Hi, folks,
I finally got a center speaker and up until now I've just had it sitting on a stand in front of the audio/TV rack about a foot off the floor. I want to now position it correctly and am wondering whether to put it on one of the 3 shelves on the rack or whether to mount a wall shelf behind the TV. Only bad thing about that is the rack and TV are pretty deep, so I think it would have to go pretty much higher than the TV, in order for the TV to not interfere with the sound from it.

Let me apologize in advance for this crummy photo - my phone is my only camera.

It's going to be a pain in the butt no matter what I do - moving my receiver, or making a shelf. The bottom shelf currently has my old receiver sitting there, unused. So my thought was to remove it and store it elsewhere, then shift the cable box and modem downward to the bottom shelf and then put the center either on the TOP shelf of the rack or in the middle shelf of the rack.
So, make a space for it on the rack? or mount it way up over the TV, on the wall?
Thanks for taking a look for me. My system, as you can see, is crammed in a corner, but sounds really decent. My surround M3s are sort of behind me, on a computer desk for the moment, so I know I have some wall mounting to do there too. But for the moment they are ok.

thanks!

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IF your new receiver fits in the middle shelf, I'd put it there and put the center channel on the top shelf. The more you can have it "out in the open", the better. Set the speaker a little bit proud of the front lip of the top shelf, so that little (or none) of the shelf interacts with the speaker baffle.

If your new receiver only fits on the bottom shelf, I'd still do that and try really hard to put the speaker on the top shelf rather than in the middle.

But, yeah, PITA all the way around. Try to have fun.

hi Tom,
for now I put it in the middle after relocating the cable stuff to the bottom. Seems to sound much better already, in the upward pointing configuration. I put it so it sticks out a bit from the shelf, so it seems to me the sound should have a clear path to my ears.

But I know ultimately I do need to swap the position with the Yamaha, which will be a headache. Might try that tomorrow if I get real inspired. This change I made today is already a vast improvement. Sounds real natural.

thanks Tom!

It might NOT make that much difference, honestly. Enjoy!

Em, the clarity may not improve all that much by moving it to the top shelf. What you WOULD likely gain is some continuity in speaker height in that all the tweeters will be closer to being in line with each other. Otherwise, if a car drives from left to right, the sound will"dip lower" when it's in the middle.

Plus, with so much of the sound information coming from the center channel, it will sound more like the voices are coming from the actors if the center is close to the TV screen.

Sorry if I just gave you reasons to take on a project tomorrow.

ha! thanks for the info. I'm sure I will try the other position. Just couldn't face it today (disoconnecting/reconnecting all the stuff from the back of the Yamaha). Once I get it settled then I can make all my wiring neater, too. Sounding good on my end!
I believe this is the most happy I've ever been with sound.

Hope you all are having a happy ears evening, too.