Hi All,

We recently moved to a new house with a basement room that is perfect for a HT projector. When we were looking at the house, my wife said "Our plasma's going to look like a postage stamp on that wall". (sounds like permission to upgrade to me!).

Tonight I ordered a Panasonic PT-AX200U. I think I have about a 14.5' throw, which should yield about a 106" picture.

I just started thinking about the placement of the center speaker. Where the heck do you mount it? Way up at the top? Way down at the bottom?

Thanks to all the folks in this forum for your help. I have visited this forum quite a bit in over the last two month just trying to learn the PJ vocabulary (throw, lumens, etc).

I think most mount it below or, if they have an expensive acoustically transparent screen, behind the screen. Mine's too far down below, but it's no biggie. I think the rule of thumb for the screen is that eye-level is about 30% up the screen, so the center channel would often end up being 3' up off the ground. Good luck - maybe check out speaker forums rather than projector forums, also.

It is suggested that the center be as close to the height of the L/R main drivers as possible to maintain the front sound stage (more effective pans across the front stage) . Aiming is critical here with most speakers !

-- Jason

I have a 104" Carada BW screen and place my Cambridge Soundworks Center below, nearly on the floor, on the bottom rack of a tv stand where my A/V equipment sits. It is probably two feet below the drivers of my Front speakers but I notice no difference. Of course, I have propped up the front of the Center channel speaker quite a bit with legs that angle the sound upward. I tried it at first without tilting the speaker up and it was not nearly as good.

My screen's kind of low due to a bulkhead. I had my centre mounted below it, but I tried mounting it above. The last 2 rows of seating hear it better mounted above.
Human hearing is more sensitive to left/right than up/down, so I wouldn't sweat it.

I think most mount it below or, if they have an expensive acoustically transparent screen, behind the screen.

I built an acoustically transparent screen, so my front speakers are all behind the screen. The total cost for my screen was maybe $75. Here's a thread where I detail how I built it (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=913563).

Hi All,

We recently moved to a new house with a basement room that is perfect for a HT projector. When we were looking at the house, my wife said "Our plasma's going to look like a postage stamp on that wall". (sounds like permission to upgrade to me!).

Tonight I ordered a Panasonic PT-AX200U. I think I have about a 14.5' throw, which should yield about a 106" picture.

I just started thinking about the placement of the center speaker. Where the heck do you mount it? Way up at the top? Way down at the bottom?

Thanks to all the folks in this forum for your help. I have visited this forum quite a bit in over the last two month just trying to learn the PJ vocabulary (throw, lumens, etc).

My comment is about your throw distance and image size. The AX200U has a big zoom range. So, it gives you total placement flexibility. I am generating a 118" image at 14' away. I can also go down to 88" at this distance. I do this zooming in and out because I built a 2.40:1 screen and need to adjust zoom and lens shift to get the image centered appropriately for different kinds of AR.

I sit 11.5' from a 106" 16:9 screen. I started with my center channel speaker on a Wood Technology 18" stand, but I wanted to lower my screen some (the bottom of the screen is now 23.5" from the floor), so I converted to a Wood Technology 12" stand. This is working much better. I haven't noticed any reduction in sound quality from lowering the center speaker. Here's a pic. BTW, I'll soon have an AV123 MFW-15 sub between the center and each main speaker.....that will help cover the wires.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/chadt927/htupdate032808.jpg

Below or above will both work and I would pick the one that gets the center closest to ear level as should be the left and right mains. Then you need to angle it to the main viewing area as posted above.

In my case I needed my screen to be within 2 inches of my floor and also my ceiling and there was no room for a center. I didn’t want to go with an acoustically transparent screen. My room was long and narrow and I have no extreme side seating and I opted to put more money into my mains and go with what is called a phantom center channel. So I have a 4.2 surround. My two 12” subs height was just right to set the mains on top and the upper driver is at ear level with my back row seating and the lower my front row seating and the tweeter mid way between.

IMHO unless you have a very wide room and people are going to be sitting off way to the sides, the sound stage with a phantom works very well just like stereo did for years but with the added benefits of the rear channels. When a sound travels across the screen the sound image follows perfectly, at least to my ears.
Others will point out the drawbacks to a phantom center and like I mentioned there are some. When I was experimenting with both a high and low center I was finding that when a sound crossed the screen it was like it was also changing height. The center also has to be closely matched to the mains and quite often the center is a smaller driver intended to carry movie dialog and fit into a smaller space.

Just my 2 cents on centers for what its worth.:o

Below is a picture of just one side of my setup. :D

http://inlinethumb54.webshots.com/13941/2930463190068493142S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2930463190068493142Ewpktx)

Hi All.

Thanks for the great ideas.

I got everything hooked up and discovered that the guy that built the house created a perfect 16:9 wall. I couldn't resist filling the whole thing; had to set the center channel on the floor.

I had to move the PJ back to about a 15.5 ft throw. The projected image is about 13.75 feet!

The picture looks awesome on a flat white painted wall. Do I need a screen?

Heh that's fairly awesome :) You only need a screen if you think you do - and unless there's texture that you can perceive, or you think you need more gain (extra brightness) or contrast (a gray screen/paint) then leave it and be happy!

Yea, this thing is like sitting in an OMNIMAX theater!

I might get green carpet with some chalk stripes for football season.

I can't tell from the pic - are the surrounding walls/ceiling black? That would give you a significant perceived increase in contrast and overall PQ.