Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Centre Speaker Height

Steve,

want to be perfect, you are way to low and have to turn the speaker upright.

You have to decide, whats is important for you, movie or music?
In my experience movie are less critical as your eyes primiraly "makes" the location.

With music, just make a simple try.

Put a CD -with a voice in the middle- in the player,
select Trifield or music-darkening the room so you cant see !!
Then listen and imagine 3 or 4 times the "height" of the voice.

Then turn on the light,put your TV away(behind your seat or in the next room), take the lower drawer from your bureau,turn it upside down.Then place it on the previous location of your TV. With the drawer underneath and the speaker in upright position, I imagine all tweeters should be have the same heights.

Then make the same experience as before(turn off the lights !!) and listen.
You will hear a clear difference not only in the heights.
Then you will know,how big or small is the difference for YOUR taste and if "have" to do something or not.

Steve,its a little work,but overall you know what you missed or you dont care.
If you like the same tweeter heights,sell or modify your bureau in that way,
that the TV is in place of the decoder/amp? and your upright center sitting on the top level of the new bureau.
The disadvantage of that solution is, that the drawers and the other electronic have to go somewhere.
But if you are addicted or dependent on music, thats would my way to go.
But try it first and make your own dessitions.

Good luck,no pain ;-))

Robert

The 3 main 'speakers are Dynaudio BM5A, balanced XLR inputs driven from the XLR outputs of a 568. The subs are bespoke, passive rear mounted 10" drive units, each driven by a Quad 510 via DSP crossover with built in parametric (room correction). They were also designed to act as stands for the main left/right 'speakers.

The left and right are out into the room because they sound best that way. Again the subs were designed to work away from the wall, the rear facing drivers utilising the corner loading, any response peaks smothed with the DSP.

Steve.

I said they looked interesting... if anything your description makes them sound even more interesting....

The orientation doesn't make any difference because the 'speaker isn't a MTM design, just a TM. No cancellation or addition due to having 2 midbass units.

I might try out the centre on a stand, in line with the L/R. The Loewe TV is too heavy to just move about, (CRT, 576P component input, bloody good picture).

Steve.

Steve, very nice setup. Would it be possible to pull the center out a drop?

They're over 12 years old now, they theoretically have a -3dB point of 24Hz, the ports are tuned lower than this, meaning they're unlikely to become unloaded. The room they're in now is the limiting factor for the low end response (too small!).

I want to get another pair made, similar design but with better internal bracing.

Steve.

It could come out a bit, are you thinking that the unit it's in is causing diffraction?

Steve.

Yes a little and also the cabinet will get more excited with the speaker more inside than outside and that will create some coloration to the sound- if you can get it out- even a few cm- it would probably help a little bit. Unless its designed to be an in wall speaker, putting anything in a cabinet is not helpful to the sound. I realize this is done for aesthetics and thats a real consideration, if something is unpleasant to look at, you won't enjoy it as much.

I should add that all 3 BM5As have their ports bunged and their built in crossovers set to 80Hz high pass.

I'll have to have a play with the centre's position.

Aesthetics are a major factor.

Steve.