I feel your pain. Due to declining hearing (age-related) and noise-related hearing problems (tinnitis) I have been chasing the same dialogue related issue(s) for years. The experts here have given you some good tips to try and they may make some difference. In addition, I experimented with EQ...
I have 5.1.2 system driven by Yam rxa660 avr. Several comments: 1) you'll be fine if you're limited on how loud you play 2) for HT, bookshelf would be fine for fronts 3) 5.1.2 doesn't add much over 5.1 4) you can always add 2nd sub later
Wow, you guys came up with many that I had forgotten about and a few that were just obscure. Once of my all-time favorites with The Gray Ghost about John Mosby and someone else even named this one. I would have guessed long forgotten
Top Eleven (couldn't get it down to 10)
Gray Ghost
Combat
Cheers
Mash
Wanted, Dead or Alive
Have Gun Will Travel
Route 66
77 Sunset Strip
Bilko
Mr Lucky
Fantasy Island
Been right where you are. 5.1.2 system with Elac Debut 2.0 L/C/R. Old ears and damaged hearing so movie dialogue is my problem. Swapped out to SVS Ultra center from Elac Debut 5.2 center. Off-axis improved by quite a bit and dialogue is slightly better (maybe I imagine it ???). I don't...
I have similar problems as OP with movie dialogue. I ended up substituting a SVS Ultra center (3-way, 6.5" woofers) for original Elac Debut 2.0 center (2-way, 5.25" woofers) plus a lot of tweaking with EQ, esp between 750 to 2500 Hz. Off axis improved a lot (3-way ?) and dialogue improved...
With old ears & damaged hearing I have done a lot of "tweaking" with my center channel speaker. I also have a similar avr (RX-A660) to your Yamaha. Out of curiosity, what sort of connections (ie spades, bananna plugs, or just bare wire) do you have at the speakers and at the avrs ? Also...
This thread has been helpful. I too am relatively new to this tech at an old age so my knowledge is limited. As a follow-on, I have a 5.1.2 HT system with Sams TV run by a electronic rack some 35 ft away via HDMI/cat 6 ethernet cable/baluns. I use a Yam avr, a sony BD, Roku Ultra, plus a...
Some great ones already mentioned but a few favorites:
Combat!
Star Trek
Wanted, Dead or Alive
Sledge Hammer
Cheers
Married, with Children
Have Gun Will Travel
Mr. Lucky
Kelsey Grammer's series - can't recall the name