Flatscreen between speakers

I’ve always been more concerned about the internal loudspeaker of the TV resonating in sympathy with the sound in the room. My acoustic guitar does this when not in use so I dampen the strings with a soft cloth. Removing the surround loudspeakers from my listening room improved stereo performance.

Unless the stereo loudspeakers are toed in sharply and have front baffles close to the front wall or the TV projects out a long way, I can’t see how mid range and high frequencies that might cause problems could directly reach the screen.

@newton_john Although I no longer have a TV between speakers, I did for several years, and it was quite close to the wall and above the main speakers.

Covering the TV significantly improved stereo imaging.

I also have an acoustic guitar in the room and it never occurred to me that it could be resonating - I just had a listen and it most certainly is - a lot! - but damping the strings made no difference. Not surprisingly, the resonance is from the body, which is essentially a Helmholtz resonator. THX!

@macg19 

Thanks for the advice. I’ll give covering the TV a shot. Also will pay more attention to guitar - maybe putting the cloth over the sound hole will help. I suppose I could move it to another room.

Folks, the results are finally in. It took me a while, but the conclusion is undeniable. Yes, my flat screen glass, Plasma TV was definitely affecting negatively the performance of my music system.

I have so many people to think for their advice and contribution: @ghdprentice ​​@jeffbij, @bugredmachine, @erik_squires, @karlss0n, @elliottbnewcombjr, @mihorn, @shooter41, @atanarjuat99, @wooly_mammoth, @avanti1960, @mswale, @tablejockey, @richardbrand, @asvjerry, @gruvjet, @asctim, @bhrapp, @tweak1, @knownothing, @kubla36, @samoh, @newton_john.

I started in the direction of a thick cover and ordered one from Digital Deck Cover. They are not cheap at $120. I was planning on modifying it to make it more substantial. One common mistake with acoustic panel is to think that any thickness will do. And then kubla36 chimed in and showed a picture of a panel that he designed. That was actually my original idea, but I thought it would have been expensive. Turned out it just looks expensive. The material can be found at Amazon here and here. Wood working is my hobby, so I had all the tools I needed to make it happen. My design is a little different from his, but the possibilities are endless. The pictures can be seen in my Virtual System. I couldn't load that many pictures in the thread.

So how does it sound? Exquisite. Soundstage height is finally right; soundstage depth is much deeper. I will do some measurement later, but for now I need to relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor   I got to admit, it took me longer than I anticipated. Designing a mechanism to hang it on the wall in front of the TV is the most challenging. The panels construction itself was very easy. I use double sided tape to attach the 12"X 12" panels to the board and the frame construction was kept simple. The two panels system was ideal for me because I could keep them light. The whole project costs less than $200.

Looks fantastic!  I lack carpentry skills.

So its not just my wishful thinking on soundstage (lots of options for panels). I forget to put it up while casually listening and after about two news articles its always, "something's wrong with the music".