You’ve likely done this right. A pure two-channel setup. No surround gear, no TV-driven compromises. But the room does double duty, and the screen—OLED, plasma, maybe a big LCD—sits quietly between the speakers. It’s part of the background. You’ve stopped noticing it.
Still, the soundstage appears a touch shallow. The center might come across as flat. Vocals could feel pressed forward, not seated in space.
Could that screen be speaking back?
What to Do
Try covering the screen during serious listening. Not with something heavy or dense—a wool throw, a flannel blanket, or a light quilt can do wonders. What you’re looking for is diffusion, not absorption. Too much dampening between the speakers can collapse the room’s energy. If you’re able, place a lightweight diffuser in front of the screen: a staggered bookshelf, a grid panel, even a few angled wood slats. Irregularity helps. Scatter, don’t smother.
If nothing else, try tossing a soft blanket over the screen during playback. Listen to what changes. It doesn’t need to be permanent. Just revealing.
Here’s Why That Works
Glass reflects—a lot. Especially in the upper midrange and treble. That reflected energy bounces back at your ears just milliseconds after the direct sound. It clouds transients, flattens spatial cues, and pulls center vocals into a two-dimensional plane. But if you go too far the other way—with heavy absorption—you lose air, sparkle, and life. The room dulls. The system slumps.
What you want is a soft scatter—a textured break in the bounce, not a vacuum in the middle. Once you’ve found that balance, something tends to happen. The center image deepens. The vocal stops sounding pressed against the glass. The room fills not with more energy—but with more space.
And then the screen doesn’t just go dark. It disappears.
