Alan Lofft has written an excellent article on center channel speakers and his conclusions have been pretty much the same as I have encountered in my experience in recent years. The horizontal speaker, like the VP150 and others(as a result of TV monitor issues AND weight) has always been a compromise and even with the same matching brand all the way around, just changing the position will often change the timbre resulting in a possible loss of the desired smooth transition of sound from left to center to right, etc.
If one has the ability to run the same full range speakers across the front(like movie theaters)and you can do M80's and you have the space, then by all means, go for it. Regardless of how you set up the crossovers, you could run the center channel full range and gain all the desired effects. Theoretically, this set-up would be the ideal. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of home theaters, space, budget and the vitally important SAF(spousal acceptance factor) wouldn't allow it.
