So I'm moving to a smaller apartment and will be gitting a 37" LCD monitor. I'll hopefully wall mount it but, yeah, where do you put the center ch. speaker?
Flat panel/wall mount LCD: where do you put the center ch. speaker?
- Thread starter slackerinabox
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LtPage1
Diamond Member
- Jan 15, 2004
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Actually, I find that embedding it in the ceiling, directly overhead, provides the best sound. When your TV is mounted on the wall instead of on a stand, the sound waves change their accipated modulator frequency, thus requiring the change of location for the center channel speaker.
blurredvision
Lifer
- Oct 19, 2000
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What intogamer said, although I'll elaborate a bit more. Purchase an adjustable speaker stand to hold it, don't sit it on the ground.
There are quite a few on wall speakers to choose from. You could also put a shelf under the TV and put the CC there.
What?
I cut a speaker-shaped hole in my display and stick it in there.
But no, seriously... center speakers suck, I use 4.1 in my surround. Center-sounds are far more centered than they would be with a center speaker, ironic really.
Does your tv have the built in speakers? If so try wiring them as your center channel. You might be surprised how well that works.
if you watch any DD5.1/DTS/etc material, you're screwed with a 4.1 setup. dialogue and most sound effects are mixed strongly towards the center channel.
Not at all, I downmix the center channels in Winamp. Well, I'm back to stereo now, but that's what I did.
It's true for any well configured system where two speaker can achieve phase correlation. It's not easy, but it's superior to having a center speaker when achieved.
Wait, are you talking about PC speakers? If so, yes, I agree. The sound stage is so small for most people's computer desks that a center speaker is pretty much pointless. But I think the OP is talking about speakers for home theater use, in which case a center is very useful.
See above, the condition would apply to any speakers. Although the case would be that the effect is more difficult to achieve with speakers that at a significant distance from the listener relative to the room surroundings, even so the case would be the achievement of phase correlation would defy the need for a center speaker, and would in fact be superior to one for the very reason that a center speaker cannot be positioned in an ideal location between the two speakers because of the screen. And then there are the inheritant deviations in the physical/acoustic properties of a center channel that is not identical to the main speakers.
But that's why you buy center speakers that are the same brand. Any decent set of speakers will have the center acoustically matched to the front L/R speakers. You can get by without a center, but I still think having one is better for most HT applications for multiple reasons. I also don't think having a center just above or below the screen has any real negative impact in performance. You would have to be sittng very close for that to make a difference.
Seems like it, but the ear is extremely sensitive to minor phase deviations.
If a sound is coming from the center, it arrives at both ears in a very similar state at the same phase. Yet if you attempt to re-create this sound (say a drum beat) and play it in the left and right ear at the same time, you will recognize the sound as two distinct sounds coming from the left and right rather than a single sound coming from the center, even though seemingly in both conditions the ears receive the same sound.
So the problem here is, even though you have a center channel, you will only hear sounds in their proper location if they are oriented to the location of the physical speaker, but any sound that is panned to a location in-between speakers will sound relatively disoriented without correlation. And that's only half the problem as without correlation the sound will also lack that spacial signature that gives the sound a sense of presence of actually being in the room; or you being in the movie for that matter.
A center channel merely patches the wound that is an incoherent soundstage. Not only would a surround setup that matches this difficult requirement sound superior, it would do so without the use of a center speaker. So yes a center speaker has some purpose, but if you have the means of configuring your system to make it obsolete, you should very much do that instead.
If a sound is coming from the center, it arrives at both ears in a very similar state at the same phase. Yet if you attempt to re-create this sound (say a drum beat) and play it in the left and right ear at the same time, you will recognize the sound as two distinct sounds coming from the left and right rather than a single sound coming from the center, even though seemingly in both conditions the ears receive the same sound.
So the problem here is, even though you have a center channel, you will only hear sounds in their proper location if they are oriented to the location of the physical speaker, but any sound that is panned to a location in-between speakers will sound relatively disoriented without correlation. And that's only half the problem as without correlation the sound will also lack that spacial signature that gives the sound a sense of presence of actually being in the room; or you being in the movie for that matter.
A center channel merely patches the wound that is an incoherent soundstage. Not only would a surround setup that matches this difficult requirement sound superior, it would do so without the use of a center speaker. So yes a center speaker has some purpose, but if you have the means of configuring your system to make it obsolete, you should very much do that instead.
cKGunslinger
Lifer
- Nov 29, 1999
- 16,408
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Not really. The LCD panel is at least two inches thick, plus maybe 2 inches for the mount, so your screen is about 4 inches from the wall. Depending on your center channel, it don't stick out much further than that.
Ummm... this problem is worse without a center since you are relying on two speakers that are potentially far apart to create the phantom center. You would also have to be sitting dead center between the two speakers.
Also, you don't appear to understand how surround sounds works. When you don't have a center any sound assigned to the center channel is sent to both the front L/R speakers. Your point about panning doesn't make any sense because any panned sounds will be panned between the center and L or R front speaker if that is the way the audio is encoded. Not having the center does not create extra panning as you seem to be claiming (i.e. you seem to be claiming that spoken audio will be anchored to the center if you have one and not panned with the location of the on-screen speaker as it would be without the center).
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