O
Oxfordman
Guest
A lot of people visiting this forum have quite decent hi-fi systems but also want a good home cinema set-up, although not many can have separate rooms for each. This question is primarily addressed to them. By definition a good stereo set-up produces a sharp and accurate central image for the vocals. As the tweeters of the main speakers are/should be at ear-level, in the absence of a centre speaker, the vocals/dialogue appear to come from an ideally located point as it coincides in most set-ups with the centre of TV screen. Since the centre speaker has to be located about 2 feet below or above the centre of the screen, there is an inevitable trade-off. Everybody recognises the importance of a good tonal matching between the centre and the main speakers, a task not always easy if you want to keep your cherished main speakers, often not longer in production! So there is a second trade-off. I understand the argument that a centre speaker enlarges the optimum listening area, but only up to a point, as seating too far away from the sweet spot might not affect adversely the dialogue sound but puts out of balance the sound from all the other 4-6 speakers, so carefully adjusted for the correct delay/distance and sound pressure! (be it by ear or SPL meter).
I have tried a centre speaker for a while to disprove my own arguments but with no much success! I have now removed it but since so many of you cannot be all wrong (let alone the recommendations of Dolby Labs, DTS and speaker manufacturers!) I cant help feeling I am missing something!
Could any of you proud of your home cinema system try the phantom centre mode and describe the disadvantages you perceive?. It would be most helpful. It might even convince the other-half that all TVs (even her lovely Loewe Aconda) are meant to have a speaker sitting on top!
Many thanks
I have tried a centre speaker for a while to disprove my own arguments but with no much success! I have now removed it but since so many of you cannot be all wrong (let alone the recommendations of Dolby Labs, DTS and speaker manufacturers!) I cant help feeling I am missing something!
Could any of you proud of your home cinema system try the phantom centre mode and describe the disadvantages you perceive?. It would be most helpful. It might even convince the other-half that all TVs (even her lovely Loewe Aconda) are meant to have a speaker sitting on top!
Many thanks