Hi,

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

I don't bother with a centre speaker and don't miss it at all - voices still
come 'straight from the mouths' with only a decent stereo pair in the front.
The trouble with centre speakers is there's really nowhere to put them

This has been a real bugbear. They look crap sat on top of the telly. I've
tried mine down low pointing up, then up high pointing down, and all
points in between. They just get in the way.

and if they aren't much cop they will destroy the overall sound quality on
anything other than speech as they tend to dominate.

Yep. My Kef centre is noticeably less 'capable' than the fronts, which use
the same driver, but a larger cabinet. It always sounds a bit nasal. Feeding
the 'centre' signal into one of the larger speakers that normally feed L or R
front makes a big difference, but I ain't using a floorstander as a centre
channel!

Rears are *almost* a complete PITA (wires etc.) but there is the odd
occasion with movies when they do add to the 'ambience' and effects. Watched
'Flightplan' last night and there were moments even in that, that benefited
from the rears (airplane creaking etc.) and stuff like Saving Private Ryan
would be lost without it!!

The one time I really got spooked by the rears was in "Das Boot". I started
to think there really might be water dripping down the walls. In a dark room
I started feeling claustrophobic. Very convincing, and one of the depth
charge scenes put a stain on the carpet (don't ask).

Yes and, of course, certain items of certain types of kit will enable a
better central image than others....

(No names, no pack drill, no thumping of tubs.....!! ;-)

Would that be thermionic tubs? ;-)

Anyway, it's the full surround job for me now - just bought a very
cheap projector on ebay, so no excuses! Wifey is now the only
problem, and that amounts to a QA exercise...

Her: Make it BIGGER.
Me: No, too grainy and pixelated. Anyway, it's already 80 inches.
Her: Don't care. It's a projector. Make it bigger. There's loads
of wall left that isn't moving.

Repeat ad nauseum. Never mind the quality, feel the width. I
will endeavour to educate her. Again.

Regards,

Glenn.