Horizontal Center Channel Speakers Can Ruin Your Day

Or at least make dialog sound crappy and unclear

Some people will watch the following video and think:

Well I sit “on axis” (directly in front of the center speaker) then the poor “off axis” response of many horizontal center speakers will only impact the other people in the room…..and that’s okay.

Alas, much of the sound we hear in a room is reflected sound, not direct sound. Even a room with acoustic treatment consists of 70% or more reflective surfaces, even if it is designed according to CEDIA and CTA guidelines (eg, RT60 or RDT of around .3 seconds.)

If that reflected sound doesn't have the same frequency response (often called "even" or "consistent" dispersion) as the direct speaker sound, then we are hearing a lot of poor response that doesn't match the direct sound, which muddies the sound and exacerbates issues like "dialog intelligibility." Even the seat directly in front of the center speaker may not hear the dialog clearly.

So, before investing in a center channel speaker that is horizontal — which I agree can be a necessary compromise in some rooms due to space limitations and or not using an acoustically transparent screen — it is worthwhile to understand how speaker response measurements are quite important, to prevent problems.