I know that I should have at a minimum matched front speakers. But my budget is tight and not sure I could find a matched center for the L3's anyway. I have a couple hundred bucks to spend and I was thinking of replacing the center. What do you all think would be a good option to go with the L3's in that budget?
The L3 was sold as stereo speakers, not part of a home theater set, so you aren’t going to find a center speaker.
However, what you could do is snag a L1. It’s a bookshelf version of the L3, with a matching tweeter and smaller 6.5” version of the L3’s 8” woofer, so it will nicely voice-match your L3s. I did the same thing a good number of years ago when I had the same problem you do – I had older floor-standing stereo speakers and needed a matching center and surrounds - and it worked great.
The only downside is that you’ll probably have to buy a pair of L1’s, as you don’t often see stereo speakers sold individually. Maybe you could use it for a rear center speaker.
Maybe later on as your budget allows you can snag a second pair of L1’s and use them for the rear surrounds. I'd be checking ebay regularly if I were you...
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt