No experience with B&W, but I have used a vertical center channel before. Personally I liked it alot. It provided extremely even sound across the front three channels. If you can swing the same speakers for the rears you will be even more impressed. A vertical speaker might force you to elevate your screen higher, but even a horizontal speaker arrangement will put the center above or below the screen. Keeping the tweeter of all the speakers at the same height and of the same type is the key, or so I've been told. An article I read kind of backed this up by saying that the human ear can more easily locate higher frequency sounds. Hope this helps.
floorstand speaker B W N 804 as center
Does anyone have some experience using a regular main floorstander for the center channel. I have a good offer
for B&W Nautilus 804 (thinking of buying 3 of them for the
front with the screen right above them), however I don't know if it wouldn't be a disadvantage (sonically) to have a "vertical" center instead of a "horizontal" one. The price
difference is a bit high between B&W N 804 and it's horizontal version (B&W HTM 1) is a bit too high here in Europe. Any experiences with a similar set-up?
for B&W Nautilus 804 (thinking of buying 3 of them for the
front with the screen right above them), however I don't know if it wouldn't be a disadvantage (sonically) to have a "vertical" center instead of a "horizontal" one. The price
difference is a bit high between B&W N 804 and it's horizontal version (B&W HTM 1) is a bit too high here in Europe. Any experiences with a similar set-up?