Flatscreen between speakers

@elliottnewcombjr

Don’t Skip a Center Speaker, even if it has to be small, or behind something, try one

There are very good reasons for not using a centre speaker, especially one which is in effect a horizontal d’Apolito array!  As soon as you move away from dead centre, the outer drivers create an interference effect, or comb filter.  If your main front left and front right speakers have good imaging capability, let them do what they are already good at. 

Your pre-processor should just add the centre signal to the signal for the two front speakers - my Marantz ones all do this.  My main system is configured with two main front speakers, and two rear speakers, plus four ceiling speakers and a subwoofer.

@ticat 

my experience has lead me to believe that 2 channel and HT have no business being seriously pursued in one room

Could you please list where you see the incompatibilities?

Personally, I find 2-channel severely limiting for classical music in particular, where a huge number of recordings is available on multi-channel SACD and other disc formats (Bluray, Dolby Atmos, etc).

Until recently, my main speakers were Quad ESL-2905 driven by a Krell amplifier, and supported by a big subwoofer, so quite good for 2-channel audio.  They are also quite good at providing 2 channels of a home theater system.  My main source is a universal disk transport which retrieves data from CD, SACD, DVD, Blu Ray and 3k disks, If need be, I can switch my turntable through a 2-channel Krell Pre-amp but for everything else I normally used the DACs in my Marantz AV8802 pre-processor.

IF I want to play 2-channel music, I do it through components which would satisfy me in a dedicated room though they are co-located with "home theatre".

Finally, there are awesome recordings of music performances which add yet another channel - video!  Don't want to watch?  Just shut you eyes, but you miss out on the whole experience.

@shooter41 

What an arrogant response. "Where it belongs" is your opinion, not a fact.

Agreed - I was hoping for a sensible response!