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Center Channel-What it's purpose?

Posted by Robert C. Lang (A) on March 24, 2007 at 14:31:22

In Reply to: Re: Parvi Dvorak 9th-Telarc "House Sound"? posted by Ted Smith on March 24, 2007 at 12:00:58:

I don't see a disagreement.

I said:

****I have found that multi-channel recordings that don’t utilize a center channel, or that underutilize the center channel do not have this solidity/wide sweet spot attribute.****

You said:

****In my experience the center channel is irrelevant to a solid soundstage IF you are listening from the sweet spot.****

I agree with what you have said. Completely.

I have found that the sweet spot is less of an issue with a well-done center channel. I find the soundstage to be more solid over a wider area with a good center channel mix. The sweet spot is broader. That is, you can sit a bit left or right of the "traditional sweet" spot with minimal or no sound degradation. Although, as I mentioned I always sit in the traditional sweet spot regardless. Without a center channel, I have found the sweet spot to be much more critical.

You also said:

****I often have to mute the left or right speakers or solo the center to show people that the sound is really not coming from the center.****

I have had the same or similar experience with a variety of speakers for years, beginning with the Ohm F in the 70s. When playing two channels new listeners insist that I must have a speaker hidden in the fireplace that is in between and behind the speakers. They consistently get up to look for it. Or since I have had multi-channel they will think for sure that music is coming from the middle speaker when it is completely off. Likewise with a multi-channel recording that has no center mix they (and yours truly) will be fooled into thinking that music is coming from the center channel when it is not active. (I didn't realize that Telarc's Mahler 5 (Zander) center channel was practically mute until Robert88 [I think]made mention of it). In the case of a multi-channel recording with no center channel this allusion can collapse if you wander from traditional the sweet spot.

And yes let me make it clear, my observations are limited solely to my experiences in my system. Like everything else in audio experiences will vary from system to system and then from room to room (which I would venture to say has a lot more effect than audio cables in my experience). In the case of the center channel a lot may depend, also, how it is being utilized in a particular mix as to whether it is important or not.

While we are on the topic of do you know the purpose of the center channel in SACD? (In that the center channel seems to have a completely different use than in HT).

Robert C. Lang

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