Have you tried no center? None is better than a mediocre center channel speaker. Many people prefer a phantom center on movies.
How many listeners/viewers do you usually have? If only 1 or 2, the phantom will work well. The main purpose of the center is to anchor that channel's sound in the middle for listeners too far left or right for good stereo imaging. For music, don't consider anything but phantom unless you get an *exact* match to your L/R speakers.
How many listeners/viewers do you usually have? If only 1 or 2, the phantom will work well. The main purpose of the center is to anchor that channel's sound in the middle for listeners too far left or right for good stereo imaging. For music, don't consider anything but phantom unless you get an *exact* match to your L/R speakers.