Anybody have a vertical centre and Plasma TV? Pictures? (1 Viewer)

Chris PC · Jan 22, 2014

I am working on a custom AV stand plasma stand with a vertical centre channel speaker in mind.

Just wondering if there is anybody who is using a vertical centre channel speaker with their Plasma TV home theatre setup. Do you have any pictures?

Type A · Jan 23, 2014

End of page 1 or page 2 of my gallery, link in my sig.

Chris PC · Jan 31, 2014

Thanks. This picture is kind of the idea I have in mind. I want to keep the centre channel a little higher than that, a little bit closer to the TV. I too want to have a projector screen coming down in front of the TV.

schan1269 · Jan 31, 2014

Have you thought of building your own center?

I built one out of a TV stand. Use Infinity Crescendo 3007. Lucked into a guy selling the guts of a 3006. Made my own front board to hold the drivers. Drilled a hole in the rear of the cabinet for speaker terminals. Glued the whole thing shut.

Counting the stand(bought clearance at Best Buy for $50), paint, glue, drivers/crossover...

Around $350. Took me maybe 4 total hours.

Edit:
http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Connct-90049-32-Inch-Finish/dp/B003ANOI20/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1391186025&sr=8-16&keywords=rta+tv+stand

That is the type of stand I bought. I originally was going to build the whole thing from scratch...but $50 was less than the material...and "the design" was already done.

I discarded the front doors and covered the entire front in a new piece of wood...that contained the drivers. The same single piece of MDF for the front was made for the rear(to replace the flimsy "whatever that is"). But the top/sides/bottom was all the original stand.

Edit II:
Even if you started with a stand like that, you could buy an in-wall/in-ceiling speaker*(preferably coaxial) and create your own front and rear cabinet portion. Instead of simply trying to find a MTM to fit.

If you look at this stand in particular. The top "lip" of the speaker opening. That top front is separate from the pillar sides. Delete that piece of wood...and you gain another inch-ish for whatever speaker you care to build there. Your front baffle replaces that piece for rigidity(which is why that front lip is there).

*Or...if you already have a bookshelf speaker. Take the drivers/crossover out...and build your own front baffle where the tweeter stays higher than the woofer(s) so the MTM issues are out the window. You would just have to slide in a piece in the "middle" of the opening to come up with approximate cabinet space equal to the prior cabinet(which you would not need to do with an in-wall/in-ceiling).

Chris PC · Jan 31, 2014

How do you like the two-way bookshelf as a centre channel? Do you find it has enough oomph? I am trying to go about making a short tower (tweeter up top and mid-woofer below and a woofer below that) for my purposes and its a challenge. I may give up and just use a bookshelf.

Chris PC · Jan 31, 2014

Cool. I looked at the link. Do you have pictures of the centre channel you made?

I have PSB T65 front towers and a C60 centre. I am using the C60 vertically, but I basically want to use a T55 as a centre speaker, but that is too tall. What I really want to do is make a C55 by putting the baffle of a T55 on a C60 cabinet. It looks like a nightmare of a job with high probability of damaging things for the worse. Instead I was thinking of buying a T55 or T65 and stunting it by making it shorter, about the height of the C60.

Another alternative would be to use a PSB image 3LR. To make it match as close as possible to the T65's I could update it by using the newer drivers and the crossover from a T45. I am trying to keep all the drivers the same, that is why I want to basically have a T55 the height of a C60.

P.S. What happened to the ability to edit posts?

Chris PC · Jan 31, 2014

I just wanted to add that I don't like how high my Plasma TV stand puts the TV above the surface the TV stand sits on, so I am thinking of using a full motion wall mount, or doing something else. Either way, I want to have a vertical centre channel. I don't mind using the C60 vertically, but I want to try a centre channel that matches my towers with the tweeter up top and midwoofer below.

See, I could have edited the above post but where is the ability to edit posts? Its gone?

schan1269 · Jan 31, 2014

Chris PC said:
How do you like the two-way bookshelf as a centre channel?
Nothing wrong with that.

Do you find it has enough oomph?
Oomph is a matter of the chosen speaker...design irrelevant.

I am trying to go about making a short tower (tweeter up top and mid-woofer below and a woofer below that) for my purposes and its a challenge. I may give up and just use a bookshelf.

It would help us, help you, if you had definitive "maximum dimension".

Chris PC · Jan 31, 2014

For context, realize I have second gen PSB image speakers such as the T65 front towers. The PSB T55 is approximately 36" and I could use that, but its a bit high. I would prefer the centre channel be approximately no more than 28" high, or about the vertical height (horizontal width) of my C60 centre channel. Take a look at PSB speakers and picture a PSB image C60.

You can see the speakers here:

http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/image/Image-T65-Tower
http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/image/Image-c60-centre
http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/image/Image-T55-Tower

Here is my setup at the moment. First picture shows my older TV and makeshift chairs and boxes for AV stands since my centre speaker is in the AV stand that the TV is on. The new TV has an even higher stand. I am seriously thinking of using an articulated full motion wall mount for the TV so that I can get the centre channel as close to the bottom of the TV as possible.

vidiot33 · Jan 31, 2014

Hi: love your idea of the vertical center. There are no horizontal centers that image the way verticals do. I take it even further with two vertical centers flanking the screen. Great dialogue intelligibility from any seat..

schan1269 · Jan 31, 2014

Not sure why you even have the AV stand.You could (and should) Just sit the speaker on the floor. Then sit a piece of something on top for the TV(cause the TV stand itself has a larger area).My current living room set up(cause the stand was meant for a tube)...50" Hitachi sitting on...Directv HD- DVR sitting on...Onkyo 6-disc sitting on...The stand.

Chris PC · Jan 31, 2014

vidiot33 said:
Hi: love your idea of the vertical center. There are no horizontal centers that image the way verticals do. I take it even further with two vertical centers flanking the screen. Great dialogue intelligibility from any seat..

I suppose that could work, but, is that any better than going phantom centre? (no centre channel select "none" for centre in receiver?). I get that the two centre speakers are so far apart that they shouldn't cause any lobbing issues, and in fact, its almost like you are going with a phantom centre with you left and right speakers up really high beside your TV (or your TV really low between your left and right speakers). Having a centre speaker right in the centre is nice for most of the people in the sweet spot.

I'd have to figure out a different way of doing it like using a stereo amp, as my speakers are already 6 ohms with 4 ohm minimum so parallel wiring would over load my receiver.

I would like to see a picture of your dual centre speaker surrounding your TV.

schan1269 said:
Not sure why you even have the AV stand.You could (and should) Just sit the speaker on the floor. Then sit a piece of something on top for the TV(cause the TV stand itself has a larger area).My current living room set up(cause the stand was meant for a tube)...50" Hitachi sitting on...Directv HD- DVR sitting on...Onkyo 6-disc sitting on...The stand.

Right now the AV stand is what my TV is sitting on using the TV's pedestal. I agree, if I wall mount the TV, the centre will just sit on the floor, or on a small stand (depending on which centre channel speaker I use).

schan1269 · Jan 31, 2014

Twin centers is a bad idea.

vidiot33 · Jan 31, 2014

A phantom center CAN work better than a horizontal center, but some tracks are going to be too "busy" with so much content crammed into the front channels. I would argue that properly positioned "phantom" centers are often superior to the inherent compromises that horizontal centers entail (poorer frequency response, imaging, positioning, etc). I started thinking about this when sold my rather expensive center speaker, went phantom, and was unable to tell the difference. In my opinion and experience, the center is important enough to devote 2 channels and two VERTICAL speakers to (preferably your best 2). As always, experimentation is best...

Type A · Jan 31, 2014

How do you like the two-way bookshelf as a centre channel? Do you find it has enough oomph? I am trying to go about making a short tower (tweeter up top and mid-woofer below and a woofer below that) for my purposes and its a challenge. I may give up and just use a bookshelf.

Couldnt tell you about oomph. In my setup everything below 80 Hz goes to twin mid bass modules and twin subs, so I dont ask my center channel for much in the way of oomph. However I do ask it for excellent imaging and performance thats impossible to localize, in those regards the bookshelf is a perfect choice. Some of that can be attributed to the speaker quality but also some of it is a processor able to compensate for a center installed so low (IE "dialog lift"). I think, if you take your time and compensate for short-comings and less than desirable install arrangments, a bookshelf can be every bit as effective as a tower and always superior to even the best designed center channel speakers. A big, fat and fancy center channel with 8 drivers and weights 80 pounds? No, you dont need that. A properly executed tower or bookshelf that matches your mains will always be a better choice, and its likely cheaper.

schan1269 · Jan 31, 2014

Here is an ingenious idea...

Your C60...

Take the tweeter out, plug the hole where it was. Wire it up(this is the tricky part) with extra wire lead and set it in its own tube right in front if the TV.

Before you think that is a daft idea...several older speaker manufacturers used to include the tweeter in a separate box...to be placed higher.

That gave way to the modern sat/sub system(IE David and Goliath was the first one).

Car audio(and don't forget car audio here) speakers that are separates could also be ran this way. Put the woofer in the normal spot...wire up the tweeter right on the pedestal.

http://www.amazon.com/Alpine-SXE-1750S-6-5-Inch-Component-Speakers/dp/B007MTNBSK/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1391210408&sr=1-2&keywords=car+speaker+component+speaker

schan1269 · Jan 31, 2014

Hey, PSB makes this even simpler...

The CS160/180S

A coaxial in a square basket.

Chris PC · Jan 31, 2014

schan1269 said:
Here is an ingenious idea...

Your C60...

Take the tweeter out, plug the hole where it was. Wire it up(this is the tricky part) with extra wire lead and set it in its own tube right in front if the TV.

Before you think that is a daft idea...several older speaker manufacturers used to include the tweeter in a separate box...to be placed higher.

That gave way to the modern sat/sub system(IE David and Goliath was the first one).

Car audio(and don't forget car audio here) speakers that are separates could also be ran this way. Put the woofer in the normal spot...wire up the tweeter right on the pedestal.

http://www.amazon.com/Alpine-SXE-1750S-6-5-Inch-Component-Speakers/dp/B007MTNBSK/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1391210408&sr=1-2&keywords=car+speaker+component+speaker

This wouldn't work on its own. Remember, the two woofers in this centre channel are playing EVERYTHING from 2500 Hz down to the speakers lowest (40-50 Hz). Moving the tweeter from between the two midrange woofers would mess up the sound. What I had thought of doing, was simply swapping the tweeter from between the woofers to the port up top and then altering the crossover to match. Basically what I want to do is make a short T55.

I think for now I may just try a single B25 and work on making some sort of a short T55 when the opportunity arises. I was also thinking of using the first gen 3LR with the newer drivers and T45 crossover as I mentioned but using the same woofers for the midrange would probably match better.

schan1269 said:
Hey, PSB makes this even simpler...

The CS160/180S

A coaxial in a square basket.

Nice but not tonally matched to my PSB image T65 front tower speakers.

schan1269 · Feb 1, 2014

What the two woofers "play" in the C60(since it is MTM) is irrelevant. The relation the tweeter has to the woofers is the problem.Removing it from the cabinet and moving it up, either...1. By re-mounting to the top.2. At the TV pedestal. Makes no difference. However, the closer the tweeter gets to the screen...The better.

schan1269 · Feb 1, 2014

So, the tweeters are different T65 to CS160/180?There goes that thought. Although, would your current tweeter mount in the 160/180?Or build your own coaxial. Or not.

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