Leather furniture in your room is bad for sound,fabric furniture is better
I thought as much so am draping the leather chairs with sheep’s wool mattress toppers that I had spare.
The chairs are now cozy but have not noticed an improvement in sound - might just hang one over the tv.
I think he was really referring to the speakers in the TV which would passively vibrate and add their own colouration to the sound. That was back when they made a big deal about the importance of single speaker demo rooms for the same reason.
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I’m now wondering if I should have my guitar speaker cab (with 2x12 inch celestion speakers) in the proximity of my Hifi speakers?
The TV screen may be physically located where your brain imagines the soundstage is.
But actually the soundstage is in your head.
The soundstage is mainly created by the sound waves from your speakers directly hitting your ears.
The TV has nothing to do with that.
If the TV makes an audible difference it’s because:
- soundwaves (esp from the woofers) head sideways and hit the TV and then reflect to your ears and hit them after the initisal soundwaves
- a ChrisSU notes also the TV probably contains speakers which resonate in response to your hifi speakers
- The fact that the front of the TV is glass means it may also reflect sounds coming off the wall behind the listener for a 3rd order reflection. But it seems unlikely that most of the sound relfections from the TV screen go directly from your main speakers onto the TV glass screen and then head straight towards your ears!
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Who knows, perhaps they improve things?!
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Wall-mounted TV’s very often are mounted too high. You do not want to be tilting your neck up to watch. It should be eye-level when in your seated position. Even having to ‘tilt your eyes up’ the entire time you’re watching is quite unnatural and, I find, fatiguing.
There’s a lot to be said for convenience putting it on the wall, but nothing to be said for the actual viewing experience unfortunately.
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There’s nothing stopping someone from mounting a TV correctly on the wall. This is not just done for convenience, but can also be to get a bit more viewing distance, or to be able to hide cables. What matters is the height, not the type of mounting. You can also have it too high (or too low) sitting on a cabinet.
I’ve always wall-mounted mine at the correct height. The only folks likely doing this wrong are those that look at a fireplace and think putting a TV above it is a good idea. 
This is true. I see so many picture of (usually) America homes with a TV over the fireplace and just wonder what was going through someone’s head.But of course if TV is mainly for news and casual viewing it might make sense to some people’s lifestyle.
Even where I am now, I had false wall panel installed with built in cupboards for CDs and books etc above and to the sides with a recess halfway down sized for a 60" screen and airflow. Definitely one of my better decisions. With 1" of space behind the wall it allows for the TV and 3 wall mounted surround speakers with not a single visible cable of any description to disturb the sea of chestnut wood.
The one thing I think was missing was a roller blind mounted under the shelf above the TV. I’ll get it right next time.
They probably don’t but secondary, third and fourth order reflections all banging into one another throughout the room will certainly be happening.
Dampening them or some absorption will have effects and should improve clarity and detail. How much depends on many other factors.
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Yes I did that in a home 20 years ago; learned my lesson.
I prefer the screen to take up a decent percentage of my field of view; I don’t want to look at a picture frame. There are some guides online as to good ratios of screen size to seating distance. Sitting too far away (or conversely getting too small a display) is another common mistake. I guess people get used to it, but it’s not my thing.
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Yep. Just like with hi-fi, I try to get the setup as close to ideal as possible, and I find you can do it even more easily with a wall mount.
yes, I allude to these various reflections in my post above
clearly the TV screen, being hard and located between the speakers, will start off reflections in many directions
but then there are also many other hard surfaces in the room - e.g. floors, side walls, glass on pictures, doors, ceilings, etc.
So the TV is only one thing you might choose to cover
yesterday I listened in 3 conditions to the same track
- with French doors and curtains wide open
- all doors and curtains shut
- …with a doubled blanket over the TV
The first condition actually was quite pleasant and sounded surpirsingly good, despite the background of birdsong, hyenas, flymos etc
Conditions 2 and 3 were each a little better in the sense that there was a deader, quieter background for the music to appear on.
But the difference between 2 and 3 was so minor that it was certainly within the region in which I may have been kidding myself.
I would not bet a fiver on a blind test of with vs without blanket.
Agreed, I would say it is completely room dependent.
I could safely say I could hear an improvement but being bothered to throw a blanket over whenever I listen I am not so sure.
Yes, if someone spilled yoghurt on the blanket it could get messy!
Completely agree. The screen should be at eye level as you watch it from the sofa. However, with 5 grandchildren under the age of 7, it makes for some worrying moments as €3k worth of screen comes within a metaphorical inch of its life; getting across to them that it isn’t a touchscreen is nearly impossible!
I think that, too, often seeing them fitted above the mantlepiece when there is a fireplace. I would get tired watching a film looking up like that (though I suppose it may be OK if you have reclining seats).
We have a big screen mounted high on the wall and have it angled down slightly.
I have never experienced eye fatigue by looking up at it. I usually point my head up and sit straight.
That could be better for reducing jowls and a double chin developing by looking down all the time.
The larger of the ‘old telly boxes’ (CRTs) used to come on purpose built stands raising the TV to knee height, ‘sideboard height’ perhaps this was simply to conform with outher teak clad furniture in the room! So when we bought our first flat plasma screened TV, I mounted it off the wall at the same sort of height, somehow it feels right :0)
I also like my soundstage to be somewhat elevated. Rather than at waist height, more at head height.
If Melody Gardot is on I want her standing or sitting on the stage, rather than on her knees.