Question For Those That Watch Movies/TV Through Your Two Channel System

There is absolutely no reason to use a center 

There is when your TV isn’t in between your mains, like mine.

To the OP, if you have a multi channel reviewer, why not simply run it in 5.1 mode, then the R/L and center will do what they are suppose to do. Simply adjust as necessary for the lack of rears, but chances are, you won’t have to do a thing. Just set all the speakers to ‘large’.

My thought was to do away with his small center channel speaker and replace the AV receiver with an Integrated Amp. I just wasn't sure if watching movies in 2 channel stereo would be a disappointment after having a center speaker with the clear sounding dialog. My son has 3 kids under 12 so he doesn't have a lot of time to research this stuff.

There are no plans to add surrounds, possibly a small subwoofer in the future.  

@elliottbnewcombjr Thanks for your comments. It sounds like you watch movies in stereo with no issues.

@bkeske    The reason this question came up was because yesterday we added a Node 2i to his system. Since his AV receiver is just an entry level Denon, I wanted to get the most out of the Node with an integrated amp, but was concerned about watching movies in 2 channel stereo.
   

Well, you could always play music in 2 channel mode, which would ‘turn off’ the center, then back to 5.1 for TV.

But I agree with others, you will never get good musical sound with an AV receiver vs a dedicated 2 channel set-up. Just depends on how critical you want the 2-channel music to be.

I tried this, as my system is dual HT/2-channel. Fist with an dedicated power amp using my AVR as the pre, then finally a separate preamp with HT pass-though, which all my 2 channels sources are connected to. Thus, now, the AVR only has one function - HT 5.1 while watching TV. All my 2 channel is completely separate with its own pre and power amp. And 2 channel sources, of course. You could do the same with a 2 channel integrated with HT pass-through, and only have the center directly connected to the AVR. The mains connected to the integrated. Seems a bit strange, but you already have the Denon. Problem is, highly doubt it has pre-outs.

My thought was to do away with his small center channel speaker and replace the AV receiver with an Integrated Amp.

This is exactly what I do... you just need to make sure the audio is down-mixed to stereo as someone else suggested. The process mixes centre channel into the left and right speaker signals equally and with no attenuation. You do lose the low frequency effects channel though so if that's important to him he'll have to stick with multi channel. 

I put the HDMI through a switch that also provides an optical two channel PCM output so I can use a decent DAC for the analogue conversion. I wouldn't advise using the analogue outputs on any if the switches I've come across though.