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.