It is not you, the sound really is getting worse

Hey @spenav

As you point out, so long as you are happy, that is what matters.  I just haven't had the bad experiences you have. Yet.

Best,

Erik

@erik_squires , i could be wrong about this. But, i sense that when a native mixed DTS X or Dolby Atmos movie track is downmixed by a receiver to 7.1 or 5.1 because a user had fewer speakers, dialogue can lose intelligibility. Same goes for a native mixed 7.1 track downmixed to 5.1 by a receiver because the user had fewer speakers and so on.... This is quite possibly a limitation/inaccuracies in downmixing algorithms. Some manufacturers do better than others. I sense that Yamaha currently seems to have a slight edge on this from comparisons i have made with different receivers. Pioneers & Denons seem to do worse!

Why don’t you give this Uni-fi 2.0 center channel with the concentric driver a shot? Elac just released this model (a week ago) with the "trickled down" mid/tweeter from the more expensive Adante series.
https://www.elac.com/series/uni-fi-2-0/uni-fi-2-0-center-channel-speaker/?r=us
When i spoke to Andrew a couple of years ago, he mentioned he had spent a lot of time on the center channels. I paid 1500 for the Adante center channel and 200 for a dedicated stand back then. This is a really good price ($399) on the Uni-fi 2.0 for the same performance pretty much. You may want to factor in the cost of a dedicated stand as well.

@deep_333Erik built his own center and solved the problem. He talked about his design in one of the posts above. Enjoy. 

@spenav, i was responding to the diy kit he linked which was priced at 225. For a 150ish bucks more, one can get a finished speaker with all the kinks ironed out by Andrew. Enjoy!

I can only speak for myself.....which is good, because it's wierd when I talk in tongues, but....

The best improvement in my hearing recently, esp. with regard to dialogue in movies, video...and even with my system....

Phonak Audeo M-R (M90)

Beside tinnitus, my mid-frequency loss was quite substantial.
Funny thing, the lows and highs were relatively good to better; just the opposite of most.

Funnier yet, the settings of my eqs' didn't need substantial tweaks.  The benefits of DAC, and setting up 'flat'.  Everything just became more 'clear'.

I'd been considering bluetoothed headphones...now, built-in. *S*
Even on-board eq, but it's parametric....can be run flat though.

Links to my cell as well....

Spouse sez it's the best 6K$ I've spent on audio ever. *L*
Won't argue about that...;)

Go get your ears scanned....you can get surprised, too.