I have a Yamaha RX-V2400 receiver and a Klipsch speaker 7.1 surround speaker system in my living room. I believe the center speaker is a RC-62 or comparable. It's big. I have always had problems with all of my home theater systems having a center channel sound that is too quiet when there is just speech - so I turn the system up and then get blasted when action or music starts. I always - for every movie - have to adjust the sound constantly throughout the movie. I had hoped a higher end system would solve this problem but it does not. An AV expert told me I just needed to calibrate my center channel, but I've never heard of this before. Does this just mean turn it up? If so, I've tried that - it just puts the center channel out of balance when there is music or action. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Or are there better receivers or equipment out there to deal with this? Thanks.
You might want to try turning on the 'night' mode which reduces the dynamic range. That way the sound effects won't be so loud, but the dialog shouldn't be affected --- so you should be able to listen to it at a high enough volume setting to hear the dialog without the loud sound effects.
Or you could try the "phantom mode" that some receivers have where the center channel info is routed to both FL an FR speakers. This however, will defeat the center channel and you will have no sound coming through it.
If you haven't already used it, you can adjust all the speaker volumes on the fly. On the bottom of the remote, set the switch to Parameter > press the Level button to select the center channel (visible on display window) > press the + or - button to adjust the volume to your preference and to those in the room sitting off axis.
Where is your center channel physically located in relation to your TV? Above or below? If it is above, make sure the speaker is at least flush with the front of the TV screen. If it is below, try angling it up so it points toward your seating position. Little positioning tweaks like this can make a big difference.
That being said, I used to have the same problem as you - I was constantly turning up the volume to hear dialog, then frantically dialing it down when the LFE kicked in. I finally solved it by:
1) upgrading my center channel 2) running the center through dedicated 200 watt monoblock 3) playing with the speaker positioning