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human voice volumn is low when watching DVD movies...


vinny

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Hi I have a pair of RVX54 and a pair of RSX-4 as surround speakers with a HK235 amp. Of all the DVD movies I have watched so far, the human voices volumn is so low that it's very hard to hear. However explosion and other types of sounds sound very loud. So I had to turn up the volumn everytime there is a conversation going on in the movie, very annoying.

Does have a similar set or experience similar problems?

Vinny

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Hi I have a pair of RVX54 and a pair of RSX-4 as surround speakers with a HK235 amp. Of all the DVD movies I have watched so far, the human voices volumn is so low that it's very hard to hear. However explosion and other types of sounds sound very loud. So I had to turn up the volumn everytime there is a conversation going on in the movie, very annoying.

Does have a similar set or experience similar problems?

Vinny

Vinny,

It looks like you do not have a center channel speaker. Most home theaters have three speaker in front with the middle speaker being designated as the center channel.

If you have no center channel, you need to go into the setup screens on your H/K receiver and tell it that there is no center channel. Choices might be "NO" or "Phantom", they mean the same thing. When you do this, dialog will appear, but be limited to a narrow sweat spot for the listeners.

If you have a center channel, use a Rat Shack sound meter and the test tones in your receiver to match sound output levels in all of your speakers per the manual on your receiver.

Another thing to try is "midnight" mode on your receiver. Movies sometimes have too wide a dynamic range. Soft passages are too soft and loud passages are too loud. Midnight mode can help as can Dolby dynamic range compression on Dolby encoded movies.

Let us know how it is going. The center channel is your most important speaker in a home theater. However, lots of folks use a phantom setting because they cannot find a center that they like.

Bill

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I added a RVX42 center speaker( borrowed from a friend) and turned it up. But RVX42 didn't perform very well next to my RVX54 speakers. It sounded very rough and unclear relatively.

May be RVX42 is not a good center speaker to go with RVX54?

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A little bit OT. It is a matter that the computers in the HT systems do odd things. I thought I solved it once. But it came back.

I'd previously reported a hard to diagnose a problem with my buddy's Yamaha HT.

In a multi speaker mode, like DTS, it seemed okay. Actually only the center, sub and surrounds were on. No "A" flanking. Then when switched to "stereo" or direct, there was nothing. This was because "A" was off. It took a while to figure out. It was solved by hitting the button and the very small indicator on the panel does report what is on, or off, correctly.

I chalked that up to an accident. Somehow someone hit the button on the front panel.

Dang. It happened again.

It looks to me that when flipping though the many options of DTS, enhanced Dolby, and many "halls" the little darling will switch off the mains without warning, and not reset.

The bottom line is that it sometimes difficult to determine whether pre-sets are indeed maintained.

Gil

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As it has been explained, it is a function of high dynamic range, and I have found that there are some movies that have weak overall center channel mixes. Others seem to be fine.

Some speakers are very low sensitivity, and with moderate amplifier power cannot get loud, like a comparable high sensitivity Klipsch product.

In other words, with less efficient speakers, and limited amp power, you can raise the overall levels, but the transients ( momentary loud passsages ) will not be as loud.

This is more of a source issue, as most DVD's have discrete mixes for the center channel, with little vocal information in the left and right main speakers. Also, without a center channel, you may have to "tell" you receiver in the menu that you do not have a center, it will mix the information from the center into the left and right main speakers.

Good advice already mentioned, I just expanded on it a bit.

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Good processing, good amplification and optimum placement are needed to get good performance from any center channel. Poor performance may not be the speaker's fault.

I have an RC-7 center channel that I aim at ear level via the rear legs. I try to minimize reflections by moving it as far forward as possible on my TV without falling off. I set my center channel as "small" so that it does not have trouble with deep bass interfering with dialog. I make sure all wire connections are tight. I always use big wire to get a better signal, since 12 ga zip cord is inexpensive.

General advice is that you should get the biggest and best center that you can afford. Another RXV-54 might be a possibility. Be sure to try a phantom center to see how it sounds as an alternative.

A subwoofer is something that you need to add to any home theater. Your receiver will have an easier load to carry if a subwoofer takes over the low frequency load.

Bill

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