Spades or bananas?
May 31, 2006
Has anyone on your staff conducted listening tests between
speaker cables with the only variable being spades versus bananas as connectors? I can use
either on my speakers as they have five-way binding posts, and I am about to order some
new speaker cables.
Philo
I have not, nor do I know anyone on our staff who has
conducted such a test. I suppose the only real variable would be the amount of contact
area that each connection makes. I’d say they are probably similar in contact area
and therefore sound either the same or too close to call. There might be other factors you
want to consider, though: Bananas are typically easier to use if you connect and
disconnect cabling on a regular basis. However, once a spade is torqued down with a
binding-post wrench it is more secure. It just won’t pull away easily, even if tugged
on by a small child. So, really, it’s a toss-up unless you have a preference based on
factors other than sound.
Center-channel options: part two
May 25, 2006
In your answer to the reader who wrote in about the
center-speaker problem, you stated, "If you go with a ceiling speaker, buy something
like a Mirage Omnisat or a Thiel PowerPoint. These would work best." Why would this
be the case? A lot of companies make ceiling-mounted speakers, so why just these two?
Thomas
In the early days of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers,
the average design was simply a coaxial driver on a wall plate. Many of these products
sounded horrible at worst, and easily localizable at best. Today we have products
engineered for their environments up there on the ceiling or on the wall and the solutions
are more elegant, better-sounding, and disappear better than what we have had in the past.
The Mirage and Thiel products are two fine examples. These speakers have clever
engineering behind them -- these companies set out to solve specific problems associated
with their mounting locations. I’ve heard both solutions and know that they work as
advertised. There might be others, but these are proven winners and therefore get my
heartiest recommendation.
Center-channel options
May 22, 2006
I have a unique problem: I don't have space for a center
speaker in my HT setup. We have a plasma screen above the fireplace for TV watching and a
screen that drops in front of it for movie watching. Here is my problem: If I put the
center below the plasma (on the fireplace mantle), it can’t be used with the screen
since it is behind the screen (the screen is not perforated). If I put the speaker on the
floor (in front of the fireplace), my wife is unhappy -- and I agree, it does not look
very good.
After talking to a few "pros" I was told that
these are my options:
1. Ceiling speakers.
2. Using two speakers, one on each side of the fireplace and use them as the center.
3. Have the center on the mantle and move it to the floor for screen watching.
Do you have any ideas or recommendations, especially for
option 2 (which I like best)? What would be good speakers to use for this option and is it
really an option?
Thomas
All of these options are viable. In the case of using
two speakers you’ll be feeding both of them the center-channel signal. They should
"image" right in the center of the screen. You’d need to pay attention to
the height of the speakers -- you need something tall enough so that they image
mid-screen. A low-imaging speaker will seem to make dialogue appear from to come from too
low on the screen. If you go with a ceiling speaker, buy something like a Mirage Omnisat
or a Thiel PowerPoint. These would work best. You want vocals, again, to appear to come
from the screen, not the ceiling! Both of these models will pull off that trick nicely.
Another option is to have no center speaker at all. Simply let your left and right stereo
speakers produce the center channel. This is called phantom mode, and is the preferred
choice of many even without your dilemma.
|
