Choosing a center channel

I have two recommendations I’d consider before the Focal. If you want the best match for your 7002s, why not just get the Def Tech ProCenter 2000 that uses similar, if not identical, drivers and is in all likelihood voiced similarly? Seems like a no brainer to me.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for the best absolute sound I’d go for the SVS Prime Center that, like the 7002s, uses a 1” aluminum dome tweeter so may have a similar enough timber to your speakers. It’s better because it’s a true 3-way design with a dedicated midrange mounted directly below the tweeter, which in addition to helping with vocal clarity also helps with more uniform lateral sound dispersion as there’s less of a combing effect associated with the more common (and simpler/cheaper) MTM configurations out there. I’d also encourage you to read the reviews as further reference to performance. The only downside is that the SVS requires a bit more power to drive, which may or may not be an issue depending on your amp.

Personally I’d go for the SVS without hesitation as center channel performance is critical IMHO, and SVS offers a generous 45-day, in-home trial period (I believe) so if you’re not absolutely thrilled with it you can just send it back and move on. Anyway, that’s my $0.02 FWIW. Hope this is at least somewhat helpful, and best of luck.

Is this for music, or HT? I went from full surround to two channel for music, and also watch movies with the same system at times. If your room is good and your speakers are setup correctly you really shouldn’t “need” a center channel. Center oriented voice etc. should pretty much smack you in the face.

I looked at the ProCinema 1000 but thought it was too small. Thanks for pointing out the 2000 I am going to go with that one. Thank you very much!!! Greatly appreciated!!!

@geof3  This sounds good in theory but it's simply not true. There are vocals and other cues that are mixed for center channel. If you don't believe it you can simply turn off the center in a surround system and you will miss dialog. 

@ dadork... depends on how the system is setup. Most multi channel amps have the ability to select the output amp configuration, some even on the fly. If, yes you are talking strictly multi channel output you are correct. Perhaps I wasn’t clear with what I wrote. I no longer have a multi channel amp. If splitting time with a two channel setup, if the speakers are set correctly, dialog is just fine. Some think a multi channel setup is “necessary” to have a good movie experience, that isn’t necessarily true. Ultimately, it depends on desire for the systems main function. Multi channel systems kill musical fidelity, but two channel systems can perform both very well.