"Simon, what are the dimensions of your center speaker and how well does it blend with the fronts, is it above or below your TV and how far from the wall?"
My center speaker is a full-size version of the 100S3, but built to fire straight out as opposed to 45 degrees. It blends perfectly. The LCR are behind an acoustically transparent screen; I use a front projector. With the LCR, there is about a foot and a half between the wall and the back of the cabinet. I would move them further into the room if there was space to do it. They are between 10 and 11 feet from the main listening position (LP).
"Did your shorts have the Tweeter at 45 degrees or were they facing straight up?
Can you elaborate on their performance as a surround speaker?
How did you have them positioned relative to your ears/seating position?"
Also, what was was the reason for the upgrade to the 100S3 and did it make a lot of difference?"
My micro-Walsh short surrounds were the omni version with the tweeter pointing toward the ceiling. They were positioned 90 degrees from the center--directly to the side of the LP. There was about a foot from the side wall to the back of the cabinet. Again, if I had more width to the room, I would move them further out. The tweeter was about one to two feet above my ear, about five feet from the LP.
For surrounds, I have tried dipoles, bipoles, and monopoles (firing toward the LP, up in the air, toward the corners, etc.). But in terms of striking a balance between localization when called for and diffusion when called for, the omni Ohms are the best I have found. As an aside, I prefer more localization for the rears, so I had bipoles, now replaced with the micro-Walsh (non-omni) shorts.
Many people recommend identical speakers all around. This is probably most important for music, where mismatches become more evident. Still, I find that film-mixers are putting more and more into the surrounds to the point that some passages have the same SPL in the surrounds as in the LCR (I think that the rears in Dolby PLIIx are still at least 3 dB down, which is quite a power difference). There were passages in movies where I felt that the micros were having trouble keeping up with the LCR at my volume levels. So I wanted something that I would be sure would keep up with the LCR. The 100S3 driver is bigger and can move more air. Having said that, I have to say that five feet from my ears, the shorts disappeared a bit better than the larger 100S3 surrounds.
