Would it be problematic acoustically to have your center channel mounted to the right or left of the TV?

Question

Would it be problematic acoustically to have your center channel mounted to the right or left of the TV?

Answer 1

Center Channel Speaker should be near the set:

On HDTV since you can mount it over the set, I  place the center channel behind the set if it's not mounted on the wall. Also  (front left ------ center ------- front right)  would also be behind the HDTV or LCD Widescreen PC Monitor.

You can also check out Dolby web site for speaker placement.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_enter...

Answer 2

From a purist standpoint, yes.  From a practical standpoint, (I'll probably get flamed for this) it probably wouldn't be a huge issue as long as the right & left front speakers are still on the outside of the center speaker.  The effect would be that voices that are supposed to be coming from in front of you would be slightly to the side.  If it's still physically close to the screen, it probably wouldn't be that noticable.

In the real world, rooms and speaker placements are not perfect and people don't all sit in the perfect position in relation to the speakers.  So, there is some "fudge factor" involved.  I know Bose has a system that uses a special headset so the system can adjust for all of these factors.  Most people probably wouldn't notice if the system wasn't perfect, though.