I'm not a big movie watcher and don't feel the need to have a home theatre system (even when I used to have a stereo with 3 way floor standers connected to my TV and HTPC, I never used it for anything but listening to music), but I wouldn't mind a bit better audio than the TV puts out. I saw the video Why Is EVERYONE Buying This Soundbar??? the other day and figure that's the sort of thing that would suit me, except it seems a bit lame, so I don't want to get one. Instead I might try out some old bookshelf speakers I have lying about. I ordered (but am still waiting for) a Fosi 2.1 amp the other day, which I will try out on my TV soon...
1) But then I was reading the thread Group delay produced by stereo and wondered if listening in mono is a good idea? A lot of the TV shows I watch have a lot of talking, so having clear dialogue is probably the most important factor. So maybe listening to 1 speaker in mono is a good idea? Has anyone done this? What are the results like? Is there much lost by not having stereo?
2) But then I was thinking, 1 bookshelf speaker sitting in the middle under the TV would look pretty dumb, so maybe I could run a centre speaker there? Something with a coax driver and 2 woofers like a KEF Q650C would probably give a great point source for vocals, and deep enough bass to be pleasing even without a subwoofer. But would a single coax driver have enough horizontal dispersion to have good clean vocals at all the sitting positions? Or would a different sort of mid+high driver be better?
This got me thinking about looks some more, because I don't particularly like the contrast of a "narrow" (compared to the TV) yet bulky centre speaker sitting under the TV - it just looks wrong to me. Soundbars look better IMO (less distracting because they blend in better). So this got me thinking about DIY solutions, because then I could build a box roughly as wide as the TV and get some great performance from some 6.5" woofers (flat down to 50Hz should be achievable). But I'm not here to talk about DIY possibilities in this thread, but this did lead to me thinking about...
3) How can I handle the signal side of things (and/or, what is there to consider)? Pretty much everything I watch is streamed through the browser on my HTPC, and I presume it is 2ch stereo. I don't think what I stream has surround sound, and I'm not sure how that is handled on the PC anyway, AND I don't have a receiver or anything (so I presume I can't use any Dolby etc tech). So what is the best way to make a mono centre signal from 2ch audio? Should I just sum the channels, or would it be best to do some sort of fancy processing that boosts the vocals and what not? What are my options here?
And here are some bonus questions;
4.1) If I made or adapted a speaker that is woofer-coax-woofer, would it be a good idea to send left and right bass/low-mids to the respective woofer, and maybe that would give a bit of a stereo effect? Like a pseudo 3chan L-C-R.
4.2) Following on from the "3 channel" idea, what if the PC still output normal 2chan, and each woofer got it's own signal (and the woofers would have analogue LPF). And then the coax driver was wired so that it bridged both channels, thus getting its mixed signal that way?
4.3) This is a very general thing, but is it possible during processing (in EqAPO say) to transform the bass frequency? Say if it could monitor all the bass from 20-50Hz, and whatever the peak amplitude in signal is, reproduce that amplitude as a "slam" at 50Hz. Is there a name for such a technique?
TLDR, I have the following questions;
1) Is using only a centre speaker in mono good for "non critical" TV viewing?
2) Which type of centre speaker would be best for listening mono?
3) What is the best way to create a mono signal from a 2chan source?
1) But then I was reading the thread Group delay produced by stereo and wondered if listening in mono is a good idea? A lot of the TV shows I watch have a lot of talking, so having clear dialogue is probably the most important factor. So maybe listening to 1 speaker in mono is a good idea? Has anyone done this? What are the results like? Is there much lost by not having stereo?
2) But then I was thinking, 1 bookshelf speaker sitting in the middle under the TV would look pretty dumb, so maybe I could run a centre speaker there? Something with a coax driver and 2 woofers like a KEF Q650C would probably give a great point source for vocals, and deep enough bass to be pleasing even without a subwoofer. But would a single coax driver have enough horizontal dispersion to have good clean vocals at all the sitting positions? Or would a different sort of mid+high driver be better?
This got me thinking about looks some more, because I don't particularly like the contrast of a "narrow" (compared to the TV) yet bulky centre speaker sitting under the TV - it just looks wrong to me. Soundbars look better IMO (less distracting because they blend in better). So this got me thinking about DIY solutions, because then I could build a box roughly as wide as the TV and get some great performance from some 6.5" woofers (flat down to 50Hz should be achievable). But I'm not here to talk about DIY possibilities in this thread, but this did lead to me thinking about...
3) How can I handle the signal side of things (and/or, what is there to consider)? Pretty much everything I watch is streamed through the browser on my HTPC, and I presume it is 2ch stereo. I don't think what I stream has surround sound, and I'm not sure how that is handled on the PC anyway, AND I don't have a receiver or anything (so I presume I can't use any Dolby etc tech). So what is the best way to make a mono centre signal from 2ch audio? Should I just sum the channels, or would it be best to do some sort of fancy processing that boosts the vocals and what not? What are my options here?
And here are some bonus questions;
4.1) If I made or adapted a speaker that is woofer-coax-woofer, would it be a good idea to send left and right bass/low-mids to the respective woofer, and maybe that would give a bit of a stereo effect? Like a pseudo 3chan L-C-R.
4.2) Following on from the "3 channel" idea, what if the PC still output normal 2chan, and each woofer got it's own signal (and the woofers would have analogue LPF). And then the coax driver was wired so that it bridged both channels, thus getting its mixed signal that way?
4.3) This is a very general thing, but is it possible during processing (in EqAPO say) to transform the bass frequency? Say if it could monitor all the bass from 20-50Hz, and whatever the peak amplitude in signal is, reproduce that amplitude as a "slam" at 50Hz. Is there a name for such a technique?
TLDR, I have the following questions;
1) Is using only a centre speaker in mono good for "non critical" TV viewing?
2) Which type of centre speaker would be best for listening mono?
3) What is the best way to create a mono signal from a 2chan source?