Thread: centre channel fine-tuning issue

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Post by terence May 18, 2006 (1 of 11)
comments picked up in other threads lead me to ask the following:

vagaries in my living arrangements mean my centre channel is unavoidably 0.5 metres ahead of the left and right front speakers (3.0m as opposed to 3.5m from listening position).

how much of a volume cut do i need to bring it into balance and alignment?

will it make much difference?

Post by cyril May 18, 2006 (2 of 11)
To time align your centre speaker you will need to delay it by roughly 1.5mS, you will most likely find that you can only set it to 2mS, this will be adequate. As for level compensation, I would not bother, leave it at the same setting as the other fronts, unless you have a level meter to adjust it with, and then there is unlikely to be more than a dB in it, this of course assumes that you centre is identical to your LR fronts.

As I stated in a previous thread, I dont like centre speakers, and for music, with the listener positioned at the optimal position you are better to tell your AVR or SACD player that you have no centre and get it to generate a phantom. If your two L & R fronts are correctly adjusted for a optimal stereo image then whilst at the listening position you will get a far better sound stage than using a centre speaker.

I am sure others will disagree, but from my experience "I" prefer to not have a centre speaker.

Regards

Cyril

Post by nickc May 18, 2006 (3 of 11)
terence said:

comments picked up in other threads lead me to ask the following:

vagaries in my living arrangements mean my centre channel is unavoidably 0.5 metres ahead of the left and right front speakers (3.0m as opposed to 3.5m from listening position).

how much of a volume cut do i need to bring it into balance and alignment?

will it make much difference?

hi terence
from what i understand your centre should be a little bit farther away than your front left and right. i just lower the volume on mine by -1 (not too technical!)
good wishes
nick

Post by Philip Sawyer May 18, 2006 (4 of 11)
Your preprocessor has distance-based speaker delay settings - see page 14 of the manual. Just enter the distance in metres for the main and centre speakers and the prepro will calculate the delay for you. To set the volume you really need a sound pressure level meter to be accurate, but you can do it by ear using the level settings. If properly done you will notice a difference - the centre speaker "disappears" into the front soundstage.

Post by terence May 18, 2006 (5 of 11)
thanks philip, i've done that. does that mean there's no need to alter the volume level separately?

Post by Philip Sawyer May 18, 2006 (6 of 11)
terence said:

thanks philip, i've done that. does that mean there's no need to alter the volume level separately?

Just edited my first post to cover that very question.

Post by terence May 28, 2006 (7 of 11)
yes, i think i may be suffering a little from what others on the forum have called "collapse in the stereo image" because my centre speaker is too loud.

is trial and error the best way to adjust it, or is something more scientific possible?

Post by Castor May 28, 2006 (8 of 11)
terence said:

yes, i think i may be suffering a little from what others on the forum have called "collapse in the stereo image" because my centre speaker is too loud.

is trial and error the best way to adjust it, or is something more scientific possible?

Hi terence
Have just posted my review on this Pentatone disc.

/showreviews/3379

It sounds just what you need. It is available at the moment from Amazon partners at £4.60! Buy now while stocks last!
Cheers.

Post by terence May 31, 2006 (9 of 11)
thanks castor, just bought it!

Post by terence June 9, 2006 (10 of 11)
it's arrived, and is proving very useful.

only one problem - the amount of money it is going to cost me buying a fair number of the pentatone discs sampled in the first part of the programme....

the sound+performance equation on many of these seems very high indeed.

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