Oh dear! Just about everything wrong with that picture. Do you have another location?
You have the right and left right up against the side walls one brick and the other sheet rock.
The center has a wall behind on the left and open space on the right. That really is a hopeless case if ever I saw one.
Quite honestly if that is your only option, I think a sound bar would be a better bet. That ambient field will be total chaos and I can understand why you have poor voice clarity.
We seem to run into this a lot now, with people installing AV in spaces that are totally unsuitable and where a cheaper simpler solution would likely be better.
I both appreciate your replying to my post and find it completely unhelpful all in one. In response to what you said here are some possible solutions that perhaps you could help me out with:
1) Buy me another house;
2) Explain to my other half why we should move our baby into that room since her room has better acoustics;
3) Hire a contractor and pull the permits to get this room up to your specs- and gift me the cash or just give me an open ended zero interest loan to get it done.
Any of these sound like doable options from your standpoint? If not, how about simply saying that I ought to just keep the dialog level adjust on and set it as high as I find necessary?
I didn't come here to have anyone ostensibly drop a steaming pile on what I'm trying to do. Proper HT has been a dream of mine for well over 20 years. It wasn't until recently that I've had the opportunity to move on it. After 2 years of ACCEPTING a sound bar as my only viable option, and also risking my life at work to bring power to people's homes (during violent storms and actively burning wildfires), I feel entitled to have something with more dynamic impact.
While I may be a neophyte, relatively speaking, in this arena, I'm not a pushover or an ignoramus interested in, or willing to succumb to, unsolicited criticism from anyone ranging from family to a complete stranger. Capeesh?
p.s.- no need to tell me the proper spelling of that last word- I know the proper Italian is capisci.