Can any center be used as an MTM/LCR?

I have been shopping for new speakers and probably will for the next few months to go with my new onkyo 805.

I have five identical bookshelves. I dont like the speakers themselves but love the imaging. No way would I go with a horizontal center again!

I'm trying to get the front 3 speakers the same across the front. But not all comapnies seperate the bookshelves from the pair. Axiom and Aperion are a couple that come to mind that do sell as each.

I see alot of companies sell MTM LCRs. Using what looks like a normal center setup...two woofers..tweeter in the middle.

My question is..would ANY well designed center work on it's side, with 3 of them identical acroos the front?

I would hate to buy 2 pair of bookshelves and have one speaker just sit around.

Ideally, budget would be $1000-$1500 for 7 speakers but ,I'm trying to use the same line of speakers for the rears and I want two pairs of bipole/dipoles for 7.1 mounted on the wall. Problem is I seem to blow $1000 or more on my budget on the surrounds. So that pushes the budget more to like $2000. Oh well.

One thing I will be auditioning is Klipsch or Acoustech.. I realize that Klipsch is better and the Acoustech is similar.And that the design isnt everyone's thing. But since it is going to be dedicated to HT...the bright "in your face" sound might just be the ticket. But neither company breaks up a pair. I'd want 3 of the 6.5 inch two way bookshelves. Those are some I definitely would not flip the center because of the dispersion of the horns.

If I decide I'm not into the horns...I'm not sure why a conventional dome center would not work vertical...unless there was some sort of boundary compensation taken into account with the crossover design and it doesnt have anything near flat response on its side.

The Aperions look nice and they seem like they might suit my sonic tastes from what I've heard , but the surrounds are expensive.

One option is to pick my front 3 2 way speakers and then go with a different company for the surrounds. I want a matched system,but something tells me once I put a bipole mounted high on a wall, it will sound radically different from my fronts anyway.

Decisions.

Wow Kal!
Your latest "in the round" was very educational!

Wish I could afford those Cantons...he he

I did notice that when I did the pink noise test my five identical speakers did in fact not sound identical. But when listening with actual program, I found the sound was more consistent as things panned around. My new Onkyo arriving tomorrow has audassey. I'll have to try that.

Nice to know I'm not crazy and that someone who can listen to $4000 speakers and reviews for a living also beleives that identical speakers are ideal. I've never like the sound of centers and I've alwyas been able to grab one of the fronts and hook up the wire running to the center channel and instantly get a more natural sound with that test.

But going to 7.1 it becomes less practical to use all bookshleves on stands.
And I've been less into multichannel music lately and more jealous of the surround imaging I get in our local theater.

But as far as the front 3 speakers...I think having those matched will still make me happy. i dont have space constraints there.

That is definitely a scenario I have considered...which brings me to another startling discovery:

Most good bookshelves are rear ported!

So mounting one right on a wall is a bad idea!
So that brings me to 3 M3s and 4 qs8s and even with the B stock...that drives the price up a little higher.

But that's one setup I am considering.

Another one is this one:
http://emotiva.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=26

But there just arent enough feedback on them yet for me to take a chance on them. I'm also guessing they maybe pretty inefficient up front too.

What are some in my price range (under $400 a pair) that aren't.

How is the efficiency(acoustic suspension?) on the one's you have in mind?

I believe the budget SVS bookshelf is acoustic suspension...haven't run across much else that is very practical to wall mount.

I have also been looking at the ED's which I believe are front ported?

In my price range...it certainly seems most of them are.

How about some suggestions if I am so wrong?

What I have now are ported speakers and I definitely don't want to go backwards with efficiency. Like to stay above or around 88db.

Siva, nothing I've considered has a waveguide or anything like that.
That's great info!

The Kef's are pretty! Maybe big to wall mount. I also considered getting 3 of their bookshelfs and 4 of their surrounds. Sold in pairs as well. I may have to come to grips with buying two pairs of something to get the front 3 I want.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

I still have a few months to decide. Unfortuantely I cant do in walls.
But the Kefs ,Klipsch and hopefully Acoustech's I'll get to audition. After that, maybe a few IDs.

Thanks for the suggestions Raymond, but my friend has all polks and I favor the speakers I have now ten times more than his system. Not a fan of Infinity either but I will audition some too.

Although I'm looking at cheap speakers for my HT. I actually have spent hours in front of Westlake,Tannoy,UREI, Genelec, Yamaha, Event ,EV and even ancient Altec Lansing Voice of the Theaters and many more. But those of course were someone else's studio monitors!

So I know what good speakers sound like, and I know the eq spectrum and a parametric eq like the back of my hand. But trying to put a nice home theater together on a tight budget, is a whole different animal. So I have some auditioning to do. I havent went speaker shopping in some years.

Tonight is the first night I spent with my Onkyo 805 and my old 5.1 speakers. Its going to be tough to scrap them and get a whole new 7.1 system because it was sounding good tonight!