I never used or hardly have used the dialouge level on my Marantz SR6012.
I listen to each LCR one at a time to see whats the problem with level and frequency masking. Its not just spoken dialouge that is a load of tosh!
Centre carries music dialouge and effects (DME)
I bet most don't get an uplifting feeling with the ending scene of HEAT (1995) as Neil slowly slips away you can hear his slow breathing with bass in the centre but the music level frequency on LR masks its heavily and I bet 99% of home cinemas can't hear that detail at the end. I'm not perfect I just listen to the movie.
I have a video in an hour so its only an example as I been frustrated with centre DME getting masked by LR over the years with digital mixes. Analogue Dolby matrix movie mixes the centre is going to be masked no matter what as the signals from LR or any centre phantom signal within the discrete stereo that is folded down onto the centre is going to mask signal.
In the real world we hear a lot of audio masking and we only hear the sound/s once in real life. A movie is repeated and can be ether played back at best or worse with lots of other sound frequencies being hidden from our ears, when discovering the sound it really is like, Easter time with the new hidden Easter egg surprise!
So what of the common now DSP crossover systems? It was my belief? I now experiment with the slopes and band-pass BP filters to get the most out of screen channels.
So what of this Yamaha "AI" is it another type of dynamic EQ that has had special modification as I have used Dynamic EQ in the past to automatically adjust but I noticed some drawbacks after a while with it. Its okay device I wouldn't knock it.
I can list countless movies that sound complex on disc as VHS doesn't carry Dolby Digital unless its DVHS Dtheater.
Heat
The fast and the furious
Alien
I'm on medication
no that is not a movie
I have thousands give me a break.
Alien (1979) can anyone hear Ripley, when she calls out to, Parker when the Alien has had Lambert and Parker for dinner.
You Alien fans know the scene! It has pressure pipe system that is heard and low level engine rumble noise and centre carries Ripley sniffing and breathing and the words "Parker" have details of slight echo to give sense of the space ship interior hallways that are bare metal so would have an echo in that ship. Also when Dallas and the others exit the ships airlock you can hear footsteps in the centre channel but the loudness of the wind blowing around on LR, now go and watch, and listen careful at the scene again. Most AVR's with no DSP crossover for matched speakers LCR is gonna have a real hard time for the listener to hear all that detail.
The fast and the Furious, (2001) where Don friend gets shot down and then with rage he walks towards the garage to start the Charger car up. Music LR heavily masks the centre channel Foley footsteps as the footsteps are most important part of the whole movie.