I am building a credenza to sit my Panny 65 on. I would like to mount the VP180 in cabinet speaker under the TV. With a seating distance of 11 feet how high should the bottom of the VP180 be from the floor for optimium sound.
Sounds like an awesome project.
My sense is that you can't have BOTH optimal viewing height for your display AND optimal listening height for your center channel in that scenario.
That is, I've heard that you want your eye-level to be about 1/3 up from the bottom of the screen. I've also heard that you want your tweeters at ear height. Unless your ears are very significantly lower than your eyeballs, something's got to give.
Personally, I think it would look best and make the right compromise to have the display where it is "supposed to be" and then just put the speaker directly below it (basically, the very top of the credenza).
I'm very interested in your project, as I think combining the VP180 in-cabinet into a TV stand makes a whole lot of sense.
I made some visual calculations:
TV with Stand is 39" considering Stand and Bezels I figure the middle of the screen is 20" up from the bottom. Sitting in the chair I figure a comfortable middle of the screen eye level is 44", so that make the credenza 24" tall. Speaker is 8 inches tall, 1 inch for wood above will put the tweeters at approx 19" from the floor. I figure my ears are at 38" sittin down so that put them 20" down from optimium. My question is this Too Much? Should I add some inches to "Optimum" view angle in order to bring the tweeters up? If so, how much? I ask the pros who make the VP180 for help because once I buid the credeza, its built, its not like leggo where I can add or remove bits.
Andre, I have the regular VP180 and FWIW I find the vertical dispersion characteristics to be outstanding. Given a choice, having it closer to ear level would be preferred, but only if that does not negatively impact your viewing experience. You will have to find the right balance, but I would not lose sleep over having it 19" from the floor.
Mine are probably around 22" from the floor, plus I have an elevated back row of seats, and the VP180 sounds great throughout IMO. When I took measurements, I only got a 3db dropoff (which is barely noticable) once the mic was near the ceiling, pretty amazing.
Angled upwards a few degrees?
Thank you for the insight AV. I don't think angleing it would be good idea, being "incabinet" either I would have to angle it within the cabinet putting a few inches of wood above it which I am sure would cause reflection problems, or I would have to extend the bottom outside the cabinet which would look bad.
Speaking of reflection problems, if your floor is hardwood, tiled, or hard surfaced in general, you might want to consider throwing down a nice big rug in front in order to help tame it a bit.
Its carpet over concrete with foam pad. Another wonder is that looking at the incabinets they are rectangular vice the Axiom wedge standard. Is it wedged internally? If not, does the incabinet sound different then the regular VP180.
Just make the top portion of the cabinet with a slanted profile. Sure, it would be a pain to build, but you didn't say "easy"
I'm pretty sure the incabinet models are square, and I'd be very surprised to hear anyone credible say that they sound noticeably different.
Maybe getting a regular VP180 and setting it on a shelf would be easier than the in-cabinet version?