who makes a decent center channel speaker?

Elevick:
If you are trying to match R&L's that either don't have a center or the center is too much $$$, contact speakercity.com Tell them what you have and they may be able to build you something voiced very closely, even using the same drivers. They did this for my Coincident speakers before there was a center available. It was fairly cheap too.

Sure. ;-)
Do you really think they can clone any decent speaker you send them? I am very skeptical.

Kal

Markphd.....great post.
In a perfect world we would all have same brand center speakers and even same model but its not a perfect world and there are space, money, wife and others issues that get in the way..........Mark is dead on and dont be afraid to get what you can, if you are careful it wil work great.
Now back to something useful for you, the Vandersteen VC5 is a FANTASTIC speaker (my dad owns one) and while the other Vandersteen center offerings are good the 5 is very good.

"Unfortunately, the construction of the vast majority speakers is faulty BY INTENT as they cater to aesthetics and convenience rather than performance."

Faulty by Intent? Um whatever "faulty" means. I've known enough high end speaker manufacturers to know that, at least with reputable hi-end makers, that there certainly isn't any "faulty" built into ANY speaker they make! That's my experience. In fact, the better speaker designers, if they do make a dedicated center speaker offering, spend time to ensure that the speaker is designed, matched and voiced to go with their products, at least.
As for different manufacturers, my experience from having sold/installed dozens and dozens of different speaker products over the decades is that THEY ALL SOUND DIFFERENT! That said, wisdom simply tells me that you have a much much better chance of putting together a cohesive, properly matched set of speakers, if they're from the same manufacturer, specifically ones that are designed side-by side with ones they're trying to mate with.
But hey, sounds like most here are all for you matching whatever otherwise "good" speaker you can find. Well, it's a choice. I mean I guess you could use 3 of the same tires on your race car, with one odd-ball, or wearing one shoe different than the other, if you like. Don't get it.
I've been doing systems both as a hobby and professionally for almost 2 decades now, and it's been a life's work for most of it - learning to build better systems and such.
So my advice is obvious, but you walk it out, try some things, and see for yourself, to be certain(if you want to know that is).
Like I said, not only does my experience tell me otherwise (Lord knows I've tried many many mis-matched speaker setups in my years, and learned eventually), but yes, all the speakers in a system should ideally be the same. I mean you've gotta be missing something if your thinking tells you to use the same L/R speaker, but then it's ok to add one in the middle which can be different!!! DOH!
Um, well all I can say is that, especially in this case, indeed, "the crowd is always wrong" (unless you're talking about sales. LOL). Basically, if you value quality, I'd go with what the pro's suggest. And they surely would NOT be recommending just go out an get some good speaker to put in there.
Nevertheless, let us know how it turns out.
BTW, if you do decide on going with some other brand center, and you are sifting through the advice being recommended here, how will you know who's suggestion to take?..I mean which ever choice sounds interesting?! Um, OK...?

Iplaynaked: "Unfortunately, the construction of the vast majority speakers is faulty BY INTENT as they cater to aesthetics and convenience rather than performance."

Faulty by Intent? Um whatever "faulty" means.

Simple. Have you ever asked why reputable companies make all their speakers, except dedicated centers, as vertical arrays? Horizontal MTM arrays (and, in fact, almost all horizontal arrays) are faulty because the create irregular dispersion in the horizontal plane. (If you do not know why, Google a bit and find out about 'Venetian blind effect.') The reason they make horizontal MTMs for centers is, despite their knowledge of its faults, they have fed the public's misapprehension that centers should be horizontal. The only reasons for the horizontal arrangement are convenience, esthetics and/or ignorance. (I am not discounting the importance of convenience and esthetics but one should know the trade-offs before choosing.)

Note that some companies have changed their designs and all the new Paradigm 3way centers have the HF/MF arranged vertically. Note also that some companies, such as B&W, use the horizontal array for their less expensive models, like the HTM61 and HTM62, while reverting to proper design principles in their statement products, like the HTM7 and HTM1 through HTM4 models.

Kal

I have all Vandersteen and there big center vcc5 is the best I have herd. I love it! the vcc1 is ok soud reproduction is smooth and accurate but is lacking in the low range.

Ok that being said your center is only as good as it matches your sides so go with the best matching center you can for your sides. The center is the most important speaker 70% of your sound will be form it.