Many receivers will do this, and some people like the phantom center so well they've never purchased a center. For my receiver, I remember that I had to say I had no center channel, but I also had to run each speaker full range for some reason. Without doing that, the receiver woudn't accept no center channel. I did tests with and without my center channel. I find a center channel to be highly useful -- on the opening to Lord of the Rings, for instance, without the center channel, my R/L front speakers sounded strained. Nonetheless, without a center channel sounded pretty darn good and is almost as good as a center for voices, which is what the center does 90 percent of the time anyway.
