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Using Center Speaker for right, center, and left fronts?

post #1 of 3
12/8/12 at 10:41pm
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Wondering why I shouldn't simply buy 3 identical center speakers for my entire front sound stage. Are there issues for why people do not opt for this?

My specific constraints are a built in entertainment center that has one long horizontal ledge along the top of the plasma screen. Perfect to have 3 centers there to fill out the entire stage. I cannot accommodate floor standing speakers so it's either centers or bookshelf style. A Polk CS20 or the Definitive Technology CS-8040HD should provide a wide frequency range. With an included Velodyne sub, I should have the entire spectrum covered for either stereo music or home theater.

Thoughts?
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post #2 of 3
12/8/12 at 10:50pm
I think it's a good idea for a situation like yours. Stereo imaging from the l/r will suffer using horizontal mtms, that's the only real downside.
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post #3 of 3
12/9/12 at 7:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mattmcg View Post

Wondering why I shouldn't simply buy 3 identical center speakers for my entire front sound stage. Are there issues for why people do not opt for this?
My specific constraints are a built in entertainment center that has one long horizontal ledge along the top of the plasma screen. Perfect to have 3 centers there to fill out the entire stage. I cannot accommodate floor standing speakers so it's either centers or bookshelf style. A Polk CS20 or the Definitive Technology CS-8040HD should provide a wide frequency range. With an included Velodyne sub, I should have the entire spectrum covered for either stereo music or home theater.
Thoughts?
If all 3 speakers are pointed straight forward, all the listening positions will be "off-axis" of at least 2 of them. The off-axis response of a horizontal speaker suffers from lobing and comb filtering caused by the interaction of the horizontal drivers. Here is an article that explains the issues using measurements:
http://www.audioholics.com/education/loudspeaker-basics/vertical-vs-horizontal-speaker-designsI
In your arrangement, every seat will be compromised by these issues. Of course, every seat will get "sound", but it won't be the best sound. Bottom line, if you have the ability to use wide dispersion vertically oriented speakers, you will get a much better result.

Craig
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