I had this idea.
For most people centre speaker positioning is a pain and often a compromise. If you have a projector screen, the centre speaker limits the size of the screen (unless you place it behind the screen, which presumably ups the cost of the acoustically transparent screen). If you have a TV, then unless it's wall-mounted the centre speaker is usually inside a cabinet (read boxy sound with tweeters too low pointing at your knees) or it's in the way of the screen.
There's also the problem of getting a centre speaker that actually matches the left and right speakers. They're often quite different designs; M-T-M designs, often sealed rather than ported, sometimes having different driver sizes etc etc,
Now I also like Neat Iota Alphas. I heard them at the Bristol Show and was very impressed. So I'm really curious about what a multi-channel set-up would sound like with these. (I'm not seriously considering it, but I am intrigued at their possibilities). Maybe their smaller cousins the Iota standmounts for rear duties, but three Iota Alphas for left - centre - right, could potentially solve a lot of problems with centre speakers.
All three would match perfectly. They're all so short they wouldn't get in the way of the screen. But as they're designed to project their sound upwards (and in 2-channel mode, do so successfully), they have the potential to produce a seamless and open soundstage at the proper height (not pointing at your knees like many centre speakers). They would also have the potential of producing a high quality sound system that's virtually invisible in the room, so could be a winner with your significant-other.
For most people centre speaker positioning is a pain and often a compromise. If you have a projector screen, the centre speaker limits the size of the screen (unless you place it behind the screen, which presumably ups the cost of the acoustically transparent screen). If you have a TV, then unless it's wall-mounted the centre speaker is usually inside a cabinet (read boxy sound with tweeters too low pointing at your knees) or it's in the way of the screen.
There's also the problem of getting a centre speaker that actually matches the left and right speakers. They're often quite different designs; M-T-M designs, often sealed rather than ported, sometimes having different driver sizes etc etc,
Now I also like Neat Iota Alphas. I heard them at the Bristol Show and was very impressed. So I'm really curious about what a multi-channel set-up would sound like with these. (I'm not seriously considering it, but I am intrigued at their possibilities). Maybe their smaller cousins the Iota standmounts for rear duties, but three Iota Alphas for left - centre - right, could potentially solve a lot of problems with centre speakers.
All three would match perfectly. They're all so short they wouldn't get in the way of the screen. But as they're designed to project their sound upwards (and in 2-channel mode, do so successfully), they have the potential to produce a seamless and open soundstage at the proper height (not pointing at your knees like many centre speakers). They would also have the potential of producing a high quality sound system that's virtually invisible in the room, so could be a winner with your significant-other.