In home theater audio, dialogue usually comes from the center channel speaker. In some cases, it can be drowned out by music and sound effects coming from the left and right channels. Here we show you how to fix this problem with an AV receiver, DVD player, or Blu-ray Disc player.

If you have a fairly recent model AV receiver for your sound, check the setup menu to see if you can adjust the center channel output level or adjust the center channel equalizer. You can often adjust the other channels as well. Many AV receivers have a built-in test tone generator to help you with this task.

Additionally, many AV receivers also have an automatic speaker level setup function (MCACC, YPAO, ZVOX and others). By using a supplied microphone and built-in test tones, the AV receiver can automatically calibrate and adjust speaker settings based on the size of the speakers you are using, the size of your room, and the distance of each speaker from the listening area.

However, if the automatic speaker level settings are not to your liking, you can make manual adjustments. An easy way to emphasize the center channel and keep the other channels balanced is to manually increase the center channel speaker level by one or two dB (decibels). Do this after the initial automatic speaker level setting process is complete.