TV as a Centre Speaker?

[need001]

Hi

I'm hoping to add a new home cinema system to my current set up:

Loewe Mimo 32"
Sky Plus
Toshiba 110E DVD player (this will be replaced)

However, I don't really want to have a centre speaker lying on top of my TV. Having bought into the Loewe style concept (I've got a wife to consider) I was hoping for something unobtrusive to support it. Is it possible to have a surround set up using the TV in this way?

 

[Ian J]

Originally posted by need001
Is it possible to have a surround set up using the TV in this way?

Some televisions can be configured to use the internal speakers as centre speakers with external speakers handling other duties.

The resulting sound would probably be awful as it would be difficult to think of a worse mismatch than a TV speaker and anything else.

The closest analogy that I can think of is to listen to a CD in stereo with a hifi speaker on one side and the internal TV speaker on the other.

 

[stevegreen]

TV speakers are generally quite weedy in comparison with anything that you may be considering to use as a centre speaker. This being the case you will not get the kind of sound that you may be wanting.

You don't say what amp or speakers you will be using, but on mine i can set the amp to having no centre channel (which it is at the moment) and the fronts 'compensate' for the lack of a centre.

The centre channel produces a lot of the sound for movies and really, to get the best out of whatever kit you have a seperate centre channel speaker would be preferable.

I am not sure if you can use the TV speaker to act purely as a centre channel, but i doubt it.

 

[need001]

Thanks for the replies. The Mimo does provide excellent stereo sound but it sounds that it would be a considerably compromised result in getting it to work in tandem with other speakers.

My room is about 4m * 3.5m so I would probably only be after small (Elac cinema?) speakers.

 

[Ian J]

It isn't the size of the speakers but their voicing that matters. It is always advised to buy the front three speakers from the same manufacturer's range so that when voices or sounds pan across the front the timbre doesn't change.

 

[crooksm]

You could of course go for the Loewe Dolby Digital upgrade for your Mimo. This would then allow you to use the TV's speaker as the centre speaker - you would however need to buy *active* fronts and rears...