I have a yamaha 5.1 receiver and of course have a 5.1 set up. Center speaker, 2 fronts and 2 rears and a sub woofer. When watching a movie, at times, especially if the characters are whispering or talking in a low tone, I have to turn the volume up to hear what they are saying. Then when the action part of the movie starts I have to turn the volume down because it's too loud.
The receiver has the auto calibration tool and I have done that.
Will a better center channel work better for me? Is it just the way it is?
Thanks.
First of all, consider the position/location of your center speaker. If it's too low and not angled toward your head, remedy the situation with mopads or doorstops, etc.
If the speaker is buried inside a shelf, or even pushed back from the lip of an AV cabinet, please pull it out as comfortable as possible, even if protruding from lip.
Next, bump up your level in the center speaker by, say, 2db or so.
If still not quite good enough, look toward your receivers (and various sources) to play with various DRC (dynamic range compression) settings. They also may be called something like Late Night settings. In the future, I finally might advise looking for features set as Dolby Volume and the like.
If none of the above works, I would look at your acoustics and listener positioning as well as the speakers themselves. Actually, you should do that anyways.
I don't know about YPAO, but with Audyssey, the very first position determines all of the distances and levels, therefore it should be smack in the center of the viewing area. After that, all the way to the 8th position or beyond, it can be anywhere without affecting said distances (and levels, so far as I know).
