No can understand....

Stringreen,

I'm not familiar with your particular HT receiver, however I'm sure it is adequate to give you good SQ and dialog. The NHT center should be OK too. I'm thinking you have a setup issue. Can you go back after running the setup procedure and check to see what the setting are actually set at? Also, curious if you have gone into your source to insure it is set up correctly. Are you having the issue with DVD, Cable TV box, etc? Are all of them exhibiting the same crappy SQ or is it just from one of the sources?

If its all of the sources, the issue is likely in your receiver. If it sounds bad after running the setup procedure, it might be defective. Have you tried resetting the receiver to factory defaults before running the setup? You might even want to listen to it set to factory defaults without running the setup to see if it still sounds bad.

Hope you figure it out quickly. I know it can be frustrating........

TIC

If your receiver permits manual entry of speaker distance and sound level, you might try the time honored tape measure and Radio Shack SPL meter, using pink noise from a disc if your AVR doesn't provide it.  You'll be in good company; some high-end processors do not provide automatic setup, relying instead on tape and SPL meter.
db

Disconnect your L and R speakers and listen. How does it sound to you?

You may actually have a bad amp or a bad speaker.

Best,

Erik

you may want to validate your center channel tweeter is working.  that will muddy things up quite nicely.  try running room correction and if there is a chirp function it will be obvious if there is a problem.

As others have said, double check your settings; while most auto setup/room correction programs are fairly accurate these days, they aren't always perfect and it is always advisable to double check things like speaker distances, levels and delays to ensure that no gross errors occurred when the program ran. Also confirm basic settings like speaker assignment, crossover for the sub, etc.

Is the graphic equalizer you are referring to a standalone component or a setting in the menu system of the AVR? If it's a separate component, that may well be causing your problems since the room correction software in the AVR likely includes EQ adjustments, and if that is indeed the case, they may simply be clashing with one another. Lastly, check your connections to make sure that nothing has come loose, and confirm cable directionality and polarity are both correct. If none of that helps, you may have a bad amp.

-David

EDIT: If none of the above resolves your issue, I just found a link to Audyssey’s forum where other people seem to having the same issue, and it may possibly come down to that particular room correction software not setting the center channel level high enough relative to the other speakers. Hope this helps...

https://audyssey.zendesk.com/entries/20365706-Center-Channel-WAY-Too-Low-

-David