Center Speakers

The role of a center speaker is to provide dialogue, movie soundtrack and effects. Its placement is usually below the TV screen or above it.

What's so special about the center speaker?

Well, it helps anchor the sound to the TV screen. For example, with the center speaker, voice comes directly from the position where the actor is on screen. It allows panning ( movement of objects from left to right side of the screen) to take place smoothly instead of sound jumping from the left to the right speaker, causing a gap in the sound.

If you have a stereo system, the brain is able to conjure up a phantom center channel when the two speakers emit the same sound towards the viewer. However, this causes brain fatigue.

Also, if the viewer moves from the middle position to either left or right of the TV screen, the phantom channel moves likewise.

With the Center speaker, people sitting at one side still can enjoy sound coming directly from the screen. Otherwise, they can hear sound coming only from the nearest speaker to them.

Finally, the use of three front speakers instead of two put less demands on the left and right speakers and enable them to perform better.