On my VP150 I noticed that if I move from the center of my listening area either to the left or to the right, the sound gets weaker. Meaning the speaker output is directed towards the center of the listening area only.
I am wondering if this could be improved if the front of the speaker design is changed to a slight arc where the configuration is MTMTM instead of a flat front with TMMMT. In this arc design the sound should remain the same even if the listener is on the left or the right of the sweet spot because the drivers would be directed towards a wider angle of listening area.
If this is technically not viable or really unsound, please forgive my ignorance. I am not a sound techie but just a listener looking for a better sound.
The point of that speaker is to lock sound to the TV. Arcing it would disperse sound all over the sound field. I would suggest you play with the placement of your Front speakers.
Thanks for the reply. I have been playing around with various positioning of the VP150 and I found out that so far the one that works best is placing it about 9 inches back from the front of the TV and tilted forward aimed at the listening position. Placing it right at the TV screen sounds too forward and detached.
I am not sure if arcing the center speaker will disperse the sound all over the sound field since it is directional which means that the listener can distinguish that the sound comes from the center speaker and since it is aimed towards the listener it will simulate that it is coming from the TV.
I am not arguing with you, I am just trying to understand the concept.
In reply to:
I am not sure if arcing the center speaker will disperse the sound all over the sound field since it is directional which means that the listener can distinguish that the sound comes from the center speaker and since it is aimed towards the listener it will simulate that it is coming from the TV.
I am not arguing with you, I am just trying to understand the concept.
Right, but those sitting in the "sweet spot", directly in front of the TV and equidistant to all speakers, will not have the center speaker focused on them. It will be arcing to the sides of them meaning that sound won't reach them until it's bounced off a wall or two.
No?
NO, the concept is one mid directly aimed at the sweet spot, another is aimed at slightly left, and the third is aimed at slightly right. A tweeter is located in between the three mids creating a configuration of MTMTM. This will not create a true arc but the front of the speaker will look like a bulging front just to accomodate the slight toe out of the two outer mids. The tweeters will also be very slightly toed out to the left and right where the angle is between the center mid and the outer mid.
The theory is that the sound heard at the sweet spot will not be entirely different from the sound heard at the left or right of the listening area.
Ed, I don't know if the weakness you noticed is anything more than the normal dropoff all speakers have way off axis. It may also be the response irregularity that most horizontal centers are prone to. It's interesting that previously the VP150 did have a MTMTM arrangement(flat, not curved), then Ian changed it to the present TMMMT. Note Ian's interesting evaluation of various centers in a 3/30 reply to a "M22 Front..." thread on HT. Yet another arrangement which aims to lessen the problem of widely separated mids is W T/M W, but I might argue that this is little more than a disguised small vertical center, the arrangement I prefer. Again, I'm not sure what you noticed, but the more common complaint isn't just a narrow response pattern, but an uneven one.
John,
I believe you hit it right on the head and the discussion on M22 you mentioned enlightened me. I just thought a curved front would widen the response pattern and maybe even it out too. Not that I am having problems with my VP150 because I like the sounds. I noticed this certain characteristic which may be inherent in all horizontally designed speakers. I just thought "could it be further improved?"
Just a thought.
Although my listening area is only about 7 feet wide (we have a thin living room!), I have never really noticed a problem with sound dispersion horizontally with my VP150. I find it sounds great if I sit right in front of it, or a bit off to the side.
If it dispersed too much sound outward to the sides, then it might not aound as good. Voices would be all over the place.
Try placing your center channel slightly behind your two mains, that might help get a better, seamless pattern across the front. I have noticed many DVD's do put some vocals through the mains as well. This helps spread the voices a bit more.
My listening area is 13 feet wide. I will try moving the VP150 back some more. This might help improve the center sounds while listening from the sides.
Thanks everyone!