A Pair of Center Channels?

another interesting thing about center channel speakers is
all of them are magnetically shielded for close placement to
a television, so you're paying extra for that if you are
using them for two-channel listening. I ruined a tube set
by placing non-shielded speakers too close to it; have no
idea what non-shielded speakers would do to a flat screen,
maybe nothing, it is different tech.
Center channel speakers are meant to be placed right next to
the monitor, so the human voices that it is optimized to
reproduce seem like they are coming from the TV. They are
not designed as full-frequency-response loudspeakers.
Most center channel speakers have a mid-tweeter-mid design,
which would put the tweeter a little low when the speaker is
placed vertically on a typical stand.
That said, lots of floor-standing speakers feature this
configuration, called "D'Appolito" or MTM, but
these speakers desire a specific type of crossover, which
probably is not present in a typical center channel speaker.

Thanks for the info. I later noticed that the bookshelf models were ported which explained the different in frequency response. My friend has finally given in to rearranging his shelves to make more room so using larger regular speakers is an option.

He currently has Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers and really loves them with his Music Hall Integrated and CD player. I've never heard them. He's thinking B&W, Epos, or possibly larger Wharfedale speakers currently.

I think I've ruined him!

By the way, non-sheilded speakers don't have any effect on any of the flat screen TVs that I've ever seen or heard about.

Wharfedale 9.1 is a much loved, classic bookshelf, gets mucho respect on these forums. They are pretty hard to find. I auditioned the Wharfedale 10 series floorstanders at a local brick-and-mortar, and was underwhelmed. Of course he had the Quad 22L2s in the same room, so that wasn't fair, and I wound up buying the Quads eventually (used on A'gon). I have a long-time audiophile friend from college who owns the Wharfedale 10.2s, and he enjoys them very much.
I used the B&W 685 bookshelfs in two-channel for a couple of years and I was pretty happy. Needed a sub, tho. The B&Ws are going to have a warmer mid-range, I think the Wharfedales are a bit more neutral.
Haven't heard Epos.

He ended up with the Epos Epic 2 and is very satisfied. They are rear ported so at least on paper are a poor fit for a literal bookshelf application, but if he's happy that's all that matters.

I've tried to stop him in his multi-room wiring project to move the Wharfedale speakers to the kitchen. He ran standard speaker wires and is planning to terminate them with RCA so it'll be interesting to see how it sounds. I think it's about a 40' run.

I'm pretty sure the Diamond 9.1s are currently available, but maybe not.