Thinking about going with B&W, does anyone have any experience

[Keith from Canada]

Wooch is bang-on when he says that the center speaker is not the end all and be all of your HT set-up. I would take it one step further however and state that the main speakers should be your primary concern when building your system. Generally speaking, if you like the mains for music and movies, you should be equally impressed once those are matched up with a properly matched center and rears. This is not necessarily the case with the center speaker (e.g. you can love your center speaker and dislike your HT set-up if the mains aren't to your liking).

By the by...I personally like B&W however, I have virtually always found that you can do just as well, if not better, if you look at other speaker lines (e.g. Paradigm, PSB, Klipsch etc). This is based on the premise that B&W are generally overpriced (at least here in Canada) when compared to the competition. That being said, I have never heard of someone who was disappointed with a B&W set-up after they spent the $'s.

[Widowmaker]

I didn't even think about listening to the mains with the center; the salesperson turned off the mains and played the center only. I guess I should go back and hear how the mains are too. Thanks for the advice.

[topspeed]

Any salesman that doesn't know the importance of matching the center with the mains shouldn't be trusted. He/she was probably the same doughnut that said you should build your system around a center channel. As Keith noted, the mains are FAR more important because they will give you a better indication of the overall tonality and presentation of that particular speaker line. The center should simply be engineered to match.

A good deal is hardly a reason to invest in a speaker. A bad speaker at a great price is still a bad speaker. This is not to say the B&W is bad (I have a B&W HT), I'm only trying to make a point. Audition as much as you can and find a speaker that suits your musical tastes and preferences and then look for the center channel within the line. This way you'll know where you can grow when you slowly upgrade your system. I'd also look into that Maggie system that Geoffcin recently posted about...it sounds interesting if you have the space, amp(s), and taste for planers. $300 sounds like a ridiculously low price but giant killers (if it turns out to be one) are always fun to run across.

Good luck