If your center speaker is this low, does 4.1 make more sense?

[Warm Gun]

The center of my center speaker is 17 inches from the ground and my ears are about 41 inches from the ground while sitting. It's angled up, but that only helps so much. What do you think? Should I turn off/remove the speaker and just use the phantom center created with the two front speakers for dialogue?

[Warm Gun]

Actually, the dialogue sound too harsh now. Maybe. I don't know...

[TripleHBK]

I say no personally. One of my setups has the center channel similarly placed and I've tried what you've proposed and while it worked, it was still no comparison for a quality center channel. Even in less than ideal positions, having a full 3 speaker front sound stage has resulted in a better sound quality across most all metrics from my experience.

That all said, this is pretty easy to test. Load up a film or television program you are familiar with and simply unhook the center channel to see what you think.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

The center of my center speaker is 17 inches from the ground and my ears are about 41 inches from the ground while sitting. It's angled up, but that only helps so much. What do you think? Should I turn off/remove the speaker and just use the phantom center created with the two front speakers for dialogue?

Have you done any calibration through a microphone and SPL meter? Usually, that will take care of any issues with volume from any of your speakers.