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Placement of Center channel speaker - Def Tech CLR3000 (1 Viewer)

arunVB

Auditioning
Joined
Jun 16, 2005
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7
I just purchased a CLR3000 Center channel speaker and am undecided about its placement. My TV stand is a wooden TV Stand (Make : Salamander Designs). My stand is the same as the one in the following link, except that the middle shelves are wider : pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/arunvb/detail?.dir=/849b&.dnm=bf0d.jpg&.src=ph


I have a few of questions :

1. Which is the best position - above the the TV or in the top open shelf (40" wide x 20" depth x height ajustable from 9" to a max of 18") of my wooden TV Stand, with a insulating base under the speaker.

2. I prefer to keep it inside the TV stand, but I am concerned about the reflections from the wooden interiors of the stand. The shelf is open in the front. Does the reflection, if any, change / reduce the sound stage and is it noticeable ?

3. By default, the shelf is open in the front, but I would like close it with doors. Does this affect the sound quality of the speaker ? The material choices, for the door, are wooden frame with a perforated steel panel or wooden frame with frosted glass panel. If perforated steel or frosted glass is not good, are there any other materials you suggest ?

3. If it is OK to keep inside the stand, since the CLR 3000 has a sub-woofer on its top, how much of clearance do I need from the top of the speaker and the ceiling of the shelf ?

I would really appreciate, if you could help me on this.

Thanks
Arun
 

Bob McElfresh

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 22, 1999
Messages
5,182
Hi Arun.

I think it would be horrible to put your speaker inside a cubby-hole. It will reflect sounds like a tin-can, and you may as well forget about low-frequency from the built in sub.

Speakers DO radiate a lot of sound 180 degress and at 90 degrees. Putting space around a speaker almost always opens up the sound and improves the 'spaciousness'.

And subwoofers - You actually get a LOT of sound reflected from walls ceilings and the placement of a subwoofer in a room us usually very different than the placement for the left/center/right for the better sound. You loose all of this putting a built-in subwoofer speaker in a cabinent.

Ok, do this: Put the center in the cabinent. Fire up a favorite chapter, turn the TV off, and listen for a few mintues.

Then pull the 3000 center out of the cabinent and put it on the floor in front of the unit. Use paper-back books or rubber door-wedges to get the thing to tilt upwards towards your head. Re-listen to the DVD.

Go back and forth with this until you convince yourself how much you could loose putting the speaker in that hole. (I could be wrong and you may not notice any difference - sometimes things suprise you.)

Can you take the 3000 back? The CLR2002 is a un-powered speaker that sounds fantastic. It was the speaker that convinced me to buy DefTech. Take the $500 difference and invest in a good subwoofer like one of the SVS units.

Then - buy/build a stand and put the speaker on the floor in front of the TV, or on a stand above it.

While I know the "hidden speaker" install looks nice, the sound quality wont compare to properly placing your speakers.

My system: 2000tl towers w/subwoofers turned off, CLR2002, and a SVS sub. It's a good choice for sound, but these things DONT fade into the background.
 

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