Running 3 Totem Centers, horizontally as L/C/R?

The issue that may come up is that center channel speakers are optimized for voice, not music. Center channel speakers usually do not go as low in the bass department as L/R speakers.

With that said ... it's not like I have not thought about doing what you are suggesting.

In one of my systems, I was placing the speakers on their sides, on bookcase shelves, and the bookcase had a back wall.

The speakers looked like ... [ o O ] [ O o ].

It never worked great, at its best it was OK to very good. The sealed back on the bookcase posed the biggest challenge, as I was placing a box inside of a box. That and keeping my cats from scratching or toppling my speakers.

The two speakers that did work best were ... Omega single driver speakers and Ascend Acoustic speakers because the Ascends are designed to work either vertically or horizontally. I tried this with Totem Mites and the results were not good.

The solution for me was purchasing the Ascend Sierras, placing them horizontally, on top of the bookcases ... a big improvement, but not perfect.

Many people here use two excellent L/R speakers and do not bother with a center channel ... a 2 channel HT system.

At this point, why are you considering doing this? Other than space considerations, is something else wrong that you are looking to correct?

Rich

Hi Rich,
I am so impressed with my current center channel and the amount of sound coming out. Totem also makes or use to make a Totem "Twin" Model 1 Signature that looks almost exact to the center channel speaker. I cannot afford those but have some across some deals on the center channels and thought of this option. Totem told me NOT to use a center channel in vertical position. I then asked if I could run three side-by-side horizontally and they said it should work fine. I then started wondering myself if the tweeter on the center channel would be too focused, but that could be a product of center channel input source versus the speaker itself. I don't know, never tried this before, but was sort of thinking of making a "wall of sound", having more drivers by adding two more center channels, one on each side instead of normal two way upright speakers. Against all rules of thinking and audiophile guidelines ;) what spawned this idea was after seeing posts over the years by folks who now run "two sets of R/L main speakers" in home theater systems. I then started thinking maybe I could try three center speakers instead. I'm not sure I'm going to do it, but it has been an idea I would consider if the right deals came about. For now I'm running Totem Model 1s up front that I might sell.