It appears that the average home theater enthusiast feels somehow pressured to use a low profi le center channel. Whether it is due to paradigms created by marketing giants, infl uenced by signifi cant others, or is a matter of personal taste- I won't guess. Whatever the reason, the desire for thin center channels is real, so this was an important consideration in the planning of this project.

From an acoustic standpoint, center channels have one important and unique acoustic goal: to create a wide, uniform sound fi eld in the horizontal plane. Why is this important? Because it solidly anchors the sound in the center of the viewing screen, regardless of the viewer's position. With a poor quality center channel (or without one altogether), it is likely that the only person with any semblance of a good front soundstage is the one sitting perfectly centered between the mains. By carefully selecting the driver geometry and crossover design, I hoped to create a center channel with wide dispersion that would provide a great home theater experience from any viewing position.

As with any other design, it is also important that the speaker is capable of meeting the output and response demands that will be placed on it. When we combine this with the other requirements, it is easy to see why center channel designs can be somewhat tricky. To achieve high output levels and good bass extension, it takes a signifi cant amount of cone area, which in turn means large or multiple drivers, which either increases the profi le or creates poor off-axis response. This diffi culty may help explain why mass-market companies often bring to market speakers that are compromised in one or several of these regards.