Scot I’m not sure you are having a problem with your center speaker “disappearing.” As John mentioned the center should anchor the front soundstage to the screen but not to the center speaker itself. ideally all three front speakers should blend together seamlessly so you don’t ever hear what speaker the sound is coming from.
In most 5.1 movies the front sound is mixed so that some of it follows the action on the screen. If there is no left or right panning of the sound then something is amiss, however, if some of the audio follows the action but you can’t identify which speaker it’s coming from then it sounds like you have things setup well. If the sound doesn’t follow the action then it does sound likely your speakers are too close together for the distance of your listening position.
For movies my speakers are also only 5 feet apart and I sit 7-8 feet and they blend perfectly. I did sit about 10 feet back and they still sounded great but moving forward made the rear soundstage sound better.
Dean
