Ventriloquist Questions

[Retread]

The Ventriloquist sheets say that the center speaker should be placed "off the floor." How high up is "off the floor?"

How sensitive is the vertical placement of the center speaker? I have a front projector and a 6' diagonal, tripod-mounted screen. My wife (wives always cause engineering compromises) likes the bottom of the screen about 2' from the floor. We currently have old Polk bookshelf stereo speakers at about 8' above floor level (10' ceilings) and can see them above the screen. With this configuration, we don't notice that the speakers are that high up. If I put the Ventriloquist centered at that height and the front-two satellites also at that height, all angled downward toward listening position, will it be worse than what we currently experience?

Given that the center speaker is rear-ported, what happens if it is put in a bookshelf?

[Michael Bain]

The ideal placement of the center channel is in line with your ears while you are in the seated position. Most people are forced to either place their center channel higher or lower than ear level because of in-room constraints. You do not want the floor or any other surface to interfere with the sound, so it is best to isolate the center channel from the floor as much as possible when placed below ear level. A stand which allows the center channel to be angled up would be a reasonable solution. If you want the center channel on the tv, try to isolate the center from the tv surface as much as possible, and angle the speaker down.

I think it would be really nice if Hsu could design a custom stand(s) for the Ventriloquist center and surround speakers.

With ports in the rear, you do not want to put the VT center channel flush against the back of a bookcase or prebuilt unit. The important thing is to make sure that the ports have a few inches of space to allow proper flow of air. Exactly how little or how much space is needed is a question that Sasha Goodman can hopefully answer.

[Audio72]

What kind of speaker stands do you recommend for the Ventriloquist ?