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Center channel placement - old fireplace

mcsound

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May 19, 2023
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Hi Everyone,

I have a unique situation in my apartment living room. There is an old fireplace that has been drywalled over but they left an opening. I was thinking about placing my center channel speaker (Neumann KH310) there since it is at the perfect height for under the TV. The back wall is tile. Is this a foolish idea? I understand there would be issues with reflections and bass buildup. If you think the acoustic issues are manageable with treatment, how should I go about solving them? What type of absorption would help?

Or do you think it would cause too many problems? I actually had a custom panel built for a prior setup that fills in the hole (see third photo). Should I just forget about it and just place the speaker in front of the panel that fills in the space? Thanks in advance for your advice!
 

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Seems like a perfect situation for soffit mounting :D
How would I go about soffit mounting? There is only about an inch between the back of the speaker and the tile, so should I bother trying to put some sort of absorption behind the speaker? I want to make sure the speaker is ventilated. I can probably fit 4” fabric-wrapped mineral wool on the sides and top of the opening.
 
As long as you can maintain the manufacturer's recommended 2" gap on all sides for air flow, there's no reason you can't put it in that space. It's not ported, so bass response shouldn't be an issue. Soffit mounting doesn't appear to be an approved installation method, presumably as that would make airflow over the fins in the back non-existent.
 
No, not the old fireplace thing! Biggest bane of proper living room setup...especially when combined with WAF
 
If you care about sound quality, you do NOT want to put them in a cavity on a wall.

Toole has mentioned this issue in his book:-

Toole Cavity Effect.jpg



Free space response on the left. Cavity in the centre. Filling it with fibreglass on the right, helps a little but doesn't make the issue go away.
 
If you care about sound quality, you do NOT want to put them in a cavity on a wall.

Toole has mentioned this issue in his book:-

Toole Cavity Effect.jpg



Free space response on the left. Cavity in the centre. Filling it with fibreglass on the right, helps a little but doesn't make the issue go away.

Do you think it makes any difference that the Kh 310 is not a ported speaker? Would it still be that drastic of a change in response?
 
Yeah, I do wonder what the difference is with a sealed, 3-way speaker like the Neumann versus the 2-way, presumably ported speaker Toole testing. Still, it is possible that reflections from the woofer will still be a problem in that cavity. I will definitely defer to Toole on this.
 
Yeah, I do wonder what the difference is with a sealed, 3-way speaker like the Neumann versus the 2-way, presumably ported speaker Toole testing. Still, it is possible that reflections from the woofer will still be a problem in that cavity. I will definitely defer to Toole on this.
It appears that Dr. Toole’s own listening/screening room has a center speaker enclosed in a shelf/cavity?

 

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Do you think it makes any difference that the Kh 310 is not a ported speaker? Would it still be that drastic of a change in response?
No, the port of the Infinity Primus 160 used for the measurements shown in the book has little effect above 100 Hz, but the cavity is mucking things up starting from 100 Hz and up to 2 kHz or more. This is about high-Q cavity resonances and diffraction effects. Ported or not is irrelevant.

That photo of Toole’s one-time home centre channel is hilarious! He clearly doesn’t recommend it: perhaps a domestic compromise.

cheers
 
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