On 12/09/2014 07:53 AM, Woody wrote:
Are you trying to achieve bass or just better/louder audio?


Probably should have explained the situation a little more.

Currently have CRT TV. DVD player / laptop (if worth using) feeding
into a cheap 5.1 decoder. Don't us it much, but nice on the odd
occasion. Fronts are the two floor-standers in my hifi. Rears are a
pair of home-made bookshelf speakers (largish) that seem surprisingly
good given the lack of design that when into making them.

Centre speaker is a horrid 1 way piece of plastic injection moulding
with likely the cheapest speaker they could fit in. In comparison to
anything else in the room it sounds compressed, narrowband and generally
awful.

This arrangement is ad-hoc, lacks ergonomics, but apart from the cheap
surround decoder it consists of things I already own. Replacing the
centre will make a large difference. Not looking for perfection, but a
large improvement is easy.

I could ebay a centre I or I could use the drivers lying around the garage.


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.


Floor-standers on the fronts. I seriously need to move into a detached
house, away from neighbours before I think about more bass.

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.


I did wonder whether I should mix the sub channel into the fronts.
However, I already have plenty of bass to the extent that I have
considered turning it down for movies.

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.


Hifi - knob on pre-amp. Rears, knob on integrated amp. Centre knob on
gutted home made pre-amp. All from 5.1 decoder. A pain in the arse,
but it does work. If keen then Alps six gang pots are going on ebay for
12 quid.


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.


Not tried that - not applicable in my situation. If I get chance I'll
try that somewhere else.