Almost everyone wants to truly enjoy a home theater while immersing himself in the sounds and visuals of thrilling movies, favorite TV shows, or music videos. In such a case, an individual should consider investing in a surround sound system with innovative receivers, audio formats, and more high-quality speakers to produce the best theater sound experience at home. With the evolution from stereo to home theater surround sound systems, there is now a need for a dedicated center channel speaker. This article will explain what a center channel is and how to place speakers for a thrilling experience.
What Does the Center Channel Do?
The center channel is known to carry around 70% of the entire soundtrack and even more at certain moments. This includes a wide range of dialogs and musical vocals. In addition, these speakers anchor the dialog to the screen while accounting for distance and location. Moreover, the character’s voice tends to come from certain places at varying volumes more convincingly.
Another important feature of a center channel speaker is that it supports a seamless soundstage with the front right and left main speakers. This feature allows sounds to flow smoothly from any point between them. Furthermore, a great center speaker will always convey sonic transitions seamlessly and accurately.
Tips for Placing Center Speakers
Proper placement of any speaker is important because they track the vocals to the screen while allowing effects to flow smoothly without any breaks from left to right. As with any speaker, the center channel with tweeters should always be placed at ear level. An individual should consider following these speaker placement tips to enjoy a premium quality experience lasenorita:
- If a homeowner uses a projector and an acoustically transparent projection screen, they should place the center speaker at ear height behind the screen.
- Center speakers can be shelf-mounted above or below a TV screen or placed on the top of an entertainment cabinet. Moreover, make sure to angle the speaker up or down towards the listener for better performance.
- If considering placing the center channel on furniture, make sure to align the speaker flush with the front edge so that the lobing of the sound waves can be eliminated.
- For a large-sized center channel that couldn’t fit in an AV furniture piece, try stand mounting it at the listener’s ear level, below the TV screen.
- Place the rubber doorstops or other non-abrasive wedge-shaped objects below the front edges of a center speaker. By doing this, one can elevate the drivers and tweeter toward the listening area.
Conclusion
A dedicated center channel speaker specifically designed to be placed in a horizontal orientation above or below the TV screen works best for almost every home theater. Furthermore, ensure that the tone of the center speaker matches that of the front right and left speakers. The sound coming from a center speaker with a different tonal character will seem different from one location compared to another, creating a poor experience. So, purchasing the center speaker from the same brand as the right and left speakers is recommended.
