Furniture and center channel

Hi all -
I'm in the process of setting up my first home theater system. I recently bought and assembled an entertainment unit to hold my TV, receiver, etc. etc. My center channel speaker (Athena Audition AS-C1) fits PERFECTLY in a compartment above the TV. Now, when I say perfectly, I mean very snug to the boundaries of the furniture - the walls of the speaker are in direct contact with the walls of the shelf unit. Thus, the speaker is directly bound on the bottom, right and left sides by the walls of the shelf comparment. As I am totally ignorant in this area, I need to ask - will this type of contact with the furniture affect the sound of the speaker? If so, how?
The furniture unit is of low-to-average quality - the material is a step above Ikea-like particle board but not quite at the level of solid wood.

Any advice you folks could offer would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Its in your house how does it sound.

Since it's a center channel, I don't think it will be a problem. The sound range a center outputs shouldn't be affected by the cabinet IMO. Mines a tight fit also & when I had it on top of the cabinet, it didn't sound any different to me.

There are two possible concerns, the first cabinet vibration, the second ported bass re-inforcement. I tried looking in the reviews on this site and at the specs and owner's manual on Athena's site and can't find if this speaker is front or rear ported, or acoustic suspension. If acoustic suspension or front-ported, you shouldn't have a problem. If rear-ported, you may lose some bass because of the restricted space. At this price-point you're not going to get a very rigid/dead cabinet and depending on the closeness of the speakers and cabinet side walls, it could cause the entire shelf to vibrate disrupting the center's imaging. But as bboy1234 states above, "Its in your house how does it sound." You'll never find perfection in audio, it's too subjective, so if it sounds good to you don't worry about it. Experimenting with placement yourself will provide more useful/valid information than what you can get on any forum and is half the fun.

Many centers are designed with the consideration that they may be placed in a 'box' like yours is. The sound of these centers should be less effected by placement than your mains. But, placement always affects the sound. If you don't have other options on placing your center. I'd leave it. I mean, what are you going to do if you find your center sounds better someplace you can't put it?

noddin0ff

Thanks for the help everyone. As far as I can tell, the C1 is rear-ported...though any bass loss might well be acceptable (small room). I haven't been able to demo comparison different positions myself yet - furniture unit is still under construction. That's why I wanted to check here first.

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Originally Posted by kfalls

There are two possible concerns, the first cabinet vibration, the second ported bass re-inforcement. I tried looking in the reviews on this site and at the specs and owner's manual on Athena's site and can't find if this speaker is front or rear ported, or acoustic suspension. If acoustic suspension or front-ported, you shouldn't have a problem. If rear-ported, you may lose some bass because of the restricted space. At this price-point you're not going to get a very rigid/dead cabinet and depending on the closeness of the speakers and cabinet side walls, it could cause the entire shelf to vibrate disrupting the center's imaging. But as bboy1234 states above, "Its in your house how does it sound." You'll never find perfection in audio, it's too subjective, so if it sounds good to you don't worry about it. Experimenting with placement yourself will provide more useful/valid information than what you can get on any forum and is half the fun.

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