What centre speaker for plasma on wall?

ddaddy

Standard Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2002
Messages
92
Reaction score
2
Points
56
When i get my pany 42" plasma, i will need a centre speaker that can be wall mounted under/over it. My current speaker setup is nothing spectacular, they are eltax speakers from richer sounds. I will eventually be replacing them all as they are black and i have redecorated and want wood coloured ones, so any ideas on a full 5.1 set would be appreciated. But i dont have much money to spend on them, just around £400 - £600. If i can find a decent full 5.1 set, i will just get a new centre for now, any suggestions on a centre speaker thats small enough to be wall mounted.

cheers
 
I think the Centre Speaker is the most important speaker in the 5.1 system, the main reason is that all the dialogue is mostly on this speaker, and if you cut corners on the quality of the speaker you will not be happy with the sound.
You don't want your system to sound like the actors are speaking from within a bucket...

I got mine from RS and was about £40 at the time (RRP £99) but you can pick one up for £20 now.
Its the Eltax HT2 centre speaker and it was a beech colour, and because I have got a Panny D4 I have painted it Black.

It is not light in weight, but it does sound great.
I have mounted it above the Plasma about 6 Inches from the ceiling.
I used four 'T' brackets from B&Q to fix it to the wall, and metal cork screw like raw plugs into the plasterboard.
Each bracket is fixed to the back of the speaker using two wood screws, and the top of the bracket has a slotted hole.
So you fix 4 screws in the wall, then just hang the speaker on the wall screws using the slot.

Then I ran the cable in side the wall between the plasterboard and the breeze block then down to the Plasma trunking cables.

Have Fun,

Bluebear.
 
Hey codlord,

Where is the rest of your furniture? Has the bailif taken it all?:D :D

PVR
 
The centre is the most important speaker, and you shouldn't skimp on this. But it's also got to match the rest of your system. While I spent a few hundred on mine, if you did this with your budget, you'd not have anything for the rest!

But you're looking for a 5.1 package if possible. Yes, you could blow your budget on just the centre, but a quick look at the back of What Video & TV and I can see about 70 different 5.1 packages! Prices range from £200 to £5,000. So you should find a very good package for £400-600.

bluebear:
£3.5k plasma screen and a £20 speaker! Go in to a really good HiFi store and get some demos. Sound is half the home-cinema experience, I'd suggest having a wee bit of an experiment with different amps and speakers.

All the best,

Dr John Sim.
 
Heres mine , I used an Apollo wall support.
 

Attachments

  • hh.jpg
    hh.jpg
    15.6 KB · Views: 540
Nice DD logo on the wall! I've got mine as you enter the room.

All the best,

John.
 
Thanx , ive been trying to get hold of a DTS and a THX logo to go with it.
 
A friend has the DTS logo too (it's HUGE!). You could buy them on their website before, but I don't know about now.

All the best,

John.
 
symanski,

Hey John leave my centre alone... :D

I am sorry I got the model wrong, my looks like the Eltax Centre BEECH (£49 at RS) and I painted it Black to match the D4.
Trust me, it is a great speaker, I spend hours listening to different centre speakers, its 120Watt job, its built like a tank.
John, go into Richer Sounds and demo it, if you can find a spare hour...

I also got Floor standing Mission speakers for the fronts (Big 250W) and Mission Stand mounted on the Rears and a 150W KEF 10inch Sub to shake the whole house.

And a Sony 925 (100Wx4) Dobly Digital amp to drive it all.

I only forked out £3100 (inc VAT + Free Shipping + BNC Interface card) for my Panny D4 from Av-Sales ... :p

Anyway, we do agree the the Centre Speaker is very important speaker in the system and I do agree with you that you should spend hours in different Hi-Fi shops demo speaker packages.

For the record I did not buy my speakers from RS, it was a very repected Hi-fi shop and I knocked then down by £300 on the package...

I will post some Photos shortly, so you can all have a laugh at my setup.

Have Fun,

Bluebear.
 
Why not go for an in-wall speaker. M&K have 3 models iirc and Kef have atleast one. I can vouch for the quality of the M&K.

The covers of the M&Ks are paintable to match the wall and are obviously removable. Only 5mm protrudes from the wall.

Not the cheapest option though.
 
Originally posted by bluebear
Hey John leave my centre alone... :D

John, go into Richer Sounds and demo it, if you can find a spare hour...

Getting the whole system in balance isn't easy. Some amps work better with some speakers, and mixing between manufacturers might not give the best results. I've heard demos of some really high end kit, and even then it's not been in balance. You can tell that the centre was weak. Many have stated that you should use the same speaker for your centre as the front left right, and there's justification in this statement.

In my system when I first put it together the centre was weak. So, I changed centre for one from the next range up. Now the front sound stage is seamless. Also, I prefer to have bass directed to the speakers rather than my sub. My viewing room is quite difficult, and there's upgrades I'd like to do (REL subs would be nice). But that's for another time.

If I'm going past Richer Sounds I'll have a look. I'd have thought you'd have wanted a Mission speaker to match the rest of your system??

All the best,

John.
 
ddaddy

Go listen to a few of the Mini Sub/Sat speaker systems in the £600 - £1000 range from the likes of KEF, B&W and Mission. Then compare those systems to the more conventional 'cabinet' offerings from the same manufacturers - expect to pay up to £1500 for a complete package.

Once you find the 'sound' you are after you can look at how to purchase it in stages - though as you have seen from installer09's set up sometimes the sound you are after will not be found in small boxes!!!

Or if you want a really discreet install as per ijwoo1's post look at In-wall speakers - (see following post).

Best regards

Joe
 
ijwoo1

You beat me to it - its not 'fashionable' here in the UK in the Home Cinema market but I bet we start to see more and more In-wall speaker installs over the next couple of years.

The KEF Ci Series are very good - get the ones with the Uni-Q drivers and as per Johns post get a matching set of three across the front and you will get a great sound. ( KEF Ci 160 QS Mk11 - approx £135.00 each or the slightly larger Ci 200 QS approx £190.00 each).

Others to look at are Sonance and Niles - they have a bigger range of designs to suit many applications and budgets; all the way up to full THX certification.

Best regards

Joe
 
I'd have thought you'd have wanted a Mission speaker to match the rest of your system??

symanski,
I did demo the Mission, but I liked the sound of the Eltax and it was in the sale... :D

The thing I would say to anyone looking for 5.1 speaker setup is to spend hours listening to the speakers using both CD music & Movie DD 5.1 material.
I did look at the B&W first as they sound great feed from CD, but had too much bass when feed with pure sound of 24bit DD from a DVD. So thats why the Missions came out best as you can throw anything at them and they will cope.

Just have FUN listening to different setups as you are spending lots of cash, so make the shop people work for there money.

Have Fun,
Bluebear.
 
I have seen the mission sub/sat set FS1 at http://www.mission.co.uk/product/fs1/fs1av.htm they look promising.

I went to look at them at my local hifi store, and although they look slightly different to the picture (In the picture they look round) i think i want them, they had a panasonic plasma there, and the centre speaker sits on top nicely.

Only thing is, they couldnt give me a sound demo, said too busy this time of year.

He did say that sub/sat speakers lack mid-range, is this a major problem?

cheers
 
BlueBear,
I chose Mission speakers too. They suited my amplifier better than others, and were in balance - not too much bass or trebble but still had mid-range. This was a number of years ago, but I've not seen anything (within reason) to significantly improve on what I've got. I'd have to improve the viewing room too - which is another problem.....

At the Glasgow HiFi show, many different manufacturers were demo-ing. By far the best was ART, but at £16k a tad out of my budget. Of the rest (Mission wasn't there), I found Tanoy to give what I consider to be a well rounded sound without breaking the bank.

Ddaddy,
any HiFi store that can't give you a demo isn't one that you should be buying from. The whole reason of having a HiFi store is to be able to give demos! That said, it's also worth reading up in all the magazines to see various reviews and how they compare. Do watch with some of the magazines, they may give five stars to a £100 speaker, but the same five to one at £1000. Was the £100 speaker as good? No. Just that for £100 the reviewer was impressed.

All the best,

John.
 
An Artcoustic DF-MULTI - It can be used as a Centre or Left, Centre and Right Channels.

Very pleased with it... definitely needs a sub though
 

Attachments

  • plasma 003.jpg
    plasma 003.jpg
    5 KB · Views: 406

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom