Ya, jd said it right. Horizontal MTM configurations run into horrible/massive cancellations/nulls as you move off-axis to the left or right, since now one of the mid/woofer drivers is closer to the listener than the other. Ironically the whole point of a center channel speaker is to anchor the dialogue for people sitting off-axis. So a classic vertical design is superior, its just not attractive or fitting for many systems. But the marketing guys keep selling'em. You'll see a few designs were the designer was aware of this and tried a little. Dickason's cookbook has a design where he gets the two mid/bass drivers almost side-by-side with the tweeter tucked into the space above where the two drivers begin curve away from each other. But even then its not ideal. So to answer your first question, firstly, they aren't optimized to work as center channel speakers by virtue of their shape, and secondly, and which answers both questions, the more accurate speaker is the more accurate speaker and there should be no real difference between the center and the left and right (in regards to waterfall, impulse response, etc.) The only room for debate is in off-axis frequecy response capabilty which also addresses the phase problems any multidriver system deals with.
what's so special about center speaker ?
For $300 ~ 500, you can buy a center speaker or a pair of bookshelf. To me a pair of bookshelf seems to be a better choice because you can later use them in a stereo system, or rear surround. Also, I think bookshelf is more traditional/classic speaker design than woofer-tweeter-woofer speaker. Are center speakers specially optimized to work as a center channel besides its shape? Maybe the center speakers are optimized to produce vocal/dialogue?
Ken
Ken
- ...
- 10 posts total
- 10 posts total