plauged by off center image, am I insane?

The elaborate setup procedure described by Hifimaniac amazes me. If it is that hard to get good imaging you have serious defects in the speakers.

I have absolutely no problem with vague imaging and I think the reason is as follows.

1. Planar (MG1.6) speakers. Their sound is unchanged in SPL from the back of the room to your ear at 1 foot in front of them. So moving them a little back and forth has no effect.

2. I use a center speaker even for 2-channel recordings. (My left and right speakers are too widely spaced for straight 2-channel).

3. Fairly big room with very irregular shape and wide openings into other rooms.

El, I don't think you can compare a system with a center channel to those without. I think it would be almost impossible not to get a stable center image with a center speaker. I have no problem with how you achieved the result, but I can't afford a third speaker and a third channel of amplification of the quality I have so that isn't an option for me. I would rather go to elaborate lengths like maniacal HiFi to optimize what I have.

Hifimaniac...You should not assume that I am ignorant of all that precise speaker positioning procedure. I went through that kind of exact positioning when I had a Carver preamp with the sonic "Hologram" feature. Yes, I could get the effect, but it was totally impractical for real listening. I will not be so arrogant to accuse you of ignorance about planar speakers, but perhaps you have not had enough experience with them to understand their sound dispersion characteristics. If I had to sit in some particular location, plus or minus an inch, would take all the enjoyment out of the sound system.

Herman...My use of a center channel (for about three decades) is a direct result of the layout of my room. It has two French doors at one end, leaving three pieces of wall. If the center speaker were omitted the left and right would be much too far apart.

There are (at least) two ways to drive a center speaker without any extra amp. (DON'T TRY THIS WITH A DIGITAL AMP).

1. Make a "Y" connection. Returns of the Left and Right tied together and then to the center HI and then the center LO back to the amp. The left and right channels will have an excess of differential signal unless you use a "Blend" resistor, but I always preferred results without the resistor.

2. Invert the polarity of one channel, and bridge the amp with the center channel speaker. You would think that this would create too low an impedance load for the amp, but I found that every amp I had could handle it. Probably because of the two channels being out of phase. Of course the speaker for the inverted channel needs to be hooked up backwards to restore correct polarity. I found this setup to be very very good. Most of the audio signal is common mode (mono) and this benefits from the bridged power capability of the amp. A simple "Blend" control (pot) allows you to attenuate the center channel as required.