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The full dynamic range is nice if you actually want to experience it and have a system capable of reproducing it. A dedicated center channel with a few hundred watts of amplification behind it will cut through the ambient backdrop like a hot knife through butter. You can watch Transformers or MI3 at reference volume with crystal clear dialogue if you're willing to throw enough power at the problem.
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I have a decent[1] system with a dedicated center channel. Everybody complains that the mix is too loud if we tune for audible dialog on anything made in the past decade or so (MI3 bluray is fine, and I suspect that Transformers would be too).

1: Powered by a Denon AVR, not separates if you want to "No true cinephile" me.

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I've always set up my center channel volume using the test mode (by ear many years ago, and more recently automatically with Yamaha's YPAO).

Am I meant to then override that by increasing the center channel volume so it's louder than the other speakers?

Or raise the system volume?

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What really would solve the movie issue is there was more standardised sound across different streaming services. Every single seems to have a different volume and compression / setup.

That and having an industry standard way to crank the center channel (user setting) when downmixing to 2.1

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remember when HN was saying "nobody wants big smartphones, why does the industry keep doing this? iPhone 4 size is the perfect size"

hint - the industry is doing EXACTLY what (most) consumers want. there is a big difference between what a consumer tells you they want, and what actually they pay for

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Anecdotally, I have gotten many compliments on my small Unihertz phones that I've owned over the years, particularly from women.

As far as revealed preference goes, those who complimented me on it all had the smallest iPhone available when purchased.

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Physical media is dying, so that's a strange conclusion to draw.
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> No one likes it, except for those guys.

This is anecdotal at best; "those guys" will be using hard data just like tech bros with ecommerce sites do, and the data does not lie.

Compression sells better than high dynamic range else they would have stopped. This is true for every "nobody likes this" statement people make on the internet about things that are commercially successful nevertheless. Big phones (as someone else mentioned), mobile games, video game movie adaptations, AI music, Marvel franchise entries, funko pops, they're all running circles around people that don't personally like it and who are in circles of like-minded people.

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Hard data can lead you astray.

When people listen to two pieces of audio they generally prefer the louder of the two. That doesn't mean they want you to turn up the volume dial for them. They can adjust the volume dial themselves, and if everything gets louder they'll turn down the volume dial to compensate.

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They are the same coked up idiots who did an end-run around Congress to the WIPO, to get their DMCA forced by treaty obligations back in the '90s.
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