I would think as long as the drivers are even with or protruding from the front edges of the recessed area and there are several inches of clean area behind/sides/top of the speaker so the port can do it's job the speaker *should* work sonically fine and it really wouldn't be any different than having the center in a recessed cabinet like some stands are designed but it just doesn't 'picture' right and maybe because of the unorthodox placement our brain is probably telling us it won't work correctly so we automatically hear it as such.
I guess.
