One of the greatest things about doing these series of videos to try and come up with tips for your audio and home theater systems is the questions that we get in the comments. You know, a lot of you probably go, "Oh, I'm not going to comment. My question might be stupid", or, you know, "it's probably obvious". You know, the reality is, is that most of the content for the videos I decide to do are based on questions that are asked in the comments. And it's always amazing how, you know, I'd been in this industry for almost 24 years now and it's sort of in my blood at this point, and I still get questions that I'm like, "Geez, do people not know that?" And maybe that's been covered before, maybe it hasn't.
So lately a few questions have come up about center channels and where to position them and can I do this, can I do that? And we've done a number of videos covering home theater setup tips, and center channel improvements, and all these things like that. But like I said, from the comments and questions that we get in the comments, there are some things we found out that people need answers to. So one of them that actually came up a few times in the last number of weeks is, can I mount a center channel above my television set? Now, technically absolutely yes, you can. There's no problem whatsoever in doing that. And you know, in some cases where now televisions are commonly hung on a wall-mounted bracket, there may be an opportunity with a cabinet or a shelf or something that's above the TV to place the center channel.
Now all of the rules still apply. Don't bury it, don't have it pushed back deep from the edge of the shelf or cabinet. An in-wall will work fine in that application, and in-wall center channel. And if it's a conventional center channel and it's on a bracket or being placed on a shelf or in a cabinet, think about angling it downwards slightly so that it's aimed at your listening height. You don't want it sort of way up in the air and firing straight ahead, if you can avoid that.
Now, another question we've had regarding center channels is, can I use, instead of a dedicated center channel like this VP150, can I use a standard bookshelf or floor-standing speaker? You know, some people either have the room for it, they have an acoustically transparent screen with a projector, so they could put a big four standing speaker behind the screen. Again, the answer is absolutely yes, you can do that. And actually, that's ideal. If the three front channels can all be the same speaker, that technically is going to give you the best performance and the most seamless integration across the front stage.
One thing I'll warn you about though, and people ask this is, "I got an extra pair of speakers, could I take one of them, you know, the bookshelf speaker, and put it on its side so it's more like a center channel?" I would recommend against doing that, because conventional upright, bookshelf and four standing speakers are designed to have, in a good design, a wide horizontal radiation pattern. That pattern now, the horizontal becomes the vertical radiation pattern and in a center channel, what normally would be the vertical is the horizontal, because the speaker is essentially like a bookshelf or four stander on its side.
You'll sometimes see multiple tweeters, multiple drive units, and between the crossover, the driver arrangement and the cabinet design, center channels that are dedicated for that use are designed and set up so that they have a wide, horizontal dispersion when mounted flat like this. So if you take a conventional bookshelf speaker and put it on its side to be used as a center channel, the results are going to be unpredictable. So I would recommend against that arrangement.
Now, the final thing I've had asked a few times is, can I use an in-ceiling speaker for the center channel? I don't want to see a cabinet there, but I do have the ability to put an in-ceiling speaker. Again, yes, that's absolutely perfectly fine. Recommendations though, don't have that center channel in the ceiling really close to the back wall, let's say where the TV is mounted, have it out a little bit. And ideally look for an in-ceiling speaker that has a rotatable or adjustable tweeter or tweeter and mid range combination to aim that sound down towards the listening position a little, instead of having it point straight down. You'll get better sound that way.
So hopefully there's some answers to some of the more, maybe unconventional questions, about center channels, but please, like I said, keep those questions coming in the comments. They will potentially become content for new videos. Thanks for watching.
