Yeah, that's a very small room. Essentially a large closet. That's why it's photographed at that angle. The listening room is next door. You can see the amplifiers under the reel to reel unit. And as for the center channel, I always have the option of just turning it off, and using the 4.0 mode. I will have to figure out which one I like best. I have five JBL 4311 control monitors for those Sansui amps to drive. The center channel is a full size speaker, and equal to the others. The red and black cables on the mixers allow me to do mixdowns from 5.1 to 4 channels so I can record 5.1 channel recordings to the reel unit. The top mixer has been modified to make sure the mix down is in phase with the left and right channels. I had to sacrifice the reverb for that field mod. The other red and black cable allows me to cut in a DBX de-esser. I don't use it much, but I have a favorite Olivia Newton John album that absolutely requires it. Except for the Oppo and the DTS decoder, and the V2, this is all old school, 70's vintage. There's even a laserdisc player for my big silver TV records.
Let me know when your out of town for a while & please leave the back door unlocked.