Need small center channel for home - please help!

CasopoliS

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Here is a picture of my living room (with it's new carpet (thumb)). You can see the black speakers on either side of the fireplace. The reciever will go in the cabinets on the left (vented well), and the plasma will hang on the wall above the fireplace. I need to put a center channel somewhere, but the one I have now is way too big. Ideally it could sit on the 3" ledge above the fireplace just under the plasma, or wall-mount on the wall just below the plasma. Anyone know what I can use? Can I use a center channel for a car maybe? I have a JVC reciever from a couple of years ago, its 5.1 only.... so probably not a ton of power going to the center. I don't know much about this stuff. Any help on my setup would be appreciated. and yes I ran all my speaker wire under the carpet before they put it in :).

livingroommedium0gn.jpg
 
Could I hide it at an angle under the fireplace, or would the carpet absorb too much sound? See picture below:

livingroom2medium2dc.jpg
 
hmm.. well there are several center channels that come with wall brackets.
 
What brand are the left adn right speakers? Generally you want to keep the same tonal quality between all the speakers, but especially the left, right and center. I would try to find a wall mounting flat speaker from the same manufacturer of your other speakers.
 
i'd personally either flush mount it in the wall or put it at the top where the wall and ceiling meet aiming downward toward the listeners but flush mounting one would be my first choice right under neath the tv
 
Thapro1 said:
i'd personally either flush mount it in the wall or put it at the top where the wall and ceiling meet aiming downward toward the listeners but flush mounting one would be my first choice right under neath the tv


thanks for the input.... that is the worst sig ever.

of course I am not going to put it in the fireplace. (poke)
 
of course I am not going to put it in the fireplace
i can't really tell from the picture what kind of clearance you have but i've seen some fire places like that where there actually is enough room inside the wall and people have done it
 
Thapro1 said:
i'd personally either flush mount it in the wall or put it at the top where the wall and ceiling meet aiming downward toward the listeners but flush mounting one would be my first choice right under neath the tv

thats what i was going to say.....i am setting up my system in my new home now......just wall mounted everything. will get pics up when i get my new digital camera.....

BTW: nice living room!
 
thanks! its a 30' long great room.... so surround sound / mini theater will be on one half, and a reading area will be on the other. I don't quite know what to do with the space.
 
Prettymuch I'd say it's all a matter of howmuch money you want to put into it, Alot of big companies are making fairly slim wall-mount style speakers. Look into SpeakerCraft or Niles. Those are the top in-wall companies as well. Klipsch has a couple of lines of nice wall-mounts as well. Just keep in mind that going cheap might not be good, because about 70% of movie audio comes through the center channel. You don't want voiced getting muffled out by surrounding action.

I'd assume, with onkyo speakers, taht you've got a box-surround system, which is a good step, especialyl in getting onkyo, however keep in mind that Japanese speakers are generally VERY midrange balanced, and don't ahve the traditional american highs and lows. Thusly if you get something like a Klipsch centerchannel with a Titanium horn tweeter, you'll have a very large tonal imbalance. Look for somethign with Silk or textile tweeters of some sort if you're wanting to use it in conjunction with the rest fo your speakers.
 
awesome post. Thank you. I worked at Circuit City and we had the Onkyo's setup in the sound room. I was amazed by the sound. I am no audio wiz... so I never try to listen for high/low balance, etc. I will make sure the center is not too high-pitched for lack of better terms, so it does not sound odd with the Onkyos.
 
Thapro1 said:
would you finance me?:D

lol - I have VIP at my bank (Huntington), and am friends of a friend. Maybe they can transfer my loan into your name? Yea VIP means I get first dibs at the basket of suckers. Holla. J/K I get better rates.
 
Poseur said:
I'd assume, with onkyo speakers, taht you've got a box-surround system, which is a good step, especialyl in getting onkyo, however keep in mind that Japanese speakers are generally VERY midrange balanced, and don't ahve the traditional american highs and lows. Thusly if you get something like a Klipsch centerchannel with a Titanium horn tweeter, you'll have a very large tonal imbalance. Look for somethign with Silk or textile tweeters of some sort if you're wanting to use it in conjunction with the rest fo your speakers.

yeah, you want to have balanced speakers.......
 
Speakercraft wall-mount http://www.speakercraft.com/our_products/new/sls/index.htm
Speakercraft in-walls
http://www.speakercraft.com/our_products/lcr/index.htm
The AimLCR1 would be a good choice. silk tweeter. fairly neutral smooth sound.

And then niles. in-wall.
http://www.nilesaudio.com/product.php?prodID=HDLCR&recordID=Home%20Theater%20Loudspeakers&categoryID=Speakers&catcdID=1&prdcdID=FG01151
I REALLY like niles If you're looking to spend more into the $300+ kinda range.

If you want to do in-wall I would go with either niles or Speakercraft. Honestly these 2 companies are the only ones worth bothering with IMHO. Alot of the others are sorta cheap knockoffs, and often ppl don't really care about sound especially seeing as the name isn't going to be plastered allover them. I sell and install custom hometheater setups quite a bit. Niles are a bit trickier to install, but have a sweet sound. Price-dependant, though that speakercraft aim LCR1 wouldn't be toobad. I don't have pricing on-hand right now, but it should be less than the in-wall you posted earlier and sound better to boot.

Also, umm. get those rear channels out behind you somewhere... If you're looking into doing the center in-wall, perhaps you might want to go with ceiling mount rears? If you've got some form of attic access or whatnot you shoudl be able to do them EASILY. This isn't an ideal as theoretically all of your speakers should be mounted head-height with the rear facing at eachother a couple of feet behind you. If you've got a 6 ot 7.1 system then those can be moved a bit forward and then rear speakers should mirror front speakers.

HOWEVER. The speakercraft AIM series helps out alot in alowing a somewhat natural surround sound without having unsightly speakers hanging off of your ceiling. They used to be WAY expensive, but this year they'e ditched normal ceilingmounts and made all of their ceiling speakers larger and aimable. http://www.speakercraft.com/our_products/aim/aim_one.html These would match the aim1 LCR perfectly.

Of course this is ideal, and getting into spending a good deal more money, but options worth noting. The Speakercraft system goes 1 being least expensive, 5 being mroe than most would comfortably spend. Generaly there's some overlap in timbre matching, eg 1&2 both are silk tweeter setups, the higher ones are aluminum or magnesium and personally if the higher end I prefer the sound of Niles with their Tetron tweets.

Edit:
It looks like you've got vaulted ceiling, so nevermind the Ceiling mount theory. in-walls for the rear perhaps? I was asusming the length of your room was directly behind but now I see tha tit appears to be to the side of the theater area, correct? I'd be wary or atleast careful about choosing most wall-mount style speakers you'll find unless you want to buy a full set because the vast majority of wall-mounts are fairly bright with metal tweets. Thatsaid if you're looking for something like that, Klipsch has some Really nice setups that wouldn't kill the bank, come with built-in hanging mounts and sound spectacular on even low power. Again, Ti Horn tweeters mean they're kind of bright, but if you've got a movie-bias I prefer it. http://www.klipsch.com/product/product.aspx?cid=732 The cinema6 is less than a grand with a sub. take the sub out of it and you're looking at mid-600bucks The Cin 8 setup should be like 2hundred more. It seems like wall-mount ease might be a plus for you, and these don't look half-bad. The mounts pivot/swivel so you can sidewall/ceiling/backwall/stand mount them.

*L* sorry man I just LOVE helping ppl spend money, even when ther'es no direct commission involved for me.
 
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