Yes, even in a smaller room, the cc speaker does improve overall soundstage and imaging when it comes to playing music in surround sound or even 3 channel as for Tiger above. No question about it.
As I built my HT system over time (as funds allowed), the center channel was the last speaker I purchased. I was using the TV's speakers as the center channel for dialog and it wasn't bad. It worked. For music though, no good. I then went to small satellite type speaker for the center channel and that certainly improved the dialog for a while. Now I just recently upgraded to a full blown cc speaker (new B&W HTM61). Now the entire overall sound in music, movies, concert DVD's, and dialog has improved considerably. But that's the fun of it. Going one step at a time. For pure music, this HTM61 has greatly improved the soundstage, bass extension and punch, detail, vocals, and imaging of my system (Rotel A-V receiver). For movies, dialog is far superior now. So yes, it's important not only to have a cc speaker but the selection for your particular application is equally important.
As I built my HT system over time (as funds allowed), the center channel was the last speaker I purchased. I was using the TV's speakers as the center channel for dialog and it wasn't bad. It worked. For music though, no good. I then went to small satellite type speaker for the center channel and that certainly improved the dialog for a while. Now I just recently upgraded to a full blown cc speaker (new B&W HTM61). Now the entire overall sound in music, movies, concert DVD's, and dialog has improved considerably. But that's the fun of it. Going one step at a time. For pure music, this HTM61 has greatly improved the soundstage, bass extension and punch, detail, vocals, and imaging of my system (Rotel A-V receiver). For movies, dialog is far superior now. So yes, it's important not only to have a cc speaker but the selection for your particular application is equally important.