How useful is a center channel speaker anyway?
On a system that has a center channel speaker (3.1 or 5.1), most of the voices come from the center channel. This gives the illusion that the voices are coming from the people speaking in front of you instead of from the sides. A system that has no center channel will have the voices coming from the sides. Only you can decide how accurate you want your sound. Therefore, only you can decide how important the center channel is.
It depends what you listen to. A nice set of speakers do not need a center channel speaker to please the listener, because they have a full bodied sound. A center channel speaker is best with an amp attached to it to make it jump out noticeably from the sound stage, like a lead singer on stage. If you had an aerial view of two hand sized rocks dropped in a calm pond, one to the left the other to the right separating them no more than 3 feet. The waves would ripple and disburse through the water fairly evenly with some overlap. This is how sound dispersion works sourced from a set of speakers in the same room. If you used this same example and added a third rock to the center and dropped all three at the same time, the waves would ripple and overlap even more. This is a decent example of the effect of how a 2.1 and 3.1 speaker works to the benefit of the person who listens to the source. I would say the usefulness of a center channel speaker is best alongside video media. Audio does not need a center channel speaker per se. Listening with your eyes is always different than listening with only your ears. The additive effect of a center channel speaker enhances the entertainment of movies. Best.
