Hi tinfoilhat,
I was so unhappy with center-channel speaker quality (or the lack of it) that I used the phantom mode with Dolby surround for many years. It's a listening mode that a colleague of mine called "very anti-social", because only one person can enjoy it. JohnK is correct: as soon as you move slightly to the left or right the dialog will collapse off-screen to the nearest left or right main speaker. But, if you're alone, and in the middle, you won't get any center-channel coloration!
Center-channel speakers have improved--especially the VP150-- but they are never perfect timbral matches to the main speakers because of their eccentric placement and the boundary effects of the TV screen, etc. But much of the time, the good ones are preferable to locking yourself into the center of the couch for movies and music!
Regards,
