Sound Clarity Problems

[Fast Al]

First time poster, so please be gentle.

First the basics:

Front - RF-3 II

Center - RC-35

Surround - RS - 3 II

Sub - RW-10

Receiver - Denon AVR 1803

DVD Player - Toshiba SD 2800

My system is about four years old, and has served my needs very well. Recently I have noticed that when playing movies the conversation coming out of the center channel sounds "muddled", and at times I cannot understand what is being said. However, music or sound effects from the same speaker sounds fine. I was hoping someone could help me get the system back to it's original quality.

Some background information:

• The center speaker sits on top of the home theater cabinet, directly above the TV (but has for years).
  
• I have used a sound monitor to re-calibrate the volume coming from each speaker.
  
• I am beyond the stage of needing to "crank it up", so I have a hard time believing the speaker is bad, but I guess stranger things have happened.
  
• Could it be the DVD player?

Looking for suggestions.

Thanks

[tommyboy]

You can try to hook another speaker up to the center speaker output on the receiver. If it sounds the same way, it's the receiver, or possibly your dvd player. if it sounds like its supposed to, it's your speaker.

[pauln]

Funny that it is the intelligibilty of voices that is the problem... swapping around the speakers/channels is a good way to start investigating this. Have you rewired or reconnected anything? It might be that the center is out of phase...?

Welcome to the Klipsch Forum!

[boom3]

If your receiver is like my Yamaha there is an on-screen menu of settings. I suggest reviewing the settings to ensure nothing has changed. We had a problem with the Yamaha last year when it lost the settings for channel level we had programmed in after a power outage and went back to defaults.

[JuneBug]

One thing I would suggest is to check to make sure that you have correctly set the impedence of the receiver.

On my own system, I noticed a while back that voices, sometimes had a "gargly" quality. I confirmed it by listening to an old Louis Armstrong recording. It appears that I had my system set for 8 Ohm impedence. I switched it 6 Ohms, and everything was resolved. It certainly was a very noticeable improvement.

[DrWho]

The Denon 1803 AVR doesn't have any impedance switches on it....

I too have had similar problems with an Synergy SC-1 center and two different Heresy speakers running on an 1803. I wonder if it isn't the receiver? I was able to alleviate the problem by bumping the center channel up 3 notches in the speaker level setting. I don't think the receiver sends the same volume pink noise to the center as it does the other channels. A few of the Disney/Pixar movies (like Finding Nemo) have system calibrations included on the DVD and you'll notice that you get different results using them.

Btw, it never hurts to make sure you've got correct polarity on every speaker (red to red and black to black). I don't think that's your problem though.

[WMcD]

I'm going to suggest that the HF horn has failed. With the bass alone, it would sound muddy. Of course the suggestions posted above are good too.

It is difficult what to make of the description that only voices are muddy, while music is not. Sound effects don't count in my book unless there is high frequency components to it . . . which is usually not the case. And I don't know of any setting in an HT receiver which knows what is voice and what is music. Therefore, I'm a little doubtful of the appraisal that it is working with music - - - not to doubt your powers of observation. Really, I just wonder. Smile.

My thought is that voices are always mixed to the center and we listen for the sibilances. On the other hand, music is not necessarily sent to to the center.

I would put an ear up to the HF horn and make sure it really IS working with music. I often suggest a paper towel roller as an improvised stethoscope.

Please let us all know what you find.

Gil

[oldbuckster]

Maybe it's a poor quality DVD.............there are many not so good copies out there.............mainly those Made in Mexico DVD's many big chains sell at a discount...............getting just like records use to be...........sell the garbage copies, the consumer won't notice.....................EH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fast Al]

Thanks for the reply.

I have to ask... How do you tell if a speaker is out of phase??

[Fast Al]

Thanks for responding.

I do have an old Infinity in the closet. I will swap them out this weekend.

[hwatkins]

One last option - already mentioned I believe - My Denon remembers the settings per input. The input channel levels could have been inadvertently changed somewhere along the line and when you change inputs there is no problem.

The other option you will be able to see with your speaker switching is, as mentioned early, the loss of the HF. I had a tube issue downstairs that affected the highs on one channel and the results were very much something that would be described as 'muddy'.

[kfalls]

Hi Fast Al,

The first way to check for phase is to check the polarity of the cabling. Make sure the same color wire is on all + terminals (assuming your speaker wire is two color). If you're wire is the same color for both + and - one should have either writing or a stripe or different texture. The center is more difficult to check phase by listening. If it were the right and left speakers the way to check phase is to place them about a foot apart and play stereo music through them. Switch + and - on one speaker and place your head between them. If it sounds like the bass goes away, they're out of phase.

Another possibility is the distance setting is wrong on the center and the sound isn't reaching you at the same time as the R and L. Denon has an adjustment for distance, where Yamaha has a time alignment in increments of one millisecond. If the HF driver is bad you should be able to place your ear next to it and listen. If you can't tell, place your hand over it, then remove it to see it the sound is brighter. You should also check to make sure you're not in stereo, or other non-surround mode. Do all testing in one of the DD, or DTS modes to make sure you're listening to discrete channels and not channels derived from a stereo signal such as Dolby Pro Logic. I hope this helps.