Are your speakers too low?

[cravnsn]

No, I don’t mean volume or bass. I’ve been looking at some pictures people have posted of their HT set ups, and it occurs to me that a fair amount of people have their speakers set up in such a way that they are a good distance away from the display screen, usually lower than the screen. I know sometimes aesthetics & practicality come into play, but I always thought the idea was to have at least the center channel speaker near to the screen, so the sound would appear to be coming off of the screen.

I use the “phantom center” approach and recently picked up a second hand pair of “floor standing” speakers. At only 30cm high, the tweeter was well below ear height, which I’ve read is the ideal. One of the first things I did was to make a pair of wooden speaker stands to raise the speakers up, and now the tweeter sits almost center of the screen. Sounds that would normally preside in the center channel speaker come right off the screen, and panning effects are spot on all through the spectrum.
Am I way off on this?

[prerich]

Originally Posted by cravnsn

No, I don’t mean volume or bass. I’ve been looking at some pictures people have posted of their HT set ups, and it occurs to me that a fair amount of people have their speakers set up in such a way that they are a good distance away from the display screen, usually lower than the screen. I know sometimes aesthetics & practicality come into play, but I always thought the idea was to have at least the center channel speaker near to the screen, so the sound would appear to be coming off of the screen.

I use the “phantom center” approach and recently picked up a second hand pair of “floor standing” speakers. At only 30cm high, the tweeter was well below ear height, which I’ve read is the ideal. One of the first things I did was to make a pair of wooden speaker stands to raise the speakers up, and now the tweeter sits almost center of the screen. Sounds that would normally preside in the center channel speaker come right off the screen, and panning effects are spot on all through the spectrum.
Am I way off on this?

Now, there's a good question, because my stuff sounds like it comes from the screen, not below it (I do have a slight vertical tilt on my speaker stands). My speakers are at earlevel however when I'm seated. My tweeter is located just at the bottom of the screen - (of either the 42 or the 106 inch) and imaging is "spot on all through the spectrum". Now on my 42 inch - yes the image is huge - voices are on screen but if they are off to the left or right - they are out there - On the big screen (which is how I watch my movies) it takes up from one edge of the left speaker to the edge of the right. Many say my system is better than our local Rave. I have no problems, however with voices my center is inches away from both screens

[fronn]

It just happens to work out that way...

Generally you'd want the tweeter to be about ear height, regardless of speaker driver configuration (TMWW, MTM, WTMW, etc.). High frequency sound tends to beam more (that's why tweeters get priority in ear height, as ideally everything should be at ear height), so it's better to set things up where off axis doesn't come into play as much.

You also generally have the screen center at about eye level (which essentially ear height), which means tweeters should be about center with the screen.

[allstar780]

I was told that its much harder for people to differentiate in vertical position than it is horizontal position, meaning the height is not overly important unless your speakers are very directional

[m_tyson]

Check out the Sticky thread on Yamaha presence speakers.

[fronn]

Originally Posted by allstar780

I was told that its much harder for people to differentiate in vertical position than it is horizontal position, meaning the height is not overly important unless your speakers are very directional

I wouldn't disagree with that. It's the way hearing works... But what I'm referring to is that it's not necessarily that it'll sound off because it's too high or too low from our ear's perspective, it's that off axis frequency response of drivers are always poorer than straight on (you'll get dips and roll offs that aren't there on axis) -- tweeters generally have more trouble with off axis response than mids and woofers because of the nature of their frequency range.

[Pinto]

If you can't raise your speakers up on stands to ear level for some reason, tilting them like prerich says actually works pretty well.