Re: And here it is, the 340SE2!!!
The 340SE (and presumably the 340SE2) is good for a horizontally-oriented MTM center, due to its relatively low crossover frequency, but 45° off-axis is way too extreme for it (unless your wife happens to be sitting in a "good lobe" and stays in place). The 200SE, with its small, closely-placed mid-woofers (enough to displace even its neodymium tweeter with its tiny face plate), is effectively almost a TM configuration when oriented horizontally, so it just might work for 45°, albeit it would be the weak link and limiting factor in your front sound stage.Originally Posted by bgaviator
Would it be possible, in your home theater, to orient a 340SE2 center vertically instead? I have a similar issue, so I use three 170SEs across the front, all oriented vertically, including the center, and this has worked very well for me. Generally, it is always best to use vertically-oriented speakers at the front, including the center, especially if you need wide horizontal dispersion, as you clearly do. I've been away from this subject online for several years now, so I don't know how people think these days, but over time I've caught a bunch of people orienting their MTM centers horizontally when they didn't have to! Some of them even had the speakers mounted on the wall behind an acoustically-transparent front-projection screen (so aesthetics weren't an issue), with the left and right oriented vertically and the center oriented horizontally. D'oh! Of course, I advised them to remount the center vertically, but it took some doing to convince some of them that center speakers didn't have to be oriented horizontally, and shouldn't be whenever it's possible to avoid. People just seemed to have the impression that it had to be that way. I've even had people tell me that I mounted my center speaker incorrectly.
By the way, the 200SE is kind of an odd case because, especially when used as a center, it works better when it's horizontally oriented, as that's when it's effectively sort of vertically oriented, with the tweeter above/below the small, closely-placed mid-woofers. I recall, years ago, recommending to several people who only had room/accommodation for a sound bar at the front to buy three 200SEs instead, and orient them all horizontally (with as much space between them as possible). This configuration makes for a darn good sound bar substitute, I think.For most home theaters, it is best to orient the left and right front 200SE speakers vertically with their tweeters on the inside, and the center should always be oriented horizontally, and there are reasons for this, but if they're close together and the seating area is wider than their placement, then orient them all horizontally and make a sound bar out of them. Other SE speakers all work best at the front when oriented vertically. And surrounds are a completely different consideration that depends on the overall configuration.
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