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I had the exact opposite experience with movies and a phantom centre even though I have my 80s toed in.




Your room is much more spacious than mine. My mains are only 5.5 feet apart so the front soundstage is solid even without a center holding it together. I sit so close to the screen it’s hard not to notice that the center is above the TV. I thought about trying dual centers above and below but instead I’m trying dual centers on each side first.

Based on what I’m hearing right now I’m pretty sure when I upgrade to a projector and screen I’m going to try an M80 center with an acoustically transparent screen. I didn’t realize how much audio information was coming through the center channel until I started playing around with this. It seems a shame not to play all that through the best speakers in my system.

I must admit that at first it did sound strange without the center playing. But the more I listen to this the more natural it sounds. Sort of like when I realized I had my surrounds turned up to loud. The wow factor seemed cool but I realized it was actually distracting.

Similarly the center was so focusing it was also drawing my attention away from the rest of the system. I guess I didn’t notice it because the extra sound sort of blended with the screen action. Listening more to music Is showing me that I was trading soundstage quality for intensity in movies. That intensity had a wow factor but I think it made for lazy listening.

My situation may not apply to many others in that my room is fairly small and symmetrical, and except for my phosphorescent Irish skin totally blacked out. I don’t need anything anchoring me to the screen because it’s literally in my face.

3M80 2M22 6QS8 2M2 1EP500 Sony BDP-S590 Panny-7000 Onkyo-3007 Carada-134 Xbox Buttkicker AS-EQ1