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Center Channel Frequency Response

I have to go with one system for all -- don't have the luxury of one system for movies and another for music. I found this response in an old thread:
A center channel speaker that is expressly designed for HT will have a restricted and taylored frequency response which makes speech more easily intelegible. However, such a speaker is not good for multichannel music, where the center (and surrounds) should be the same as the left and right fronts.

First question: Is the underlying premise correct? Are HT soundtracks and multichannel music formats mixed differently with respect to the frequency range of the center channel?

Second question: If the answer to the first question is "yes," why would a more restricted frequency range on the center channel make dialog clearer? Seems to me a clear midrange is a clear midrange. Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Lou
lhf63
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Lhf63...Research on this topic has been conducted mostly in context of noisy environments such as you describe. However, consider that the dialog of a movie is heard against the background of all the other sounds on the soundtrack. This is indeed a very "noisy" environment, even if your kids are tucked away in bed!

By the way, my spell checker thinks that "Lhf63" is a good word.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
ware is doug (sedond) when we knead him?
lhf63 OP
14 posts
 
Gee, it took a whole day for this thread to degenerate into juvenile baiting. Why I am not surprised?

Fine, don't use spellcheckers since they can't prevent all errors. Don't use seatbelts either, as they can't prevent all injuries. Only audiophiles could possibly find that logic compelling.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Lhf63...Actually, it was the second post that began the off-topic remarks about spelling. Lighten up. There is more to life than audio.
drew_eckhardt
394 posts
 
Lhf63 writes
>Final question: Given that a center is useful *for me*, and that broad frequency response is desirable, am I going to have issues with a nearly full-spectrum speaker sitting in a hutch on a shelf above the TV?

You're going to have issues with any speaker in a placement it wasn't specifically designed for which can be worked around with equalization (shelving filters) that may take the form of room correction (Audyssey, DEQX, Lexicon's product, Tact, etc.) that's configured automatically using a calibrated microphone.
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