Rives audio , an acoustical engineering firm , blasted Absolute Sound for a letter I sent the magazine the prior month regarding center channel placement issues. The misunderstanding was in the wording , not the concept. Widescreen Review printed a ground breaking article in its sept 95 issue { Star Trek generations } by the esteemed Peter Moncrieff [ editor and publisher of the International Audio Review : IRA ] , regarding the proper speaker setup of the home theatre . Concerning the center speaker , he suggests that "Our research shows that center speaker placement is the single biggest mistake people make in setting up home theatre or surround sound systems " . Most experts will tell you that the front 3 should be equidistant from the listener. Peter says that his research shows that the center be placed 4 feet back from that equidistant arc .... OR .... { not AND } use a 4 millisecond delay to achieve the same result. He goes on to say " ...the front stage space also suddenly became cogently real , all sounds in this space suddenly acuired a palpable solidity and three dimensional reality"..... The next issue is making sure the center is a good match for the mains. The exact same model is the best choice but most pick a dedicated center that the same company suggests to timbre match to your mains . Complicating things more is the display device that usually occupies a space near the center and that itself introduces its own pandoras box of evils like distorted imaging issues. Rives can offer some excellent solutions with a few new great products just hitting the market now as a matter of fact. Its terribly difficult to perfectly dial in just a stereo pair and in the past decade we have added a center , subs , and surrounds to the mix . Getting all of this right is a true challenge to put it mildly. Good luck and be patient. You will vastly increase your listening skills with the trial and error period you are in .