"Peter Chant" wrote in message
...
Chaps,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience. Given I have
some days off
I might do this.

Have a couple of 4" bass units and a tweeter kicking
around the garage
and the desire that _anything_ must be better as a centre
speaker than a
horrid injection molded plastic speaker that came with the
(oldish TV).


Probably making a vented enclosure. Is it better put the
drivers in a
single enclosure or to make essentially two separate
enclosures side by
side? Can't really think of any pros and cons except to
do the sums and
see if the box sizes are realistic.




Are you trying to achieve bass or just better/louder audio?

If you are wanting bass (and TV sound is as good - some say
better - than FM radio) then you might want to consider
using signal level filtering and then driving both speakers
with one amp in one enclosure. If you are wanting to achieve
better audio quality in stereo the two enclosures physically
separated and driven is a better choice.

Remember that ultimately it is all about moving air and up
to around 120Hz (some say 150Hz) there is little
directionality so a common so-called sub-bass unit is a good
option in this situation as each driver will only have to do
half the work.

One thing not to overlook: how will adjust volume levels? If
your TV has the option of feeding audio out at line level
that is volume controlled then you don't have a problem -
although you say it is an older TV so this is unlikely as it
is only a feature that has come in over the last maybe five
years or so with the larger takeup of home cinema. If this
is the case then you have to use the TV headphone output
with all its attendant noise and distortion which begs the
question of whether it is worth doing in the first place.

Assuming you have a LCD/Plasma TV even if it is old, have
you considered fitting deflectors under the (usually)
downward facing speakers to direct the sound to you viewing
position? You'd be surprised how much difference such a
small change can make.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com