A few years ago I did a retro that used one of those Sony center channels. The customer had just bought the place, so we were getting things back up and running for him. There was an existing 65" built into recess in a very plain white wall in the living room. There was a set of Stealth speakers to the left and right of the recess, but were house audio only. There was a rack in a closet elsewhere with the gear.

The guy did his own research and upgraded the TV to a Sony OLED with the active surface (center channel) feature of the TV. Since he had that, he now wanted surround. So we added a Stealth sub up front, repurposed the L+R for the surround (added a Port to the receiver in the rack so it could still be grouped), and retro'd a set of rears in - which he all but insisted couldn't be done.

Between the Stealth and the active surface center channel, I made sure to throw out the 'this might suck' disclaimer in a gentle way, but it ended up being pretty alright. It still looks like a super plain white wall, so you do get that 'where's it all coming from' effect.

Fun job. Happy customer.