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Thread: Titling center channel up?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
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    23

    Default Titling center channel up?

    What negative effects does tilting the center channel up have on the sound stage?

    Is having a horizon vertically straight( at ear level) the best was to use this center channel or does tilting up a degree of two reduce the quality of sound stage?

    I have been working on my center channel set up.

    I plan on getting a horizon to match my towers. I will have to build a center channel stand since it is to big to fit into my tv stand. So I want to optimize my set up.

    music guy

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Central NC
    Posts
    133

    Default Re: Titling center channel up?

    Quote Originally Posted by musicguy View Post
    What negative effects does tilting the center channel up have on the sound stage?
    I can't hear any negative effect of tilting the center channel up to point at my ears in my main listening position. I can hear negative effects of not doing this.

    I was impressed by how dialog cleaned up by tilting up. Not that it was bad just pointing straight ahead plumb and level. But tilting up increased crispness and intelligibility a bit. Well worth doing IMHO.

    When listening to music (a few 5.1 music bluray discs I've got) I can't tell any difference at all.

    This could be just me of course, or my listening room. But there's absolutely no reason at all that you can't run the experiments yourself, in your room with your equipment, and find out what works (or doesn't work) for you. It's not like it takes much time or effort. Give it a shot and tell us what you hear.
    "If it sounds good, it is good." -- Duke Ellington

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    NW Pennsylvania
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    696

    Default Re: Titling center channel up?

    I agree, nothing wrong with tilting it up a few degrees
    Nate

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    455

    Default Re: Titling center channel up?

    You could opt for getting an acoustically transparent screen, to avoid any tilting at all if you are worried about it. But if you don’t do that, then you should definitely tilt it towards ear level. The ribbon tweeters have narrow dispersion vertically, which I think is actually a great thing.
    Last edited by N Boros; 05-28-2018 at 04:17 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Titling center channel up?

    Quote Originally Posted by natetg57 View Post
    I agree, nothing wrong with tilting it up a few degrees
    Same, I did the same thing as well should be fine.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
    Location
    Oregon
    Posts
    47

    Default Re: Titling center channel up?

    I have mine on a low 13" high stand, with a 6 degree tilt. Works great.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    5,538

    Default Re: Titling center channel up?

    Quote Originally Posted by musicguy View Post
    What negative effects does tilting the center channel up have on the sound stage?

    Is having a horizon vertically straight( at ear level) the best was to use this center channel or does tilting up a degree of two reduce the quality of sound stage?

    I have been working on my center channel set up.

    I plan on getting a horizon to match my towers. I will have to build a center channel stand since it is to big to fit into my tv stand. So I want to optimize my set up.

    music guy
    Ideally, you want the ribbon tweeter to at ear-level. If it is below ear-level, than tilting upwards a few degrees is beneficial to overall high frequency accuracy. It really won't have an effect on the soundstage.
    .
    .
    .
    Good Sound To You!

    David Fabrikant
    www.ascendacoustics.com

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Posts
    15

    Default Re: Titling center channel up?

    Here's the stand I built for my Horizon. IIRC the height off the floor is something like 8" in the back to 12" in the front.



    I didn't bother painting it, just draped a yard of black velveteen over it so that it blends in with the wall of black velvet framing the screen behind it.

    I have the angle of the Towers slightly adjusted too with the intention that a straight line out from all the tweeters intersects just slightly above my head. The reason being that the mid point of the projection screen is a bit above my eyeline, so I'm trying to anchor the sound at that height.

    I've never had any issue whatsoever with 2 or 4 channel soundtracks. Sound in those cases always seems to be perfectly centered and coming from the screen.

    When the soundtracks are primarily center channel (either 5.1 or 1.0 mono) it can be hit or miss as to whether the illusion of "screen" sound is achieved or not.
    I was blaming this initially on the Horizon as I never had any complaints in this regard with the Sierra 2 as a center.

    In the 18 months that I've owned it though, I've come to feel that it's as much how the material has been mastered as anything in terms of hardware. Some soundtracks come off as more boxy and localized. With others, the illusion of sound emanating from the screen is seamless.
    Last edited by Mose Harper; 06-04-2018 at 11:33 PM.

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