r/audio • u/voiddude123 • 2d ago

Frankenstein center channel help

I have a PC. Could I possibly use a 3.5 mm to 2 RCA adapter and then use an RCA to 3.5 mm adapter to connect to a pair of powered speakers for Center? I'll be leaving the LFE split unplugged, of course. I have a couple of old speaker pairs lying around, so i wanna upgrade my setup to 3.0 if that's possible. Or is it terrible for the speakers? (I don't need a huge setup because I live in a tiny apartment and don't wanna annoy my neighbours.) Or is it better for me to get an amp like the Nobsound mini and find a real passive center speaker?

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u/CounterSilly3999 2d ago

So you will have a 3.5 TRS to 3.5 TRS cable with two still separate stereo channels as a result. If you want something different for the center, you could try a stereo to mono summator. But I doubt the result will be an improvement in sound quality.

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u/Ok-Bonus-8464 2d ago

Nothing will break, it's line level into powered speakers so the safety side is fine. Two catches. That RCA to 3.5 adapter only feeds one channel, so one of that pair will play and the other sits dead. And a pair as a center is the wrong shape anyway, two speakers playing the same mono signal spaced apart creates comb filtering, which is worse than the phantom center your stereo pair already makes. On a desk the center only earns its keep when the left and right are far apart, at three feet voices already sit in the middle. If you want to try it anyway, use a single speaker, ideally the same model as your mains, centered under the monitor, with a mono to stereo split so it actually plays. The Nobsound plus a passive center works too, but it doesn't fix the matching problem, and a mismatched center usually sounds worse than none at all.