who makes a decent center channel speaker?

Unclejeff: Interesting thread. I do think that with an A/V system like the Anthem D2 it is easy to get past the urge to stick with the same manufacturer.

If you had to, ARC or Audyssey will compensate greatly but not entirely. Also, since there are limited resources in the products using these softwares, you have to consider whether you want to use them for an avoidable issue or conserve them for the unavoidable ones. ;-)

Kal

I am not discounting the importance of convenience and esthetics but one should know the trade-offs before choosing.

Sadly, these trade-offs are nearly always in the top three for most speakers designs out there.

The number one trade-off, being COST - small light weight cheap drivers (small motor small voice coil) with an aesthetically pleasing look being the principal approach, as it gets two birds with one stone.

The reality is that ugly speakers with cheap cabinets and expensive drivers do not sell to "audiophiles" as well as those speakers designed the other way round!!!

It is rarely about the performance. It is most often about the look. It is the same with sports cars...

Car manufacturers are not at fault if they build what customers really want rather than what they "claim" they want. It is the same for speakers...

Do you really think all those weird fanciful shapes are necessary? Like the aerofoil and go faster stripes on a car...

B&W knows a thing or two about industrial graphic design, so do many many speaker manufacturers....

Kal, they can't clone a speaker but the unit should get someone by for a while. I didn't have an extra couple grand to buy another pair of coincidents and they didn't have a center on the market yet. Speaker City made me a reasonable unit. Same drivers, similar crossover specs, totally different cabinet.

"If you had to, ARC or Audyssey will compensate greatly but not entirely."

Amazing. What's being inferred to the uninformed here is that these DSP processing technologies will make all speakers in your system sound the same, regardless of make, model, manufacturer, etc! Well you could call Audyssey and ask em if this is the case. I've been to their training. Let me assure you a forehand that that IS NOT the case!!
You can't expect to use whatever speakers you want all around the room, mix-match er whatever, and think technology will do all the fixing and mating for you. Nonsense I say! Anyway, that's what's coming across from this tone here.
Well all I have to say is that those advocates here (majority - amazing to me as it is...WOW!...WOW!!!) of using whatever "good center" you can pick up, is that you are certainly contrary to the pro's who make their living eating and breathing this stuff, and who've been in this passionately for decades! - and they have always preached matching speakers, ideally identical if you can. Getting into other technologies will only lead you astray, my friends. But invest and build at your own peril, I say. What is wisdom? You be the judge here.
But hey, if any here want to chose other paths, it's all good. What's fundamentally sound judgement? Well I've been deep into this stuff for almost 2 decades now, and I am still learning things new all the time! So what chance has ANY audio newbie out there who's taking ill-advised recommendations got of figuring out how to "build a better audio mouse trap"? Might as well just get whatever and hope for the best, cause a solid starting foundation and fundamentally sound choices you will not be making! Of that I can assure you.
Like I said, if I were looking for solid investing advice, I wouldn't be going to those who never got anywhere, financially! Nor would I be going for medical advice from someone who read a couple of articles in a "Better Health" magazine. Or for that matter, asking advice on how to rebuild my automatic transmission from someone who's only done and oil change and brake job!
Well, I made my point. Personally, if Phasecorrect decides to go the "whatever is good" route, I think maybe the best route here would be for him to go out and by whatever center he thinks sounds good in some system he auditions over at Best Buy! That way, when it doesn't work down the line, at least he can return it. Now that sounds like more sound advice. Lol. At least you know BB is going to be there over the next 90 days when he finds out this theory is no good.
I'm just simply blown away here by how the majority of those chiming in here all believe contrary to people who've invested blood sweat and tears into learning how to do this stuff right! I mean I'm befuddled. Really I am. To me the responses here are nothing short of the equivalent of having everyone you talk to recommending you go to the local "psychic adviser" for all your financial decisions!!!
DOH!

To much to read in Iplaynaked's post but he takes my comment beyond its intentions and implications.

Adding Audyssey/ARC will correct FR anomalies between the speakers, whether those are due to the speakers themselves or to the room. Otherwise, why have an option, as there is on some systems, to match the rears/surrounds to the fronts?

What should be emphasized is that these systems cannot completely match mismatched speakers and that people reading this have a wide variety of interests and goals. For some, "good enough" is good enough but, for the rest of us, "good enough" is never enough. Depending on who you are, you accept different sets of compromises. For those making major ones (completely mismatched centers, "center less tha 5" high," center behind/above/inside the plasma, etc.), the DSP EQ will help.

Kal