Covering a TV behind your speakers?


I just read on another site a guy asking what difference it would make covering his TV while playing music. His picture shows a decent system but it must be in the basement. It can't be more than 12' wide. No sound treatments to be seen. I'm going through a divorce and will have to move to a much smaller one person house. I've been lucky for 30 years having my expossed basement listening room, 20' x 24', naturally almost perfect as far as sound goes.  I have been reading here and other sites trying to learn about treatments. Never heard the TV thing before. A few people responded to the guy's post that they hang drapes over the TV. I would think since current TV screens are not glass but whatever they are made of now they wouldn't cause a problem. Looking forward hearing from the experts here.

golden210

Showing 1 response by hartf36

I’ve heard a couple of folks say the audio sound field is in front of the TV, thus no effect, so no worry about reflections from the TV behind it.

How, exactly, does that theory work with my MMGs? Or any other bipolar speaker that radiates sound from the front AND the back, especially when they're 3-4' out from the wall the television shares?

For the record, I had a bit of material left over on a roll of landscaping geofabric. It’s black, so blends in nicely. I cut a small roll of it to a width just past each edge of the flat-screen television and long enough to hang just below the bottom edge. I unroll it and hang it off the top (had the wife sew a narrow "quiver" or slot in the top that I slid a wooden dowel into. Still light, but heavy enough to anchor the piece to the top of the television. When I want to listen critically, I pull it out, unroll it over the television, and enjoy. I can say it certainly doesn’t HURT my soundstage depth/width, and seems to my ear to deliver a bigger difference with well-recorded and mixed music like Steely Dan. It always sounds quite good to begin with, but pulling down the veil over the television kind of serves as a cherry on top when listening hard.