How important is the Centre Speaker ?

Very important. I think people should use the same speaker that they are using for their mains for the center channel.

Not important at all to me. I've tried many different center channel speakers, and found no center channel to be the best option. I prefer the 'phantom' center channel. I believe if your front speakers image properly, the center speaker only messes things up. That's my $.02.

Depends on your room and seating, if you have poor seating arangement with few good seats...a center is very important. Nothing worse than watching a movie and having the voice come at you from left or right of the screen.

In larger room with great seating flexability you may prefer no center speaker at all because voices will be center as they should be.

Dave

The better your main speakers, the less need you have for a center channel, even for off axis listeners. Speakers that image well can hold a strong center image even if off axis. A dedicated center is usually placed below or above the screen (with the exception of perf screens). The voices never sound like they're coming from the screen. A phantom center actually makes the voices sound more like they're coming from the screen.

I've tried both and prefer with the center channel. It seems more focus and involving. The other thing that bugs me about phantom channel is that on some DVD extras, it doesn't work without a center, all I hear is the info coming from the LR, I think they assume I have a center, or am I doing something wrong?