@hz79hc Warren, your "testing" plan strikes me as fraught with stress and forcing you to make tons of conjecture.
For starters, it would help if you posted your system in the member system section. It's not clear if you're talking about using 4ohm vs. 8ohm taps on your amp for the two center channel speakers or what.
If you want to listen to one speaker only and conclude if you should buy another pair for L+R mains...man, that's a stretch! Center channel will play mostly dialogue when fed a 5 or 7 channel signal. Fronts will play most musical content and front effects. For 2 channel music, stereo imaging, soundstaging and even dynamics will be very difficult to judge by listening to one speaker.
Test what you're demoing IN ITS INTENDED USE. Test the center hooked up as a center vs. the other center using a good example of content (e.g. streamed film, SACD, etc.). If you want to try that speaker for L+R, then get a PAIR to test.
Also, if you want to compare borrowed vintage L&R speakers vs. your current PAIR of L&R, that's fine, but just complicating things. Keep it simple, bro. It's already complicated enough. Cheers,
Spencer