Currently in the process of redecorating my living room. My speakers are in the alcove on either side of the chimney breast. My question is, would having wall shelves above the speakers be detrimental to the sound. I think the answer is yes but be interested in other viewpoints.
I deeply regret not going to 77" on the TV front. 
Ps Put all cables under floorboards yesterday so haven’t levelled the speakers properly since placing them back.
Have you actually heard them in that position? You might find they need to come forward out of the alcoves anyway to get the bass anything close to even, or you might not (though I doubt it with allaes). Shelving above might mean resiting them again.
They have been in place for six months like that, just been slow in my progress and decision making. Where to position the actual Fraim was a source of great debate. The picture doesn’t show, but the Allaes overlap the skirting by about 6 inches. They sound better than the previous position on either side of the bay windows. I might experiment by pushing them forwards a bit. Thanks.
Beneficial to some aspects of speaker sound is mounting in the wall, with front baffle flush with wall. Such mounting is very common in recording/mastering studios (where it is called soffit mounting). Position such prevents the “comb filtering” otherwise caused by sound waves bouncing off the wall behind the speaker reinforcing or partially cancelling direct sound waves at various frequencies.
I have often thought that a way to achieve that, particularly with “bookshelf” speakers, is to mount within a bookcase with fronts of books (CDs, LPs or whatever) and the speakers aligned with the front of the shelves (and minimal gap between tops and shelf above). No reason why not do with a floorstander, though would need vertical supports immediately at each side of each speaker (or just one side if the chimney breast is right width for speaker spacing.
Whether that would work in your situation and with your speakers I have no idea!
If you do have problems, perhaps one option might be to fix some sound deadening foam under the shelf, then have a thicker batten at the front of the shelf to hide it.
I doubt that the shelves will be as significant as the alcoves themselves. If you can try some proper thick acoustic panels behind the speakers. That might stop some of those bass reflections.
I was getting bass reflections on certain tracks but has disappeared which I think is due to the retirement of the CDS3 and now using the 272 as a source. Also prefer the 272 without the XPS non DR. Be interesting to see if they return upon a better source.
I love the clean symetrical look, OCD’n all that. Looking at the picture, I am surprised you’re not running into bass issues?
One alcove is slightly longer than the other. The right hand side was boxed in by my Dad to cover the pipe work when we moved in 26 years ago. Hence why the fireplace had to go as it was never centred. Without the boxing in the alcoves would still be uneven. I was all for removing the chimney breast. But I think my wife was worried I would get a bigger TV.
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