2 center speakers...

the upright center works best if its closer to ear level, and/or height of mains.

if its considerably below or above ear level, you most definitely want to angle it.

Vertical speakers = good horiz dispersion, bad vertical dispersion.

Horiz speakers = good vertical dispersion, bad horiz dispersion.

Actually I value what you have to say. I see that you have grown in your knowledge over the past few years. Going from a HTiB to the full-fledged HT.

And its because of YOU that I am spend more that I planned on at the beginning. Well, you and a few others here on this forum. The Onkyo 805, more on the sub, listening to nicer speakers, etc. I might have gone with a bose HTib and been done with it...j/k.

Because of current budget constraints, I am going with the bookshelves, floors and a sub (probably Elemental Design - A2-300) and get some surrounds later (as per NM_Bill). The flat screen will probably come in Dec or after X-mas, when the $$ drop. At that point I'll have to pay for cable (or Fios if it get to my house by then).

And I went with the bookshelf for the center because of the horiz. dispersion (room setup) and I know that I won't be getting crazy loud with it...yet. Maybe in a new house with a dedicated HT room (wishful thinking).

Question:

Is there a way around comb-filtering? (I wold like to have one pointed straight ahead and one angled to accommodate people sitting on a couch to the side).

BTW - the B15 is sienna. email me if interested shachiya@hotmail.com

Again, thank you all for all the advice, patience and willingness to share with the uninformed like myself.

find instant gratification too hard to resist. In the long run, not buying an interim compromise is better for the earth as it would be discarded when replaced.

just be happy that you will have better horizontal dispersion of dialogue audio than 99.99% of anyone that has ever posted at CNET. If its still wide enough, then you have to rearrange furniture, setup, etc. Having the upright is as good as you can get.

If you want it to sound wider, with an off axis response that is closer to identical to on axis, I might try Ascend or possibly Behringer Truth. The latter is quite limited in extension, typically requiring a higher x-over, but is cheap!

The Ascend, even the 170 SE, is "wider" than the PSB. Something to consider.

If there is a way to sidestep phase issues with dual centers, I don't know how you would do it. I do know it would be very involved, assuming it was even possible. Just be happy that you even get to do a single UPRIGHT center. Way ahead in the game already.

I came across this thread while searching for advice on using 2 centre speakers. There's not much on the subject and the advice posted on various forums is contradictory so I'd appreciate some expert advice.

My scenario is I have a square shaped room with a 47 inch LCD TV on the Chimney Breast. There is no practical way of placing the center speaker on the chimney breast wall so currently it's just to the left with my Hi-Fi Equipment, which is obviously not ideal. I thought a solution for centering the sound might be to install a second center speaker on the right hand side? Problem with this is that my amp does not have connections for 2 center speakers so they would have to be wired together.

My Amp is a Denon AVR-3802
Speakers = 1 x lcr60 (center), 2 x DM603 (Front), 2 x DM601 (rear) & ASW675 (sub).

I know if I wire 2 center speakers together the impedance reduces from 8 to 4 Ohms but my amp says minimum 6 Ohms so I'm thinking that would not be such a good idea

Anyone have any bright ideas as to how I could solve this problem.

If you could put them at each end of the TV they would be about 4' apart. This should minimize the comb filter effect, kinda like stereo speakers feed a mono signal. Most people are about 8' feet from the TV your ears will hear this as one speaker in the center of the TV.
As for the Dennon give it a try, if any channel starts drawing to much current the amp will shut down. If it can't handle the load you can get small stereo amp to drive the speakers($100~150) and use the line output for the center channel instead of the speaker output. John

Thanks. So how should I wire them? Currently my single center speaker is bi-wired to the single center speaker terminal on the Amp. Should I take a similar wire from there to the other speaker or just take the wire from center speaker 1 on to center speaker 2? Or does it not matter? I've seen mention about difference impedance depending in whether you connect them in parallel or series but wasn't sure if the poster knew what they were talking about

now, I did hear one source say that Axiom sometimes might recommend dual centers. Why, I don't know. Some or even most people would say that dual centers is so bad, they wouldn't even know where to start in explaining.

I would HIGHLY consider forgetting the center altogether. Just remove it. Tell receiver that center is no longer hooked up. This channel will now feed into the mains. Now position mains for best stereo effect.

This is called a "phantom" setup.

Ok. This is the problem I'm having... so many different opinions on this subject.

I guess another potential solution would be for me to go for a different center speaker that is slim enough to locate on a shelf on a wall above or below the TV. I didn't really want to do this for aesthetic reasons and of course the LCR60 was too big for that but I could consider something smaller and thinner. The TV protrudes from the wall 23 cm at the top and 18 cm at the bottom.

Would this be a better option and if so can anyone recommend a suitable speaker that would go well with the rest of my system?

I wouldn't get a different speaker brand. Maybe a different model from BWs line-up, but within the same line is better yet.

Yeh... having thought about it it's a shame having spent good money on a very decent package of matching speakers to not use the LCR60. The problem is the LCR60 is quite a size and will look rather silly on a shelf on the wall above the TV.

I just wish I had thought ahead before the installation of the new fire and TV on the Chimney breast because it might have been possible to install the speaker in a cut out beneath the fire. It's too late for that now though as this would involve major work and rerouting gas pipes. I feel that I can't be the only one with this problem though. Surely I'm not the first with a 5.1 system to install a TV on a chimney breast wall? How to people manage to centre the centre channel?

The whole purpose of the center channel is to firmly anchor dialog closely to the screen.

Better to do as jostenmeat mentioned; that is to eliminate an actual center, instead to have high quality front L&Rs- the setup is called having a "phantom" center. It is like reverting to good old fashioned stereo. It is so tried & true that many of us still prefer it for our personal music listening. Assuming you might be using a receiver with Audyssey auto set up feature, tell it you have NO center channel. It will distribute the really big load of dialog audio info to the front L&R. In a surround setup the front L&R receive much less audio info because that is being assigned to the center. And that may typically be 65% of all the audio info because the dialog is so much of the package, interrupted, naturally by the nearly instantaneous surround effect surround fans lust for. In that case (surround) the sub woofer becomes very important & worthy of spending on it appropriately.

You are not the only one who has faced installing over a chimney breast. That is why many speaker makers are offering a set of very shallow dimension speakers. I know the discussion is quite hypothetical as a learning exercise, but really - dispense with the dual center idea. It's not practical.

Speakers intruding into the normal civilized use of room space often is a challenge. The wife approval factor may nix what is otherwise practical compromise of room space in favor of better acoustics. We very often compromise the more ideal acoustics by not being able to live with front L&R, for instance, being maybe 3 or 4 feet front & center of room corners. I have been around long enough to have absorbed some know how & I know I have compromised more perfect acoustics because I desire my A/V 5.1 surround to be a room more normal to live in, not a dedicated theater of any degree. And I know my music room is too small to get the best potential out of my B&W 804s.

Rooms you actually live in are different from any of the commercial listening areas, aren't they? Yes, so even though you may properly audition them seriously, they will never sound exactly the same at home. The best of audio & video to you. Enjoy