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I've been mulling this over for a while, as I am due to purchase the Sony 2400ES and KEF 2005.3 (pending good reviews) next month.

My living room is approximately 16" by 10". Being a victorian terrace, one of the 16" walls is seperated by a chimney breast of approximately 5" directly in the centre of the wall. This leaves two recesses of around 5.5", the right-hand of which sits my TV.

I've decided to mount the two front satellites in the corners of the recesses, with the two rears taking up similar positions on the back wall.

My question is: where would be the best place to put the centre? As I see it I have two options; one put the centre underneath my TV on the stand, the other to put the centre on the mantel piece.

Would I be right in thinking that if I put the centre under the TV, the initial setup of the receiver and speakers would take the speaker placement into account and adjust accordingly? Or would I be better just going for sitting the centre on the mantel piece (which is more a second choice) as this would be physically in the centre of the two satellites?

My main viewing position is a sofa which sits directly opposite both the TV and the mantel piece. I will try an post some pics / diagrams later, as it's not a particularly helpful description.

Thanks

I trust there's no option to get the TV up onto the chimney breast?

I'd put the centre on the stand directly central to the TV. I don't know for certain and I guess it would vary from person to person, but the dialogue from the centre of the screen visually, coming from a place to my left would jar.

Andy Grange:

I've been mulling this over for a while, as I am due to purchase the Sony 2400ES and KEF 2005.3 (pending good reviews) next month.

My living room is approximately 16" by 10". Being a victorian terrace, one of the 16" walls is seperated by a chimney breast of approximately 5" directly in the centre of the wall. This leaves two recesses of around 5.5", the right-hand of which sits my TV.

I've decided to mount the two front satellites in the corners of the recesses, with the two rears taking up similar positions on the back wall.

My question is: where would be the best place to put the centre? As I see it I have two options; one put the centre underneath my TV on the stand, the other to put the centre on the mantel piece.

Would I be right in thinking that if I put the centre under the TV, the initial setup of the receiver and speakers would take the speaker placement into account and adjust accordingly? Or would I be better just going for sitting the centre on the mantel piece (which is more a second choice) as this would be physically in the centre of the two satellites?

My main viewing position is a sofa which sits directly opposite both the TV and the mantel piece. I will try an post some pics / diagrams later, as it's not a particularly helpful description.

Thanks

I moved last year from a Victorian house that has the same layout. I feel your pain! There is no ideal here. Because as such, I would go with what looks best (speaker under the screen). The receiver will calibrate it all and work out distances and such. I moved to a house where the fireplace was a 70s brick built horrible thing. It covered the whole wall so the first thing I did was get it ripped out, walls plastered and LCD right in the middle of it!! The missus hates it.

Definitely centre under the TV - this is what you're looking at during dialogue, so if sound was coming from a different direction than where you're facing, it would seem strange.

Brill, thanks. That was my preferred option.