Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater advantage of adding another center channel???

I have a vp 150 that sits ontop of my tv. I have tried to put it under the screen because I thought it was supposed to sound better there, but when I do something just doesn't seem right. For some reason voices seem to have a chest cold sound on some dialog from certain actors. It is weird. My question is this. I notice with pink noise that it sounds a little higher in pitch than my floorstanders when set ontop of the tv. So am I just loosing it or is something just a slight bit off. Now, finally my question. Will adding another vp150 under the tv help to smooth things out, or not help at all, or would I even notice a difference? thanks

What floor-standers do you have? When you put it under your TV, did you angle it up? When you have it on top of your TV, is it in-line with your ears? If not, have you tried tilting it so that it is in-line? Also, place it as close to the front of your TV as possible to minimize diffraction from the top of the TV. Is the level set correctly? There are users on this forum that have huge home theatres (4000 cubic feet+) and manage just fine with a single VP150 so my feeling is that a second one would be a waste of money.

I think it depends more on preference than cubic feet of your room.

If you have a very big screen, and don't want to be able to localize the dialog, having 2 centre channels is awsome.

I currently run 2 M3s, one above and one below my 92" screen, the dialog sounds like its actually coming from the actors lips when watching movies. I have M2s on order and should be here this week (in the next 2 days) to replace the M3s.

I will have a hard time going back to a single centre channel above or below a big screen.

Keep in mind that a center speaker will not likely sound the same as your main speakers with pink noise.... that doesn't mean that they won't match well with real-world sources however. If you were to use the identical center speaker as your mains, it would likely be a bit better, but even then they may not match when using pink noise due to different room positioning!

My guess is that the center sounds a little "chesty" when mounted low because you're getting a bit of "boundary effect" from the floor.

Although your center in the "above" position might sound a bit thin when playing pink noise, my guess is that it's still a superior position in terms of dialog clarity.

I don't have experience with dual centers, though there has been a reasonable amount of discussion here of late that can be found with the search tool....

I've been intrigued about dual centres for a long time but have never tried it. There is always an argument about using two speakers on the same channel out of concerns about lobing effects. To make a long story short, two speakers in-phase and symmetrically positioned on either side would produce a lobe at the central viewing axis.

If it sounds good to you that must mean your M2 speakers are far enough apart that you are not experiencing this lobing problem. Maybe you are onto something.

I think John is referring to a pair of speakers side by side as a center channel. Yours are over / under the screen, right?

When I was screwing around with placing my 22’s, I found that if they were too close together, one would actually sound better than two. At around 24” apart, they started to sound better. They are about 36” apart now and I’m liking it…..a lot. Any further apart and I can tell there are two speakers instead of sounding like one big center.

Hutzal,

Your screen is three times the size of mine! I'm envious now and I want to see it .

I'm going to give dual centres a try with a couple of monitors to see how they sound, much like Hutzal's setup. If set up properly at the right distance apart and sit at the sweet spot I see how it can work. Any recommendations not to use dual centres have to do with acoustical problems such as comb-filtering, lobing, cancellations, difference in arrival times, etc. when you move out of the sweet spot. The other thing I've noticed is that people who report good results are more often than not using 2 way vertically aligned speakers as centres.