I use a phantom center with my living room TV.
Sounds excellent for me in my main seat which is right in the sweet spot.
At this point I greatly prefer a phantom center versus a speaker unless the speaker can be placed in the same plane as the left and right, and is of the same make and model (and thus quality) and works well on axis.*
But what about your wife, you say? Well, she hasn't noticed or complained at all. She sits a little off to one side and is perfectly happy with the sound, where dialog comes from, and the clarity. I mean, I'm not the first person to note that I am the only one in the household that nitpicks this stuff.
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Bu all this is moot.
The OP is in a perfect situation to decide for himself.
Before changing anything else (new TV, new stand, etc) just go into your AVR, turn off the center speaker in the setup menu, re-run your auto setup and EQ program, for completeness sake......and live with it for a week.
See how your ears like it. See how the rest of the household likes it.
You may be surprised how well it works and how little downside there is.
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(*this one is a big one that few people mentioned to me when I was experimenting. a center speaker is always "on axis". so if you don't toe in your left and right to be on axis, it can be a little tonally off. and if you don't toe in your left and right because you don't like the direct on axis sound, that may be an issue with the center even when it otherwise is just a third copy of the same speakers.)
