adding center speaker to existing stereo system

Obviously you are sitting in the center between your current speakers for music. Assuming you sit in that same position for movies, what are you missing or what are you hoping to gain? I'm thinking it should sound good. If I were to add anything for movies, the first thing would be rear channels for room filling effects.

you should just add 2 more speakers for the left and right rear for your system. this is how my setup is.

I submit having a preamp that has HT bypass is the best way to combine 2-channel with a surround system. When I'm listening to music my surround components are off. When I'm watching a movie I use my preamp's HT bypass. My 2-channel amp continues to drive my fronts.  I turn on my Marantz AV processor, ATI 3-channel amp and OPPO 203. My 3-channel amp drives my center and rear speakers. 

HI @tls49  You make a good argument, but it's not complete.

Turns out, a center channel can really be helpful. Have you ever noticed a change in tone when an instrument pans from left to center? It turns out that right in the center your head plays a part in cancelling some of the sound. Early recordings were actually 3 channel, and man, do they sound good. :) 

So, for movies and dialogue especially, a center channel will sound somewhat better than a L and R phantom. 

Best,


E

Erik, you certainly have the right to your opinion, however, I only agree with it for one particular scenario.

I worked in the A/V industry for ~25 years, mainly dealing with mid to upscale products. The latter 15 years was spent with increasing time designing custom home theater and supervising the install. No doubt I have listened to more and a wider variety of home theater than the majority of the people here. From that experience, to agree with your comment, the center speaker would need to be identical to the L & R, not just timbre matched, but identical. Also, it would need to be driven by an amp channel identical to the L & R. The closest center speaker to his L & R is the Olympica Center, however since the OP is talking an A/V receiver for the processing and power, that just doesn't make good sense. Then use a speaker more suited for the A/V receiver, and that will do more harm than good compared to phantom center. Now if he wants to get the Olympica Center, another REF600M monoblock, and a nice processor, that would likely work ok, otherwise, I'll stay with my original recommendation.

Some of the best sounding theaters I did, regardless of price, used all identical speakers with high quality identical amp channels.