A buddy of mine had the Matrix HTM center and I was very impressed. Didn't sound wimpy or honky, and it was very clear and accurate sounding with voices. Also, since it only has the one mid driver w/ tweeter mounted on top it avoids a lot of the issues that can affect the MTM designs, and I always found the HTM center to sound very uniform across the listening area. If you can find one it should be in your price range and might serve as a good stopgap until you can step up to the higher models. Best of luck.
