Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Phantom Center Channel

Paul, if I followed what you did, let me suggest that a better test is to simply set the center speaker to "none" and then in effect you'll be playing 4.1(rather than just stereo)compared to 5.1.

Good point John. That should yield more accurate results.

pn

I should have picked that up. That is what I wanted to know.

I have run my HT in 4.1 for the past year now. First with M3's and now with M80's. Both do a wonderful job of providing what appears to be a center channel. It does waver some when I move to the sides but then I adjust the balance to equal things out and it does fine. That being said, I do plan to get a center channel soon. I think that with certain movies and programs, it is difficult to hear dialoque for whatever reason. I'm guessing that a center channel will help in these circumstances. Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. Carry on.

Running a phantom center offers the advantage of your center image matching your Left and Right speakers perfectly...since the sound is produced by those speakers. If you sit dead center and you're the only one in the room, it can work well. As John wrote, don't do this in stereo, but rather surround mode with the "center speaker" set to "none" on your receiver and it will perfectly divide the center channel material equally between left and right.

This works well under some circumstances, but has more disadvantages than advantages.

If you DON'T sit dead center, or there's more than one person in the room, the phantom effect won't be centered in the audio image. A center channel speaker locks that material dead center with your TV. Having a separate center channel also allows you to modify the output level in comparison to the other speakers... many here bump up the center to improve intelligibility, for instance. And matching the side speakers in tonality is not an issue if you are using three speakers across the front that are designed to b used together.

Are you saying that 4.1 is different than a stereo setting? I have my 2309 set to stereo right now as all I have is a pair of bookshelves. I would think that the center channel is split between the left and right the same as it would be in a 4.1 configuration.

If all you have is a pair of speakers, then running in stereo should be the same as 4.1.

OK, so I missuderstood Ian back in 1999, he ment if you're going to use a cheap center speaker, you shouldn't have one.

See the following article, very interesting for those wondering about a center channel speaker and if it is necessary.

http://www.hometheaterfocus.com/blogs/blog/archive/2006/05/15/100530.aspx

BTW, I tried to watch a movie this afternoon in 4.1. Ummm, na, not the desired results. Music, and concerts, sure, sounds really good. And it wasn't horrible, but I really did miss the VP150 for clarity on dialogue.

I love my VP150, please don't ever take it away from me! LOL

paul

Thanks, Paul, you just justified my purchase!

Sure, anything I can do to help.