A:Answer Wow, all of these answers are bad.
Center speakers are a compromise. They have worse off axis performance than bookshelves. If you can fit bookshelf speaker, fit a bookshelf. Having all matching speakers across the front, Left Center Right, is best for timbre matching. The next best thing is to match the brand and series of speaker. So for instance, If you have SVS ultra bookshelves, and cannot fit a another ultra bookshelf under your screen, you would want an SVS ultra center, and not an SVS Pinnacle or Aerial 5B. Timbre matching allows for a smooth transition when a sound pans from speaker to speaker. I cannot emphasize this enough, center speakers underperform against equivalent bookshelves. They may look more impressive, but their tweeter axis is inferior.
