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I must admit that at first it did sound strange without the center playing. But the more I listen to this the more natural it sounds. Sort of like when I realized I had my surrounds turned up to loud. The wow factor seemed cool but I realized it was actually distracting.

Similarly the center was so focusing it was also drawing my attention away from the rest of the system. I guess I didn’t notice it because the extra sound sort of blended with the screen action. Listening more to music Is showing me that I was trading soundstage quality for intensity in movies. That intensity had a wow factor but I think it made for lazy listening.


Other than having a balanced, sound level matched system so that surrounds are not distracting, you can also play around with your receiver settings when it comes to upfront soundstage with a centre channel.
My Onkyo 797 has panorama/dimension settings that allow me to expand or contract the centre channel information, drawing the dialogue inward or expanding it left and right.
I've found that the default setting of 3 works fine for my tastes but i can see how sometimes one might hear the dialogue being collapsed in the centre.
If your receiver has similar settings, give that a try before writing off a centre channel entirely.
Certainly the small distance you have between the M80s will also affect how a centre channel can play effectively between them given the varying heights in tweeters and the obvious difference in orientation across the front three speakers.

"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."