Optimized Center Channel

@mm1tt77, I have the same experience as you regarding recorded matter vs streaming: Blu-ray excels, end of story.  Back a few years, if a movie warranted a place in my collection, I bought it and enjoyed superior sound.  My DVD collection is doing a great job as a dust collector now, as I am drawn to streaming.  Very little of it has truly good sound that takes advantage of Atmos, likely the result of our ills.  I remember watching a series recently where the activity was on the street, and the production did a terrific job of filling the background (rear speakers) with the ambient street sounds you hear but may not pay particular attention to.  That quality is rare, but when it's there, it's home theatre bliss.

The stand idea for the center channel is interesting, but is a no-go for me in my space (notice the recurring theme).  After a review last night, I feel my center channel is working just fine, actually quite well.  I'm sure the next level in the Focal line, the Sopra, could provide an even better experience, but it comes at a significant and this point, unrealistic cost.  Many of the ideas here are excellent and warrant trial, with the understanding that dialog particularly, and sound in general, can be somewhat compromised.

The ATV-X streamer I have is not the typical Apple TV streamer (link is earlier in the thread).  As one can spend tens of thousands on music streamers or DACs, I was surprised the best "TV" streamers were under $200.  Surely someone, somewhere has made an uber streamer that performs as you could only wish for, at (of course) a breathtakingly high price?  Enter the Apple TV-X.  It helps, believe me, but there are limits.  For my edification, if you know of any other uber streamers, I am eager to be aware of video streamers that can scale the heights.

@gkelly 

Sacrilege indeed!

@sunshdw Thanks for the info.  I read about the Kaleidoscope a while back, and was humbled by the investment cost.  But then I must have a birthday coming one of these days...  Dirac seems a reasonable way to go and Black Friday is just around a corner or two.  Btw, thanks to tariffs the UMIK is now around $140.

@traubr  Yeah, a few years ago it was a ton to get into them but they've realized that very issue and have changed a lot over the last 5yrs or so. It's still more than an AppleTV or Roku Ultra but it's come way down.

I'm looking at the UMIK on their site and it says $79USD 

https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1?srsltid=AfmBOopAVVXgBp45fXOVZa-V8440l3TbZk55GhKebtJaSJ1xUyd99vnB

@traubr my recommendations on moving your center channel was as a means to prove proof of concept, figure out if the center channel itself was the issue or the placement or the amplification.  For sure realize that wouldn’t be the long term solution for you.  Sounds like you have already identified it’s not the center channel or the amplification, I would have been surprised if it was.  From a streaming standpoint, the Kaleidoscope is a fantastic option but it’s not a replacement for Apple TV or Roku if you want to watch content that is for streaming only, example being Ted Lasso or Smoke the  Kaleidoscope Isn’t an option that I’m aware of.  It actually replaces a Blu-Ray or 4k player.  It provides a way of streaming movies with the same quality as you get with physical media.  It doesn’t allow you to use streaming services like Apple TV + or Netflix or Disney Plus.  You buy the content, mostly movies from their library and it’s a digital copy that is equal to the physical media quality you would get.

@sunshdw looks like you are quite knowledgeable on the  Kaleidoscope, is my understanding of its capabilities correct?  Hoping I’m actually wrong, if it supported Netflix and other services, delivered it in a 1 bit to 1 bit conversion, uncompressed, now we are taking, would be awesome but I think the compression starts with the streaming apps / services.