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EDIT: Sorry for the long post, but at this point I think I solved the issue, but would really appreciate it if someone could read to end and just confirm my conclusion.

I own the US bluray set of Starwars 1-3, including the Phantom menace. With Phantom Menace, I'm having trouble with the audio when ripping with MakeMKV and then playing with VLC. I've ripped most of my collection of blurays, but I'm still relatively new to it and may be missing something obvious.

With Phantom Menance, MakeMKV shows 9 titles all with 50 chapters and all with 40.4GB. The only difference is the Angle, which corresponds, 1-9. By default, MakeMKV checks the boxes for the first two angles only

Just doing a test with "angle 1" I included all the english tracks. VLC defaults to the first track, "DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 English". I've ripped several blurays with this sort of track and it always works fine even though I'm currently running only two speakers in stereo.

Anyway, there's sound, but it's all sort of background or special effects/music, but the voices sound like they are off in the distance. This happens no matter what audio track I select. The exception is track 3, which I think is DD Surround 5.1 English, where the voices are normal, but there's also visually impaired voice over. The last two tracks,
DD Stereo English"

Taking "angle 1" the first title... I included all the english tracks. So, (1)DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 English, and indented below "DTS Surround 5.1" english. Then below that "DD Surround 5.1 English" After that two entries for DD Stereo English are commentary tracks.

Anyway, under VLC, under audio pull down, you can select from "stereo mode". So far as I've noticed on this and other rips, it always defaults to "original." With the first two tracks (DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 English, and indented below "DTS Surround 5.1" English), if I set "stereo mode" to "Stereo" instead of "original" I get good sound, including voices.

I tried to use MKVToolNix to adjust "stereo mode" to default to "stereo" instead of "original" but couldn't get it right. I could keep playing with that, but I'm not even sure I'm using the right video title. Also, I'd like to be able to play Phatom Menance on at least a 3.1 system. Will I have lost that function if I play on VLC "Stereo mode" instead of "Original"? Again, I've never had this problem with other rips. 6.1/7.1, etc always sounds normal on a 2 speaker setup.

Or am I just using the wrong title, in which case anyone have a suggestion of what to use given there are NINE of them?

Sorry, I'm still a noob at this and I think I'm missing something obvious. Help appreciated.

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EDIT: Okay, I'm back. Going back before I rip using MakeMKV where the titles are listed, under properties, I see I can switch from Default to AAC-Stereo. This provides extra selections under the audio title which I understand to be MakeMKV's option to downmix from the 6.1 or 5.1 surround.

I tried another rip with the AAC-Stereo choices enabled then opened the file in VLC. Again, just running on my two speaker setup, but now a new audio track option appeared "Stereo [English]" which I assume is the downmixed created from the 6.1 surround.

When, via VLC, I switch to this audio track the sound is good. Again, using VLC... It seems like this is the same as NOT ripping with AAC-Stereo" via MakeMKV, but then choosing "6.1 surround" for audio track, but then also choosing "stereo" (instead of Original) from VLC's "Stereo Mode."

Can anyone confirm this is true? What I think is happening is that although MakeMKV did not downmix, by selecting "stereo" instead of "original" form the VLC "Stereo mode" menu, it's VLC that sort of does the downmxing. Is this assumption right?

Anyway, I can make this work. For the RIp where MakeMKV added the AAC-Stereo track, I used MKVToolmix to go back in and set the MakeMKV created downmix (Stereo [English]) as default.

However, I assume that when I do run this video on a 3.1 or higher system that I'll really just be running in 2 speaker Stereo mode? Given I've changed the default, I'd have to manually switch back to the 6.1 or 5.1 audio track, right?

On every other bluray I ripped, this wasn't necessary. I could just let it default to 5.1 (6.1, 7.1 etc) but it would auto detect or auto downmix when I ran the video on a 2 stereo system. Is there anyway to make Phantom Menace do this so that detection is automatic and I don't have manually adjust for different speaker setups?

1st, you repeatedly say 6.1 or "DTS-HD MA 6.1".
Are you certain you mean 6.1, not 7.1?
I ask because all I ever saw or heard of or read of was either 5.1 or 7.1, not 6.1.
If it is 6.1... That would be the 1st occurrence I ever saw/heard of it, so would be very unusual in itself and could be part of the source of the problem.

2nd, more clarity & information would be helpful here.
You reference "DTS-HD MA 6.1" (again, 6.1 or 7.1??) a couple times regarding specifically Phantom Menace, you mention some Dolby tracks which function correctly but are not what you want, but all your other mentions of the audio are plain "5.1" or "6.1", not specifically saying Dolby or DTS or DTS-HD MA.
The reason this could be important is because Dolby 5.1 is not DTS 5.1.
The reason THAT is important could be this:
I have a streaming device which can process all forms of Dolby up to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (so includes DD Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, I think also Atmos but not certain).
However, that same device cannot process DTS above 5.1, so DTS-HD MA 7.1 is out. In fact, DTS-HD MA could be out entirely, whether it is 7.1 or 2.0. Now I need to test that and I think I have some media which fits the bill.
Point being, if your playback device is similar to mine and cannot handle higher forms of DTS, that could be causing your issue because it could be downmixing on the device, and I encountered frequent results of bad dialogue quality when I tested downmixing DTS to stereo some years ago.
It sounded very similar to what you describe.

If that is the cause of your issue, the best solution would be to get a new device which can process up to Dolby TrueHD (preferably including Atmos) & DTS-HD MA (preferably including DTS:X).

But you said you think you solved it?
What was your solution?