I was under the impression that ideally the center channel speaker should be placed right below the TV. My opinion was probably subconsciously obtained from seeing that configuration in most photos.

I am not ready to get a center channel speaker yet, but right now I am about to mount my flat screen TV on the wall. I need to decide whether to leave room below it for a center channel speaker. However, I don't like craning my neck to look up at the screen and want to keep the bottom third of the TV at eye level. This does not leave much room for a center speaker between the TV and the top of the component table.

Since I have a fairly high ceiling (9.5 ft) I am thinking that it will be feasible (when the time comes) to mount the center above the TV.

What are the cons to having the center above the TV?
I can think of:
- Ceiling reflections.
- Can't use VP180 (but on-wall VP150 would be great).

Besides ceiling reflections (the floor will be just as bad if not carpeted) IMO the biggest issue is the height of the drivers. My experience is that center channel speaker placement works best when the speaker is either the same height as ear level at the seating position and/or the midrange and tweeters of the mains form a triangle with the center speaker where the center falls somewhere within the boundaries of the screen. Like the pictures in this post.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=158274#Post158274

As long as the center isn’t to high above the mains it doesn’t screw up multi-channel music and IMO actually improves movies because it better anchors the center image to the screen since many audio engineers blend some of the center channel information into the mains to even things out.

My take on this is the horizontal center would have good vertical dispersion, but poor horizontal dispersion. If I get to the left or right of my vp100, the volume goes way down, but it's mounted about 2 foot off the floor, and I can hear it just fine.

Of course, much depends on your set-up, the room itself and the flexibility of how you can place your equipment, however, several times over the years I have experimented with the very question you are asking and I can say unequivocally that regardless of speaker size or type(and I have tried many), placed directly above the monitor AND tilted towards the listening position, for me, always sounded better than below the screen.

I had my center channel above my TV right near the ceiling on a shelf about ~7'6" off the ground with the M80s on the floor and it sounded good to me and anyone auditioning never said otherwise. I now have the VP150 under my TV in the new house and it still sounds very good, not really any difference as far as I can remember.

Thanks everyone. Good info.

With the TV at my preferred height (fairly low) I will end up with a configuration that looks very much like that second picture. So I think I will go with that.

My M80s are somewhat wider apart than yours though.