Recommendations for awkward centre speaker replacement

[fordiebianco]

Dear All,

I would appreciate your advice on my attempts of improving a 3.1 system in a very tight space. I am obviously very happy with the stereo performance of the Adam Audio T8Vs, but for watching movies it was obvious that the stereo emulation of the DENON wasn't great for dialogue, so I had to come up with some sort of centre speaker. Due to the space constraints (see picture), an actual centre speaker wasn't possible, so I tried to find a pair of reasonably priced small stereo speakers that would fit into this constrained space. I found these Pyle things with a 4 inch paper cone driver for very little money, wired them serially, and unfortunately, they sound as shite as you would think, with a very limited frequency range.

So, here are the questions:

a) do you have a suggestions for a better performing 4 inch model (maybe a coaxial?) that I could just replace the exisiting ones by glueing/screwing them into existing enclosure?
b) alternatively, do you know a pair of speakers that would have similar dimensions (maybe a little bit bigger) that would give me an acceptable panther performance.

And no, we're not going to replace the current setup of amp/UDP. My wife won't have it.

Many thanks,

FB

 

[kyuu]

And no, we're not going to replace the current setup of amp/UDP. My wife won't have it.

Really? Your wife would object to relocating the electronics to a more sensible location? I would suggest that your effort is pointless, then. You're not going to get a satisfying center channel experience with any combination of tiny speakers that aren't properly placed, I don't think.

 

[middlemarch]

I would move the Denon fully to one side or the other and place a horizontal center where it was. Best you can do. Nothing Pyle has ever been other than Shiite

 

[fordiebianco]

I would move the Denon fully to one side or the other and place a horizontal center where it was. Best you can do. Nothing Pyle has ever been other than Shiite

No question about Pyle being shite. The question is whether there are speakers at similar size which are a bit better?

 

[fordiebianco]

Really? Your wife would object to relocating the electronics to a more sensible location? .

Life is all about compromises. So is interior design

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Here's another option. Raise the L/R speakers (with stands) up so that their tops are level with the top of the screen and wall-mount a suitable cent just above the screen.

 

[fordiebianco]

Here's another option. Raise the L/R speakers (with stands) up so that their tops are level with the top of the screen and wall-mount a suitable cent just above the screen.

That's an excellent suggestion. Thanks Kal. Not sure what the boss will say, though.

 

[kyuu]

That's an excellent suggestion. Thanks Kal. Not sure what the boss will say, though.

If she objects to a speaker hanging off the wall up there, perhaps an in-wall would be acceptable?

 

[fordiebianco]

If she objects to a speaker hanging off the wall up there, perhaps an in-wall would be acceptable?

Again, an excellent suggestion, unfortunately the wall is a very slim room divider. I would prefer a solution that resembles the small Pyles, just better.

 

[Chanur]

View attachment 509847

Dear All,

I would appreciate your advice on my attempts of improving a 3.1 system in a very tight space. I am obviously very happy with the stereo performance of the Adam Audio T8Vs, but for watching movies it was obvious that the stereo emulation of the DENON wasn't great for dialogue, so I had to come up with some sort of centre speaker. Due to the space constraints (see picture), an actual centre speaker wasn't possible, so I tried to find a pair of reasonably priced small stereo speakers that would fit into this constrained space. I found these Pyle things with a 4 inch paper cone driver for very little money, wired them serially, and unfortunately, they sound as shite as you would think, with a very limited frequency range.

So, here are the questions:

a) do you have a suggestions for a better performing 4 inch model (maybe a coaxial?) that I could just replace the exisiting ones by glueing/screwing them into existing enclosure?
b) alternatively, do you know a pair of speakers that would have similar dimensions (maybe a little bit bigger) that would give me an acceptable panther performance.

And no, we're not going to replace the current setup of amp/UDP. My wife won't have it.

Many thanks,

FB

Id move the AVR and put the center there as mentioned. How ever if you want small speakers that are supposed to be well made and sound good check these. They have several sizes.

A’Diva

Visit the post for more.

galloacoustics.com

 

[fordiebianco]

Id move the AVR and put the center there as mentioned. How ever if you want small speakers that are supposed to be well made and sound good check these. They have several sizes.

A’Diva

Visit the post for more.

galloacoustics.com

Thank you for the recommendation. Very interesting product.

I have decided to go down the DIY route. I will keep the forum up to date what I have come up with.

 

[fordiebianco]

Hi all.

After your helpful comments I decided to go the DIY route. Two SB Acoustics SB16FRPC25-7 full-range woofers in a simple open baffle built, wired in parallel are now working as centre speakers. L+R in this 3.1 configuration are Q-Acoustics 5050s. Works for my little TV-corner. Audyssey XT32 makes it sound acceptable for movies/TV.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

[Redacted]

Glad you are sorted.
I did read (above) about something "stereo emulation by the Denon for dialogue". I was thinking that if you are watching TV with source that include "more than stereo channels" the dialogue would be mixed into the available channels and an AV amp would be unaware of 'dialogue' per se and just play all the channels. If your source material was pure 2ch stereo, would the AV not blank all channels bar those for the L & R speakers?

I don't have AV, but my TV, which has very poor speakers plays well through my streamer amp over HDMI, and the TV in that case, downmixes 5.1 (etc) to stereo, using a convention (or maybe a standard) that uses proportions from all channels to create or emulate a stereo mix. (I think the 'standard algorithm' uses '0.7' instead the '0.5' in my script below). Often not ideal for dialogue. I have tried ripping a few videos and reprocessing the audio* get better dialogue and it usually helps me.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding or have said something incorrect- it may just be a matter semantics and my OCD!

* Anyone of you who is super-weird, and knows about ffmpeg, might get fun playing with my .bat file that generates a new audio track in a video (mkv) file:

for %%A IN ("*.mkv") Do ffmpeg -y -i "%%A" -map 0:v -c:v copy -map 0:a:0? -c:a:0 copy -map 0:a:0? -c:a:1 aac -ac 2 -filter:a:1 "pan=stereo|FL=FC+0.50*FL+0.50*FLC+0.50*BL+0.50*SL+1.0*LFE|FR=FC+0.50*FR+0.50*FRC+0.50*BR+0.50*SR+1.0*LFE,loudnorm" -ar:a:1 48000 -b:a:1 192k -metadata:s:a:1 title="Stereo" -metadata:s:a:1 language=eng -map 0:a:1? -c:a:2 copy -map 0:a:2? -c:a:3 copy -map 0:a:3? -c:a:4 copy -map 0:a:4? -c:a:5 copy -map 0:a:5? -c:a:6 copy -map 0:a:6? -c:a:7 copy -map 0:s? -c:s copy "%%~nA_stereo.mkv"
pause

 

[fordiebianco]

Glad you are sorted.
I did read (above) about something "stereo emulation by the Denon for dialogue". I was thinking that if you are watching TV with source that include "more than stereo channels" the dialogue would be mixed into the available channels and an AV amp would be unaware of 'dialogue' per se and just play all the channels. If your source material was pure 2ch stereo, would the AV not blank all channels bar those for the L & R speakers?

Hi,

it seemed to vary from movie to movie. It appeared the more complex the soundtrack was (engine noises, space ship sounds, explosions) the more the dialogue was lost in the 2.1 downmix. With the centre speaker(s) reinstated, dialogue is not an issue anymore.