EDIT: I opened up the thread in Studio Building & Acoustics instead. Thank you!





Hi!

I am soon going to upgrade my 2.0 to a 5.1 setup.

I currently run Adam A7x as my stereo set and I will use these as my rear speakers and instead get new Adam A7v’s for the front.

I have two options for the center channel with two different compromises, and I'm looking for advice for which way to go..

Option 1: Use a third Adam A7v so the fronts are identical, but my computer screen (Imac) will slightly block the line of sight of the lowest part of the center speaker. Mainly blocking the front ports, the tweeter and woofer will both be above the screen and will not be blocked. (added a drawing to the thread)



Option 2: Get an Adam A44h instead which is a low profile alternative to the A7v. This will keep the line of sight free from the computer screen and it’s supposed to be similar to the A7v in response, but would probably not be identical.

 Adams website states "The completely new design also enables the A44H to serve as a center speaker in immersive and 3D speaker configurations." so it seems to be designed with this in mind.

Thank you!

Very interested to know what you ended up with...

I went through the same thing a while back and opted for identical monitors all the way round, and the instant I started mixing with an LCR it felt like the right decision.

The center speaker was a revelation coming from 2.0.

Try turning the center monitor upside-down as suggested in the Dolby 5.1 Music Production Guidelines if you have space issues.

I went for option 1 and have the same speakers across LCR! They just arrived so I haven’t had the time to set it all up yet but I figure it will work allright since it’s only the front ports that are out of sight and not the woofer or tweeter. And since most speakers are rear ported I figured it can’t be too bad at least.

I googled around a lot for pictures on smaller post-rooms with 5.1 aswell, and it seems that many studios have this compromise so I think it will be fine

Use matching speakers across the LCR. You could potentially flip the center speaker over with the woofer of top, just make sure all three tweeters are aligned on the same horizontal plane.