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Are your speakers losing air?

I was reminded of my own advice today.  I was fiddling with something in my HT system and had my head right up to the center channel.  I noticed that sadly, there was a lot more air and ambiance up close to the center speaker than at my listening location. 

I remembered the advice I often give others about room treatment.  If you sit up close to your speakers you can really hear the detail and ambiance they create, and that all the information you lose between there and your normal listening position is due to the room.  That is, your room is lossy. 

In this particular case I resolved the issue by putting a 2'x4' acoustic absorber across the entertainment center, essentially hiding it entirely with the center peeking up above it.  Problem solved, and suddenly movies and dialogues have a lot more acoustic information than they used to. 

This also shows us a couple of other issues.  My center is, by deliberate design, extremely wide dispersion.  I am most likely suffering from this vs. say a horn loaded center like Hsu or Klipsch offer.  That is, a limited dispersion center may not have had these issues.  The other is that my Butcher Block double wide rack is itself a source of interference with the original signal.  This I may fix more permanently with an IR repeater so I can keep the panel in place. 

Anyway, hope this advice helps you in evaluating how to get the most out of your speakers and room.

erik_squires
mashif
168 posts
 

I have vintage 12" 3 way JBLs for LCR. Each has volume controls for midrange and tweeter. I set them by ear and then run Audyssey. The end result is very clear and powerful sounding dialogue. Larger speakers push more air farther into the room.

moonwatcher
375 posts
 

The nature of the beast. Most center channel speakers are more or less "regular" speakers turned 90 degrees on their sides, so yes, there's bound to be issues with dispersion. You might get them to sound great to you, sitting in the sweet spot, but for anyone sitting a few feet off axis, not so much. 

I'm surprised more center channel speakers aren't coaxial to improve that even dispersion in the room at least +/- 30 degrees, but we get what is offered by the manufacturers. 

Even a MTM speaker will have issues.  So we are left with narrow beaming to sound good in a very narrow spot or attempting to spread that higher frequency information more evenly somehow through the room. 

Most people WANT the long form factor of a center speaker because it fits easily under their TV and their wives thinks it looks "OK". And there may already be a rack of equipment or a coffee table under the TV.  Trying to convince the spouse to accept yet another "big" speaker under the TV is problematic. @mashif glad you can get away with it. 

erik_squires OP
16,004 posts
 

You’d be shocked at how many well known and well respected, center channel speakers have horrible off axis speaker performance, and measurements.

@simonmoon  That's why I built my own.  😁

 

@moonwatcher  I think you touched on several issues aboout how the home center channel is always a compromise.  In m y case while. the off axis performance is excellent, I don;t have floor space to put it in anywhere but on top of the audio rack, and hence the excellent vertical dispersion is a double edged sword.

 

erik_squires OP
16,004 posts
 

Several readers replies make me think that they missed the solution here:

Eliminate early reflections

A principle that can be applied to any speaker.

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