Why not use mains as centers

So,for home theater I sould try to find the best matched center as opposed to using two speakers emitting the same signal on the sides of the screen?

If you have excellent Main Right and Left speakers that image well and are dynamic and you do not invite a crowd regularly to the house (you and one significant other mostly) then I'd recommend using Phantom and use the money saved to buy a better amp or better subwoofer or better TV or better L and R mains.

If you find yourself needing a center channel with just yourself in the sweetspot listening then you should replace your main speakers - they probably don't have teh dynamic range needed for movie soundtracks - typical manifestation of this problem is either:

1. It is too loud and boomy when you can hear dialogue prooperly

2. You can't hear dialogue properly at modest levels.

=> a center channel will indeed help fix the dialogue problem but it is not adressing the root cause. Contrary to popular opinion, movie soundtracks often have much greater dynamic range than music - they therefore require very good speakers to do a decent job of imitating what you actually experience in a good cinema theater.

Many people (myself included) find that there's no center channel like NO center channel. If your seating has no one sitting outside one of your main speakers, try running your system with and without a center (to test your system without a center channel, tell your processor you have a "phantom" center). You may find, as I have, that your L+R main speakers provide a more stable, coherent soundfield and well-anchored dialog WITHOUT a physical center channel speaker than with one.

Everyone's installation is different, so there's no telling how many will find this helpful, but I know that I'm not the only one who has found this to be true. Good luck to all!

thank you,I will try no center and see how it sounds.I appreciate all the feedback.

I use a set of Klipsch KG5.5 as my rear LR and a single KG5.5 as my center with Khorns as my LR. the full range speaker works great but i have the room to do this in as my front projector screen sits in front of the center speaker.

Oilmanmojo,

That is the ideal way to do it - you need the right kind of screen for this but this is the perfect way.