It is not you, the sound really is getting worse

@erik_squires , I've had the best luck on center channels with concentric drivers (least disruptive!). I have the Elac Adante series by A.Jones for my hometheater and that center channel is awesome (though it is humongous and takes over your space)

However, i am wondering why a lotta guys here are complaining about dialogue issues in soundtracks. Turn up the center channel level ! Some receivers like the Yamaha Aventage series have an abundance of features like dialog level boost, height setting, etc. Dialogue intelligibility should not be an issue with a modern relatively higher end receiver with proper setup imo. Some of the comments i've read on other threads reek of huge knowledge gaps in hometheater speakers/receiver setup

On the bright side, if one likes music with a fusion of orchestral and electronic elements, movies and games have some amazing soundtracks out there. (Movies: Tenet by Ludwig Gorannson, Inception by Hans Zimmer, etc   Games: Mass Effect Andromeda!! by John Paesano, Deus Ex Mankind Divided by Michael McCann , Witcher 2 soundtrack, etc). I sure as hell am not a gamer. But, thank God, my son introduced me to this amazing genre of music.

Yes, turning up the center is a good fix, as is using dynamic range compression available in all modern processors.

Still, the honest truth is that dialogue is worse than it was before. Even in carefully calibrated THX theaters LotR had issues, and it’s gotten worse.

As some one who started in the pro motion picture sound industry this trend is a huge disappointment. It used to be that theaters were THE high end audio experience for most. Speaking of Toole, he’s done a lot of work in them, so a lot of his writing is from that perspective, and maybe why I agree with him on just about everything. :)

We went from motion pictures being the high end, to mediocre boxes, back to the high end with THX and now the directors themselves seem to be trying hard to make it worse.

One kind of underlying theme about motion picture sound is the question of what it is there fore. Dolby Surround (ProLogic for the home) made a clear declaration:  Motion picture sound is here to excite you, and we don't much care what the mixers want.

If you wanted fine sound control you had to use magnetic sound tracks until digital tracks came along. That opened up a whole new set of choices for movie editors.  Now sounds could not just surprise you, but immerse you as well, and in many cases I've really enjoyed this kind of recording.  The Expanse comes to mind here as a great example.

Well, I guess the pendulum is swinging back against delicacy and nuance, and those of us who care about dialogue are going to be left longing for the good old days of mono.

Speaking of coaxials for a center channel, how about this DIY kit??


https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/coaxial-speaker-kits/seas-loki-mkii-coaxial-kit-parts-only-eac...

Hey @spenav

As you point out, so long as you are happy, that is what matters.  I just haven't had the bad experiences you have. Yet.

Best,

Erik

@erik_squires , i could be wrong about this. But, i sense that when a native mixed DTS X or Dolby Atmos movie track is downmixed by a receiver to 7.1 or 5.1 because a user had fewer speakers, dialogue can lose intelligibility. Same goes for a native mixed 7.1 track downmixed to 5.1 by a receiver because the user had fewer speakers and so on.... This is quite possibly a limitation/inaccuracies in downmixing algorithms. Some manufacturers do better than others. I sense that Yamaha currently seems to have a slight edge on this from comparisons i have made with different receivers. Pioneers & Denons seem to do worse!

Why don’t you give this Uni-fi 2.0 center channel with the concentric driver a shot? Elac just released this model (a week ago) with the "trickled down" mid/tweeter from the more expensive Adante series.
https://www.elac.com/series/uni-fi-2-0/uni-fi-2-0-center-channel-speaker/?r=us
When i spoke to Andrew a couple of years ago, he mentioned he had spent a lot of time on the center channels. I paid 1500 for the Adante center channel and 200 for a dedicated stand back then. This is a really good price ($399) on the Uni-fi 2.0 for the same performance pretty much. You may want to factor in the cost of a dedicated stand as well.