[fid]

To summarize, you wish to scrap the benefits of highly effective modern
technology because you're lazy and really not all that interested in good
sound.

If I were not interested in modern technology I would have not been
interested in the speakers I own, the Vienna Acoustics Mahler, they
are tall, sound wonderful to me, they spread the sound across the
front-stage very well. The only problem is that in material where
discrete signal is involved there is a shallow phantom center. I am
trying to understand if I am missing something. I am trying to get the
best I can without the center speaker, because the matching center
speaker would be too big, bulky, and would make living room look like
more of an entertainment center, which I prefer not.
The processor is a B&K reference 50 which does everything a modern
processor does, but the phantom center level.

On music material like SACD I also hear a week phantom
center. Not much so on PLII or Neo:6.

Oh, you're more interested in games than music, anyhow.

Never played games...