Shallow/small center channel

[JarOfSonicMen]

OK, so some friends were asking for help on building a set of HT speakers. I convinced them that they didn't want to buy some cheap junky things, but they have a few challenges.

They'll want to put the speakers actually into the bookshelf on either side of the TV. I know, there are all kinds of reasons to NOT do that, and they would be much better served by a set of stands on either side of the fireplace, but dogs, grandkids, and eyes that work better than ears conspire against audio fidelity.

What can I do to minimize problems from it? Are there any designs that should work well with that placement? Perhaps some in-walls built into a box?

The other problem is the center channel. There's only about 3-4 inches between the top of the mantle ond the bottom of the LCD, and the mantle's only 4 or 5 inches deep. I was thinking something like Zaph's B3S design, but much wider and as short as possible.

Anyone have better ideas? Is skipping the center channel a horrible idea?

[Froste]

I just got done building a set of clones of Wolf's Sophomores, specificly to go in a cabinet/bookcase setting. They turned out very nice.
Here they are in place: (the S* brown things on either side of the receiver, CC below TV)



As for your CC, 3-4" high/deep makes it hard, the CC I built to go with the above are 5.5" tall and 11" deep. You could build a "U" shaped CC that fit over the mantle, Might be a fun speaker to design & build!