Height of centre channel (in walls)

wardyworld

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Hi,

I've nearly designed all of my 5.1.4 layout now. I'm using monitor audio iw460x speakers for LCR. I'm sitting 2.4m from the TV, which is centered to my MLP.

My centre speaker will only be 40cm from the floor (about 53cm from floor to middle of the speaker).

As they are in walls, there is no adjustment.

Question is, should I try and build an angle into the false wall to allow the speakers to point up towards my ears? My ears are about 110cm from the floor. With a quick protractor and string test, I'd need to build in an angle of around 10 to 15 degrees...

Cheers,

Wardyworld
 
I have this same setup now. Although ears are 100cm off ground and center of speaker is about 40cm. Using a Linn centre speaker and being 2.6 meters from speaker it sounds perfect without any angle.

We are moving to inwalls in the summer and the new MK Sound speaker has been designed to fit about 50cm to middle of speaker by a custom install company.

Hope that helps?
 
I have this same setup now. Although ears are 100cm off ground and center of speaker is about 40cm. Using a Linn centre speaker and being 2.6 meters from speaker it sounds perfect without any angle.

We are moving to inwalls in the summer and the new MK Sound speaker has been designed to fit about 50cm to middle of speaker by a custom install company.

Hope that helps?

Hi, yes that does help, thanks - the centre of the sepaker would be around 53cm as it stands (40cm from the floor to bottom of speaker and they're about 26cm wide, so 13cm is the middle).

I can probably move them up a further 8cm so that the centre of the speaker would be about 60 to 61cm high. This would maybe spoil the aesthetics a bit bit I really want to get the best sound.

It's good to know that yours sounds good in a similar position and height to my setup.

I suppose question is will lifting the speakers an extra 8cm help. It's difficult with in walls because once it's built, it's difficult to alter and leaving the room half finished is going to really annoyed my wife whilst I try and play about with speaker positioning.

Wardyworld
 
Aesthetics is a key with our setup also.

Here is a link to our current room before we move to inwall speakers. For me keeping the screen at eye height is what is driving the height of the centre speaker. Your speaker choose looks good, we are going for MK Sound IW300 which are more square than the monitor audio. Which also posed challenges around the design for us.


Lounge, Media Room, Cinema?

What av receiver are you going to use? If it’s got room eq that we sort out any minor issues.

I can’t imagine 8cm is going to make any difference at 2.4meters away.
 
Aesthetics is a key with our setup also.

Here is a link to our current room before we move to inwall speakers. For me keeping the screen at eye height is what is driving the height of the centre speaker. Your speaker choose looks good, we are going for MK Sound IW300 which are more square than the monitor audio. Which also posed challenges around the design for us.


Lounge, Media Room, Cinema?

What av receiver are you going to use? If it’s got room eq that we sort out any minor issues.

I can’t imagine 8cm is going to make any difference at 2.4meters away.

Thanks I've spent a long time obsessing about how to set this up properly and deciding on atmos, etc. I have a Yamaha RXA-3060 so should be ok. I bought this on a whim in June last year and intended to get a bronze ab setup to do with it! It's still in the box whilst I sort the design out.

I agree aesthetics are important particularly if you're making the TV wall the focal point of the room as we both have.

My aim is to have the L and R speakers about 1.3m each side away from the TV (gives about 28 degrees angle from mlp).

TV is higher than I'd like by 25cm, but that allows me to put a 10cm recess around it, sink it into the wall and back light it with Philips hue lighting. I think it will look good when done. It's a compromise on absolutely the best layout and something pleasing on the eye and wife friendly.

I am going to install all of the speakers and TB in the locations I want and before plastering or any decorating is done live with it and see how it sounds, I can then move things if there are any problems.

I really like the look of the MK speakers, I get that will sound amazing when done. Does your centre speaker have a slight upward angle? I can't quite tell from the pics.

I aim to do a full build writeup when mine is done and lots of people have input on this forum to help and I'd like to show the results of the discussions!

Wardyworld
 
I would angle it. When I tried without an angle and a low centre I found the clarity was affected. I guess it would’ve been alright if I had ears in my knees.

It is speaker dependent but you’re not going to hurt the sound having the speaker pointing straight at you.
 
I would angle it. When I tried without an angle and a low centre I found the clarity was affected. I guess it would’ve been alright if I had ears in my knees.

It is speaker dependent but you’re not going to hurt the sound having the speaker pointing straight at you.

Thanks, the more I read, the more I agree.

I'm not sure how I'm going to build an angle into the wall as it's an in wall centre. Will have a chat with the carpenter and see what he can do.

wardyworld
 
I'd angle it. I might need to angle my L and R once they're installed.

I've done nothing practical yet, but in my head, I have a plan to do this by using timber furrings/wedges. One on the front of the plasterboard, one on the back at the opposite angle. Easy to draw, difficult to explain. If the plasterboard is this | the wedges would sit like this /|/ meaning a level surface for the speaker and fixings.

Still working on how to make them inconspicuous. Initial thought is making them thin enough to be hidden by the lip on the speakers and painted to match or wide enough that they look like some sort of purposeful mounting frame.
 
I'd angle it. I might need to angle my L and R once they're installed.

I've done nothing practical yet, but in my head, I have a plan to do this by using timber furrings/wedges. One on the front of the plasterboard, one on the back at the opposite angle. Easy to draw, difficult to explain. If the plasterboard is this | the wedges would sit like this /|/ meaning a level surface for the speaker and fixings.

Still working on how to make them inconspicuous. Initial thought is making them thin enough to be hidden by the lip on the speakers and painted to match or wide enough that they look like some sort of purposeful mounting frame.

I see what you mean, but I have no idea how i'm going to explain this to the carpenter!

Its is a good idea though, and i agree the speakers really need to be angled or the centre channel is going to be firing at my knees...

First thing I'm doing is getting the TV wall mounted on the fireplace wall so that I can check height / poitioning and live with it for a week or two. Will lower if needed. I can then decide how high I can mount my centre channel.

I really wanted to build the TV into a recess with 10cm all around it, paint it white inside and use the hue lighting LED strips as bias lighting. This is all going to have to be perfectly accurate otherwise the look and the sound will be off...

wardyworld
 
It does depend on the speakers in questions Kef Uni Q drivers are more forgiving off axis for example.

Don't have the telly too high, have you got any photos?

You can stick cardboard cutouts on the wall, which is what I did when working out my speaker and TV placement.

Couple of alternate suggestions.

Use dialog lift on the Yamaha, this is designed to solve this problem and uses LCR to effectively raise the dialog to the middle of the screen.

Have two centre speakers, one below, one above ?
 
It does depend on the speakers in questions Kef Uni Q drivers are more forgiving off axis for example.

Don't have the telly too high, have you got any photos?

You can stick cardboard cutouts on the wall, which is what I did when working out my speaker and TV placement.

Couple of alternate suggestions.

Use dialog lift on the Yamaha, this is designed to solve this problem and uses LCR to effectively raise the dialog to the middle of the screen.

Have two centre speakers, one below, one above ?

Hi,

I have built cardboard templates for all of the speakers and the TV. I think the TV is too high by 20cm or so (it will be 85cm off the ground as I currently have planned). My wife likes the height and wants it to stay as is, which is good in that it raises the centre channel, but bad in that you do look up slightly when watching. It's not by much, but I do notice.

I will stick the cutouts back to the wall tomorrow when home from work and post up a picture.

I didn't know about the Yamaha dialog lift, that sounds pretty cool, I'll do some research.

Cheers for this

Wardyworld
 
Dialog Lift Page 117 of the user manual there are a couple of conditions though so it might not suit.

Just measured my TV's bottom is 84cm of the ground and the centre of the centre is 64cm. I am using Monitor Audio Shadows as my speakers.

Why is the speaker so low on yours?
 
Dialog Lift Page 117 of the user manual there are a couple of conditions though so it might not suit.

Just measured my TV's bottom is 84cm of the ground and the centre of the centre is 64cm. I am using Monitor Audio Shadows as my speakers.

Why is the speaker so low on yours?

I'll have a read of that, Cheers

I could raise the centre speaker by another 8cm and that would make the centre of the centre about 60cm off the floor.

The reason it's low is I'm trying to build the TV into a false wall, recessed with bias lighting (10cm all around). If I took the recess away I could get the centre speaker up to about 68cm to centre of the centre.

Might look at taking the recess away and just put the bias lighting around the tv, but I really wanted that as a feature.

Wardyworld
 
update: Just spoke to Monitor Audio and they said because the ribbon tweeter in the cp-iw460x has such a wide dispersal pattern, angling the speaker should NOT be necessary.

Caveat is centre should be as close to the TV as possible. I'm going to build the wall (not the American one) with the centre as high as possible (probably 53cm from the floor to the middle of the speaker) and see how it sounds.

Cheers,

wardyworld
 

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