Good day

My Rotel pre-amp has the ability to send two signals for a center channel. I have an extra channel on my Rotel power amp. The question is, would I be better to get a VP150 or 2 M22's for a center channel speaker(s). I would put the 22's on either side of my 55” TV or lay them on top of the TV equally spaced apart (tweeters out). Would this not give me more options for customizing the sound? Would the M60’s match better to the 150 for 2 M22’s? And could I even get away with the M3’s for that matter. Any body’s thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm not much help, but I wanted to BUMP this for you Worf. Sometimes new threads get lost without members noticing them.

I can tell you that in general, it's not a good idea to place a vertical speaker in the horizontal position. Also, in general, it's thought by many here that the M3s have a slightly different sound than the M60s, so you might be better off narrowing it down to the M22s vertically or the VP150s mounted horizontally.

Like I said... I'm not much help, but BUMP!

Welcome to the forums!

Worf, welcome. My own preference is for a single small vertical speaker above or beneath the screen instead of a horizontally configured center. When I got my M22s for main channel use three years ago I also experimented a bit using them as center speakers in my 5.1 setup. Of the options that you mention, in my view the M22s would give the best match(other than using a third M60)with the M60s. Using the M22s horizontally on top of the TV would in effect give you a TMMMMT center similar to the TMMMT layout of the VP150, and you could certainly experiment with that setup to see how you like it. My thought is that the vertical arrangement at the sides of the TV would be better, however. One point on that arrangement is that the center image formed by the two M22s would shift slightly for someone not in the exact center, but it wouldn't move farther than the M22 on that side.

See?

I knew someone smarter than me would answer!

Hi Worfzara,

Just to confirm: the M22ti (or M2i) is a closer tonal match to the M60s than the M3ti. Two M22ti's on each side would work very nicely for the center channel. Based on a lot of my tests of center-channel placement, any differences you'd hear between two M22ti's and one VP150 would be subtle. But using two M22ti's would give you versatility in placement.

Even the M22ti on its side used as a center, while I don't recommend it, sounds surprisingly good.

Regards,

How would 2 M22's , 4 wires doubled up on L/R posts of center channel, work out load wise on the receiver? This is an interesting idea to me. Should allow a more powerful presence than a single VP150 I would think.

Dude, if you make a parallel connection to two M22s, using their nominal 8ohm impedance results in a net 4ohm impedance. Also keep in mind that speakers dip below their nominal impedance at some points and that at those points the effective impedance would be below 4ohms. Whether this would cause the receiver to shut down would depend on the volume and the length of time for which this effect lasted. It may work out fine and could be at least tried.

He doesn't plan to put them in parallel. His pre amp supports to centers and he can drive them through his amp independently.

Anyways, in the Audioholics review of an Axiom 7.1 system, they actually use two vp-150's up front. One below the screen and one above. The author seems to say it works very well. I guess it might be out of your budget however, i'm not sure. Here's the link to the page it talks about the setup:

http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/loudspeakers/AxiomAudioM80tiEP600p1.php

http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/loudspeakers/AxiomAudioM80tiEP600p1.php

$2.00 per link

Here is a speaker placement guide that talks about dual centres. According to it, two centres receiving the same signal is a no, no. Probably not what you want to hear. Anyone agree/disagree with what the guy says? I was hoping to use two speakers for my centre whenever I take the HT plunge...

They're just talking about comb filtering. You get that with a single horizontal center anyways, although two vertical centers will exhibit it at lower frequencies from a single horizontal because the inter-driver distance is different. I don't know why the author doesn't mention that any D'Appolito arrangement (which most center channels use) will exhibit this.

Find any album which has sustained single notes and walk around while listening (early Genesis with Steve Hackett wailing away is good) and you will hear this effect with any horizontal center speaker.

I expect that at lower frequencies the combing would actually not be so annoying but I don't know that for a fact. Interesting point though... but the real lesson is that a single VERTICAL center is perfect except that it normally blocks your TV

Alan discussed this awhile back with me--he doesn't think the effect is significant enough to worry about.

JS, it appears that he is simply asking about a parallel connection to the center channel terminals of his receiver.

>>Alan discussed this awhile back with me--he doesn't think the effect is significant enough to worry about.

Yep... it's only apparent on perhaps 1 album in 100 (almost always Steve Hackett, don't know what kind of processing that guitar is going through), and I have never really noticed it on a DVD.