like one with side-by-side drivers) as are so commonly used.
Where you can use the one π speakers is as surrounds. Put them to the sides of the listeners, slightly behind and above them. The little one π and two π model speakers are the perfect spectral match when used as surrounds.
While you're upgrading the system and adding speakers, you might also consider adding subs. It will help add extension for home theater sound effects, and believe it or not, it will also help sound quality of music by smoothing room modes, making the lowest bass more uniform throughout the room. The subs aren't blaring or "thumping" - when setup right, you can't even tell they're on because they blend so well. Everything sounds like it's coming from the mains. They're just there to smooth the low end, and to add a little bit of foundation at the very deepest frequencies. See the last few pages of the document below for more information about how this works:
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