I've just got a 7.1 system and suddenly I don't need subtitles nearly as much. I suspect that's the main issue - mixes are done for multi-channel, and if you ha

I've just got a 7.1 system and suddenly I don't need subtitles nearly as much. I suspect that's the main issue - mixes are done for multi-channel, and if you have fewer channels they get mashed together. Because music, sound effects and background noise come out of multiple channels, and voice tends to come out of the central channel only, it gets lost in the mix.