Home theater center channel decision to make.

In home theater, the center channel becomes the most important channel in the room. That's where the dialog and most of the foreground action is played, and it's a lot of the ambience that gets pushed into the other speakers. If you try to save money you may regret it or think your HT system is less than stellar. Either that or you'll phenomenal front ambience but less-than-focused dialog.

I decided to leave my 2-channel system in the living room and go with a completely separate system for HT in the family room. It really doesn't cost anywhere near as much for great HT gear as it does for good two-channel equipment.

You deffinitely get more info in movies in the center than L&R. On the otherhand if your not a videophile and don't have much multichannel music it may not matter.

In movies the purpose of the center speaker is to lock the dialogue in the center for off axis viewers. If this is not an issue and you don't have multichannel music, then you can eliminate the center altogether.

I'll also concur that, if you are a film buff and will be using your system for regular movie viewing, you would most likely be well served by a nicer center channel. As previously stated, much of the dialogue and crucial info originates from the center channel on 5.1 soundtracks. Then you have those old films that are in mono which are often ONLY in the center channel. I picked up a Criterion disc recently that was a reissue of an old Italian movie in Dolby 1.0...center channel only. At any rate, if you can afford the extra expense, give it some consideration. Of course, you should probably listen to both if possible first...

The center is over course important, I am sure that either will work, I just think if you only watch an occasional movie you may not need to spend the bigger amount to get occasional enjoyment

Well--I'm going to offer a completely different opinion here. If the priority is 2 channel listening and it's typically used as an HT for 1 or 2 people, use a phantom center, where the center channel is divided amoungst the mains.

Here are the advantages:
1. Less expensive
2. No speaker in the middle that corrupts your 2 channel performance
3. No issues with timber matching mains to center and getting the tweeter height of the center the same as the mains. With a good 2 channel (mains) set up this can sometimes be a more seamless soundstage than when using a center speaker.

Here are the disadvantages
1. Your mains have to work harder--they have to do the work of the center speaker. For movies this is often 70% of the sound, but your mains are porbably much higher quality than you would have for a center--so this works in a way. It is possible you won't be able to achieve the volume that you want if your mains have to work too hard--but this is room and speaker dependent.
2. If you seat many people and they get off axis, the dialog will not appear to be coming from the center without a center speaker.

I own Martin Logan mains. I have the Martin Logan Logos center channel. Given my current configuration--the logos is in the box, not being used, and I don't miss it a bit. I am close to not having enough power on the front soundstage and could use a center just to achieve higher levels, but I don't listen at THX volumes (I need my ears long term).