Placement of my new 340c - what would you do?

[mulveling]

Hi all,
I've got a 340c and pair of 170's due for delivery today, to complement my existing setup: A pair of 340m's, a Denon AVR-3805, a Denon DVD-2910, and a Sony 34" widescreen set.

Pretty excited, but I'm concerned about my placement options for the 340c. The Sony monitor, which lacks anything remotely resembling a flat top, is not going to easily accomodate a 340 on top of it. My easiest option is to place it on the top shelf of my TV stand, which will barely accomodate its height. The top shelf only sits 11.25" off the ground (hald the height of a pedestal stand). My ears are 36" off the ground in the listening position about 9'-10' away. I will only be able to angle it up a little, and even then the top metal lip of the stand will begin to overlap the front speaker baffle - should I still angle it up in that case? At least the stand is open back so no problems with porting. Still, will this sound reasonable? Better than a phantom center?

I just noticed that the 340c on a pedestal stand would just barely (exactly, actually) fit under the bottom edge of the monitor's screen glass, so I guess I could order another stand and place it in front of the screen - though it would look ugly.

Here's a link to a pic of my setup as it currently stands (yep, the room is pretty horrible acoustically):
http://photo.head-fi.org/showphoto.p...sort=1&cat=500

Advice? What would you do?

[Quinn]

Maybe one of these-

http://www.racksandstands.com/prods/...6/0PSY0054.htm

[chas]

I've seen those little tv top stands - they're kinda slick.

I have noticed that the current crop of Sony's all seem to have small curved tops that are very unfriendly for center speakers. With the boom in home theater you'd think they would keep the center speaker in mind when designing cabinets!

Good picture of the 340's by the way. You have a nice clean, modern looking set-up!

[metalaaron]

will the 340 fit on the middle shelf? that's probably what i plan to do when i get a similar tv. the dvd player and cable receiver will stack fine, and the 3805 will fit on either side.

[GaryB]

Not to put words in his mouth, but I think by "top shelf", mulveling actually means the middle shelf ("11.25" off the ground"). Probably not ideal - the 340c may sound a little "chesty" in this position so close to the floor - I'd ask Dave F.'s advice.

Siting a relatively large, heavy center channel speaker such as the CMT-340c is a real problem with many modern microdisplay RPTVs (DLP, LCD, etc.), even when using one of the available accessory shelves, such as the B-tech BT14 (http://www.hi-fidelity.com/mounting.htm#bt14). The flimsy cabinets just don't seem to be made to support the weight.

It would be so easy for the manufacturers to address this issue by reinforcing their cabinets and making optional custom-designed center-channel shelves available. I have no idea why they don't do this...

[curtis]

It would be so easy for the manufacturers to address this issue by reinforcing their cabinets and making optional custom-designed center-channel shelves available. I have no idea why they don't do this...

My Epson has one, and I think some of the new Samsungs have them too.

[metalaaron]

hmm, yeah, perhaps 11.25 is too low? now i'm wondering if my stand (three shelves) w/ middle shelf @ ~ 16" will work w/ the center in the middle in the future?

it may be best to find a good mount above the tv. seems like some decent ones are available. luckily the 340 doesn't weigh 50lbs. i remember one user who hung his speakers from the ceiling. aha - i found it ...

http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/s...hreadid=364457

[mulveling]

Thanks for all the replies so far!
Those TV-top mounts had me excited for a second, but after re-examining the top of my TV I'm not really sure. Over 90% of the surface is *really* flimsy (I mean: poke it with your little finger and it bends flimsy), it's an awful shape, and I'm not confident any mount design will sturdily hold the 20+ lbs of the 340c in those conditions. GaryB is right - the TV manufacturers really should design for this...

Yep, I had planned on using my TV stand's 11.5" high middle shelf, and for lack of better materials that's what I'll have to do at the moment. A separate center stand may well be worth looking into: 16.5" - 18" would be ideal. Though, it would place the center awfully close to my listening position (the TV is already pretty close to the wall and I need that little bit of space back there).

Anyways, now that it's on the shelf I've got another problem: in order to angle it up a few degrees, I have to move it back about 2" behind the top metal lip of the frame. Additionally, in this configuration the top lip actually overlaps the 340's front surface by 1". I could almost eliminate the overlap by not angling - or I could try to dampen reflections off of the lip with some felt. Which would be better? (Edit: For this configuration I calculated my 340c tweeter is at a vertical angle of 7.6 degrees to seated ear-level with angling; 11.6 without)

Ick - I hate making compromises in audio (and video)

[Cargo]

I have a similar setup. I have a DLP tv on top of a stand and my center channel sits on the shelf below the tv approximately 12-14 inches off the floor. We sit about 11 feet from the tv and the sound has not been effected in a way that is noticable to myself or my wife. Before I got the DLP, I had a smaller tv in an entertainment center with the center channel on top of the piece of furniture, maybe a foot and a half above the tv. The center channel sound was much improved when the new setup was introduced and the center channel sat much lower to the floor.

Another option would be to mount a couple of brackets and a piece of shelving on the wall behind and just above the tv. In my opinion, it would sound better on the shelf below the tv.
Good luck.

[chas]

I have seen pics of some that mounted them above the televsion with a small TV wall mount.