I had been passing by this thread for some time cuz I thought the dreaded center front speaker was a dead end , like analog vs digital discussions. But once I got into it I am impressed by how much effort everyone here has put into getting it just right for their own individual needs. And the diversity in set ups is considerable. In’s in that regard, mainly from quicksrt that I’m responding. My whole room & CF speaker arrangement is almost the opposite of his but I find it fascinating that somethings so different can sound so right to different listeners.
My Bassment audiotorium (with video. I refuse to call it Home Theater when music is the most important part) is abouy 13’ w x 25’ d. The front speakers are Infinity Kappa 8’s & the back are Infinity Kappa 7’s. In between the front speakers is an 8’ (4 x 7) screen for my Panasonic 8000 projector. I use two BIC America 6.5” 2 way speakers for center front. Unlike anyone else here I have one on the floor underneath the screen sitting normally, and one suspended upside down from the floor joists by bunji cord to decouple and it is hung upside down. Woof on top, tweet on the bottom. The bunji cord decouples the speaker from the floor above & turning it upside down helps avoid reflections from the tweeter on the ceiling. The set up looks like this:
View attachment 44540
Obviously the speakers do not match the fronts but with a 100hz xover to the main fronts the sound is crisp & clean, better than you would expect from such inexpensive units. I went for over/under set up because with a room that small there’s always someone sitting on the floor. If you sit on the floor with only the top speaker that’s where the dialogue from movies seemed to be coming: the ceiling. Adding the bottom one smoothed that out perfectly. And because they are hung vertically there is no sense of comb filtering as you might get with L/R side by side speakers. Unlike quicksrt, I value my concrete floor & I have floor to ceiling wrap around convoluted polyurethane to absorb reelections. With high absorbtion in the front & a lot of diffusion in the rear it’s pretty close to the classic LEDE arrangement. I figure it’s the job of the recording & surround decoding to create the soundfield not the room.
For music if it is discrete 5.1 sure I use the center front ch. But if most everything through my SM is 4.1 & whether it’s stereo or quad the phantom center front imaging is so precise I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.
But I do value the center front when watching movies off center. Another example can be seen when you see the rear of the room:
View attachment 44541
Only a portion of the room is devoted to presentation. Behind the couch is a 2 shelf credenza holding my A list records and another work area for my PC. My speakers are set up in a square all of them equidistant from the sweet spot. You can sit in the middle of the speakers or the middle of the couch & phantom center front works great. But anywhere else & it changes. When watching movies again it helps keep the dialogue centered. Most of the time I use this area for music, using my little oppo phone app so I don’t even have to turn on the projector. Underneath the glass table top is a DIY sub woof with 2, 12” drivers. Sitting in the sweet spot, directly in front of the sub woof it doesn’t take a huge amount of bass to actually feel it.
So there you have it. Yet another variation on the center front speaker set up. Vive la difference!