"Carl Valle" wrote in message
. ..
I took some advice from Howard.
Rather than make a long winded post, I'll compress here...
Howard said I could get better imaging with a center channel.
I tried this several ways and have not been able to get a better image. I
was able to raise the sound pressure, but the image just collapsed into
mono.
The sweet spot did indeed disappear, and from the sweet spot position, the
center channel was clearly defined. This even when it was operating
at -20db
(the lowest relative level that can be set on my receiver). From off axis
positions, the closest speaker became predominate.
When I switched to 5.1 it got worse. Part of the problem is that you have
to
deal with time delays on my receiver for the back channels. The sound is
interesting but not what I was looking for.
In my system the back and front are the same, they are BIC towers.
(Please
don't laugh at my BIC speakers. They are pretty nice) The reason for this
is
so that I can switch the room around three (actually four) ways and use my
system as a home theatre on one end with the screen, and on the other end
I
have my sound system, while on the side of the room I have my computer
system desk. With a simple patchbay I can move the front speakers to any
combination. Right now, my only center is at the projection screen end of
the room.
My subs are front right and left but they are pretty non-directional and
are
crossed over at 50 Hz.
Well, I got out a couple of JBL 12" 3ways a Tascam mixer, and an Onkyo amp
and preamp. I put the speakers between the towers and mixed the stereo
signal to them as: L+L+R and R+R+L and cranked them to equal (more or
less)
volume as the towers.
Bingo - the image was there again and the sweet spot had been enlarged
substantially. It did remove some of the hole in the middle that was there
before. It has the added benefit of being able to get the room to about
114db on my radio shack meter! 120 if i turn on the subs 125 if i turn on
the back channels. We are talking about about 1kw of amp power here and
another 400 for the subs.
It rocks Howard!
Its like being FRC at Powell Hall for Beethoven's Ninth!
Thanks for your suggestions Howard!

Carl

Isn't that the "Hafler Effect."