What is wrong?

[Danely15]

I love my setup(see below), yet i have some problems. Mainly when watching movies the dialog is ard to hear. Everyting else is plenty loud. ive had to turn down the bass and turn up the center here and there... doesnt really solve the problem though. Wood floors, big room... not the ideal room i guess. It has vaulted ceiling, 27.5x17.5 listening position is appx 13ft away from short wall. most "regular" tv sounds fine, and music sounds great. i usaully just deal with it, but i went to a friends house that has a synergy setup, different room and everything but it just sounded amazing. what gives? suggestions? i have metal miniblinds on the back wall windows, thought about switching those out. my gf is always asking"what did they say" during the movie... gets old. thanks for the help.

Daniel

[DU73]

Hi Daniel,

has it always sounded like this or has something changed which has created a lack of mid range..

i would first run an auto calabration on avr and see if this fixes the problem.

you have a fantastic setup tho..

[Danely15]

its been doing since i got it together... bout a year ago. Havent done the calibration. ill give it a try tomorrow.

thanks

[dtel]

If nothing else get a DB meter from Radio Shack and set the speakers manually. I don't know about that auto setup thing, if it allows set the center a couple of DB's higher than the front R & L.

I also notice with some movies the center voices are a little low, it's mainly because I don't listen at the volume needed because when something loud happens someone may wet the sofa, they definitely jump now ! I usually have the center channel up a couple DB's from the front L & R to fix that.

[wuzzzer]

DVDs and Blu-ray discs have a much wider dynamic range of sound than TV shows do. Lots of movies are mixed with vocal parts somewhat low to allow dynamic explosions and other sound effects.

As others have suggested, run your receiver's auto-setup to balance all your speaker's outputs with each other and then bump up the dBs on the center speaker one or two if you need to.

[kelA]

Did you run the auto setup calibration when you got the Denon?

[winchester21]

agree on the calibration and definitely. It sounds like the something is whacked with the initial setup. On my Sony there is a way to control the material that goes to the center. I dont think that there is any bass going to mine. There should be no problem hearing all of the voices with the HT receiver set correctly. I dont know enough about Denon to tell you which button to push but I would bet money that something is set incorrectly.

Most cities have a couple of audio HT techs floating around that wil come to your house and set up receivers- move furniture or speakers ect. Might be worth a couple hundred bucks if you cant fix it on your own

[edwinr]

What are you using as a center channel? I would say your center channel speaker has no where near the sensitivity (efficiency) of your mains or rears. You could try and dial in some more spl's manually with your receiver setup menu, or try the auto calibration, but you may not have enough gain to play around with. That's one disadvantage of using highy sensitive horns for mains and surrounds. Options are;

1. Ditch the center channel and use your 'phantom' centre speaker option selected from the receiver's setup menu (this is what I use at home). Try this option. You may like it. And it costs nothing. If you hear clearer dialogue after selecting 'phantom' mode, then you could choose to keep this option, or decide to spend some money and go for option 2.

2. Buy a more sensitive center speaker that is a better match for your main speakers.