What? Cant hear the voices

More thoughts...

Some actors just plain talk to softly!

Example: "Stand and Deliver" starring Edward James Almos.

I love this guy ("Crocket, can I see you in my office?")
but he is what Seinfeld calls a "soft talker".

A solution to this can be found on some Denon receivers.
They have a feature that lets you program the volume control in adjustable increments.
I.E. Linear, +5 db, +10 db etc.

I "jockey" the volume all the time especially for action movies (up for dialog, down for explosions).

I found that distance-wise, the front L/R speakers need to be the same distance as the center from your litening/viewing position, otherwise, there are out of phase problems created as a result of the different distances of voice content speakers and this muddies the voice. I used a measuring tape and in my case, pushed the front L/R speakers back until they were the same distance as the center, which sits on top of my monitor.

Try it, it makes a huge improvement!

Again I reiterate...these sound tracks work in the movie cinema...the only reason they don't work in a home HT is due to poor quality speakers....believe me I have personal experience with both B&W and Bose systems that made voices very hard to distinguish (these were sub $2000 price range for entire set of speakers and clearly would not hold a candle to your Vr4's or a higher priced B&W such as the Nautilus)

Note that theatrical sound tracks are intended to be played back with a dialog level of 74dB SPL. On most Dolby Digital sound tracks, that allows for 101dB main channel peaks and 111dB LFE peaks. If you turn the volume down so the peaks aren't too loud, you'll have more problems hearing dialog.

The solution is dynamic compression. All Dolby Digital decoders are required to implement this (often called "Midnight Mode"), using meta-data defined adjustments to make the soft sounds (dialog) louder and loud sounds (explosions) softer.

All DVD players are required to include a Dolby Digital decoder - that's what runs the analog outputs. Their decoders should allow you to access BOTH compression settings: the standard one, and an even more severe adjustment inteded to avoid over-driving your TVs internal speakers. Look into it!

You may also have placement issues - if your main speakers are near (never mind in) large objects like an entertainment center or TV, you're going to have reflections that hurt clarity. Move them farther out - ideally 4+' out from the front wall.

Sitting closer to the speakers will help with the ratio of direct to reflected sound.

Finally, you probably have room acoustics issues. Dialog clarity suffers in overly reverberant spaces. Attractive fabric-covered panels are available to fix this.

I just had my processor upgraded with a much improved DAC. Granted, I spent alot of money but the point I want to make is that the center channel voices are so unbelievably clear. I'm sure you can achieve this too. At 50 my ears are ok but my eyesight is fading at an alarming rate! I am a huge fan of Theta. You can pick up used processors for a song. You should really think about 5.1 if you really want to enjoy your movies. ken