Hate to ask......

To Kjg and some of the others, a center channel works best if you have your mains spread out quite a bit and you are seated a bit away from the screen. There is NO advantage to using a center channel if the mains are only 6' - 10' apart ( depending on their size ) and your sitting on top of the screen. Given a situation like that, it is probably a disadvantage so long as your mains are "decent".

In a wider room and sitting back a reasonable distance from the screen, mains that are spaced a good distance apart add even more "ambience" or "spacial cues" to sound effects and imaging. After all, a plane that buzzes from left to center to right in an 8' distance sounds a LOT different than one that motors across a 13' - 15' distance and slowly blends from left to center to right. Of course, not everyone has the room to accomodate such a system or speakers big enough to work well in a situation like that.

Something else that comes into play in a major way in situations like this is the dispersion patterns for the mains and center. Most people don't even think about the height or angle of the center speaker or take the time to properly aim it. Like anything else, "garbage in equals garbage out". It takes effort and planning to get ANYTHING to work at full potential. Sean
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Inscrutable, surely you CAN have them spread out too much. Like i said, a lot of how they need to be set-up has to do with the size of the speakers, their dispersion pattern and the listening distance. It's the same thing that we run into for 2 channel use. You have to adjust them according to each individual situation design and the room acoustics.

As to having a center to anchor the dialogue for those not sitting in the sweetspot, that comes back to room dimensions and speaker dispersion. If the room is narrow and the speakers have wide dispersion, you would run into a problem with "overlap" between the three channels. Not only does this hurt overall performance, but the imaging is now blurred and channel seperation less distinct.

In a situation like that ( narrow room ), i would probably forego a center and just use good sized mains. One could even have the tv audio turned on at low level just to center the soundstage somewhat while the mains would do the majority of volume and side to side effects. Like anything else, it's a balancing act. Sean
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