I plan on buying a pair of m80's and center 180 . For the time being I have some cheap surrounds in the ceiling. My avreceiver (pioneer) has room correction. If I run it, will it render the m80s impotent in 5.1/7.1 modes? I am new to how the correction features work.

If by "impotent" you mean do these room correction systems lower the capability of the better speakers to "match" the lesser ones, nothing of the sort occurs. Within limits, they modify the response of each speaker individually to partially overcome the harmful effect of room modes. Better speakers remain better.

Pioneer's MCACC actually has a mode where it can just measure the left and right speaker, and then EQ the rest to try to sound like them. Or as John says it can make each speaker target an ideal response (individually or as pairs).

Thanks for the responses. @JohnK, you interpreted my question correctly. Thanks for clarifying.

With the 180 center, how far from the wall does it need to be? Since it is 17" deep, if it is recommended to be 24"+ from the wall, it doesn't seem possible to simply put it at the front of a media stand (TV on the wall above it, so not also on the stand) unless the 22" deep media stand is 19" from the wall. Am I right? That would equate to giving up almost 4' of room in the front.

Same is true for the 160 (13" deep) so I am wondering how folks generally setup the center.

Thanks in advance
McDave

The minimum distance would be the diameter of the rear ports. This is to keep the air in the port from compressing and changing the response of the speaker. After that, it is up to you.

You will get more bass reinforcement the closer you get to the wall. If you are using the M80s with a sub with a crossover set in the 80Hz region I suspect that will counteract any bass reinforcement.

Short answer, about 4" from any structure behind it.

Are you putting it inside a stand? If so, is the stand open at the back?

Thanks for the tip. I think I might have thought the 180/m80s needed to be further from the rear wall confused with Magnepan MMGs. 4" is no problem...

I still haven't moved into the target house (being built) and don't yet have the console (low, wide cabinet to be acquired at some point) and I wanted to confirm that I could use it as the "stand" for the speaker. It sounds as if that is no problem.

Great!

Thanks for the info.