What? Cant hear the voices

Friend, welcome to the middle aged hearing club!
Larry K.

Did this just happen with no changes,by you, to your system?

Don't know what your source is for TV cable, sat, over the air etc... but for the DVD player you might want to check the setting to insure it is not outputting to 5.1. I had to set all speakers to "NONE" on my DVDSACD player when I went from 5.1 to 2 channel. Your TV source may be the same. List your DVD player and TV source please.

Just shy of you and your wife's age I too was having difficulty hearing and making out the voices. However I am using a complete 5.1 surround system. At first I adjusted the center channel upward to compensate so the center channel played louder than the other speakers. I still struggled to make out certain voices so I started investigating other options. It became apparent that some speakers have enhanced midrange speakers over their competitors. So I made a complete speaker switch to B&w 802's for my main and center channel speakers. The difference was quite astonishing. I gained complete sound improvemet across the board. Yes I spent a lot of money to deal with my dilema but these were the speakers I wanted in the first place. Perhaps others would know of different speaker options if this is something you would consider. You might even consider trying head phones? Unfortunately, your other option would require a change in processors. I even spent thousands of dollars for hearing aids. The aids improved my ability to hear but I was very dissatisfied with the quality of what I was hearing. Sure hope this helps, good luck!

You're on the right track with the center-channel only speaker. The resulting mono sound makes dialog stand out.

My parents had problems when they would accidentally press the surround key on the remote which would add artificial reverb and all sort of garbage to muck-up the sound.
Also, point the speaker directly at your seats.

Make sure you're getting straight sound in mono, pointing directly at you.
If you still can't hear clearly, have your hearing tested.
Good luck!

Eldarado may be onto something. If you have the problem on DVD, digital cable or satellite TV, then it may be a setting in your DVD player and Set top box. Be sure your DVD player is set to PCM or Stereo in the Audio setup. Same goes for your set top box if you have cable or satellite TV.

If the setting is wrong and you are only using the L&R analog stereo outputs from your DVD player and STB, you are missing all of the program matererial that would otherwise be sent to the center channel in a surround sound setup.

I've given this advice on this site in the past and it did resolve the problem.

Enjoy,

TIC