What? Cant hear the voices

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

I think this may work pretty good for you. Check it out

http://audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=YAMAYSP800B&product_name=YSP-800%20Digital%20Sound%20Projector

Audio compression will help minimize the problem, but is this a solution or a band aid?

If you can't hear voice then something is wrong with your speaker quality or you are not properly using the phantom function to send center channel info to your main speakers (as you have no dedicated center channel).

Built in speakers in most TV's are NOTORIOUSLY bad....they are usualy boomy in the bass and suffer from mid range compression (all in order to sell in the two minute demo sales floor test - loud sells - so engineers design a TV that requires you to significantly jack up the volume to hear the voice and that way they sell more TV's than a competitor with an accurate sounding TV that is all too clear at lower levels! BTW this same technique is also used to sell speakers.....jack up the bass and the treble and kill the mids....actually easy to do even a speaker with "flat response" may have these features built in...all they do is narrow the mid range dispersion and use a low cost design that compresses the mid range at higher volumes...in the shop demo you tend to turn up these speakers louder than you would a more balanced design)

I looked at the pictures of your system and room. I wonder about the effects of all that glass behind the speakers. Might a curtain reduce some of the problematic reflections that the window likely introduces?