Why is this not loud?

[nolaklamonte]

I upgraded my system 2 years ago, after Katrina drowned my old system!

I purchased the largest possible Synergy series speakers available. Regretably I didn't know of the Reference Series, since the only retailer that had reopened at the time was Best Buy :-( , but In My Opinion, I still should have a loud, high quality sytem.

Now here is the dilemma, voices are very hard to understand at reasonable listening levels. I tried to correct this by upgrading from the amp in my Yamaha Receiver to an external amp rated with a little more power and head room. I now use the receiver as a pre-amp and an EMO LPA-1 which is rated at 125W X 5 and 60W X 2 (for the side axis speakers, which do very little).

This change made the overall sound quality better, but did little for volume. In fact if anything, the volume level decreased some. I didn't opt for the 200W amp, considering that the Klipsch speakers are so efficeint (granted not the Reference Series but loud none the less).

I am considering buying a RC-64, as an option to try and fix this (it is very frustrating), but I am tired of throwing money away for little benefit.

Any suggestions,

PS, also this may be an issue of the cable company compressing the audio signal? We don't watch many DVD's but the problem is a little better when we do.

Here is the system:

Sub-12

F-3

S-3

C-3

Bose 301 (side axis)

Yamaha HTR-5890

EMO LPA-1

[SilverSport]

...at 97dB efficiency those F3s should be blowing you out...I can get LOUD with my Quartets at near the same efficiency (97.5dB) and only 14wpc and my EICO HF-81...hope you are able to diagnose the problem...mute on???...re-check all connections...

Bill

[Guest srobak]

You may also be a victim of phasing and cancellation. Turn off all speakers except your mains, make sure that both the mains are wired in phase and see how the volume is. Now add the sub - did apparent volume level go down? If so - hit the phase switch on the back of the sub. Now start checking your wiring on the other speakers and add them a pair at a time to the mix. How do things progress? I would also consider nixing the 301's - not because they are Bose, but because they require gobs of power and are horribly inefficient vs. everything else in your system. If after double-checking phasing and wiring I would suspect the amp, or even speaker placement and room layout causing problems.

[InVeNtOr]

your problem may be your receiver settings. i have a setting on my sony that makes is lower for late night movie watching. i use to be able to turn it up to 70 and it not be that loud. with it off, 50 would be very loud. i would try and do a factory reset with the receiver, double check the connections, and see how that goes. i would also take a few moments to reread the manual and look at all the different settings. nice amp by the way....lol.

hope that helps.

good luck

[jacksonbart]

God you're cute

[Guest srobak]

God you're a postwhore with nothing worthwhile to add. Ever. Almost to 6000 JB! woooo!

[SWL]

your problem may be your receiver settings. i have a setting on my sony that makes is lower for late night movie watching.

Ditto.

[Fish]

God you're a postwhore with nothing worthwhile to add. Ever. Almost to 6000 JB! woooo!

Hm................maybe,but he's ours........

Check channel levels?

[Islander]

Are you finding that when you set the level so explosions and gunshots are not too loud, then the dialogue is too low? With modern home theater systems, the special effects can be nearly as loud as they'd be in real life, which is too loud for some folks, so they turn down the volume, but then can't hear the dialogue.

If you have a Night setting, it will reduce the dynamic range of the signal, meaning the loud sounds will be reduced in volume, but the soft sounds will not, which might help your situation. The Night setting may even have a couple of positions, so you can reduce the dynamic range just a bit or somewhat more.

[SWL]

God you're a postwhore with nothing worthwhile to add. Ever. Almost to 6000 JB! woooo!

.......Keep your chin up JB. [H]

[dtel]

Looking at you pic you look a little young to worry about this stuff ! []

Do you live in NOLA or close ? Was there a couple of days ago, Aquarium, IMAX,and a little of the Quarter, we live about an hour away ?

[oldtimer]

If your broadcast audio quality is a problem, and it will always be worse than dvd's, check that the output settings on your cable/fios/satellite decoder for audio are optimized. This is in addition to making sure all your component settings are correct.

[nolaklamonte]

I think this might be the case. The settings for the cable box are correct (Cox doesn't let you mess with them much)

I have double checked the wiring on several occasions, found no issues. In fact I have even tried using different brands of wire (my conclusion is that you should save your money and not by designer speaker wire). I have a cousin who is a rep for an electronics wholesaler that sells monster and can get it cheap. The mark up on that stuff at retail is incredible.

As for phasing and cancellation, the subs' phasing is fine, I checked it last night. Cancellation may be an issue, but not really a fixable one for astetic reasons. I must add that my old system, which was pioneer elite and infinity ( I also has a KSW 15, wish they still made them) didn't have similar problems. The room is pretty live with wooden floors and very little upholstered furniture and no heavy drapes.

The settings on the pre-amp are OK. I play with them quite often, trying to find that "SweetSpot" in the sound. As for night mode, it does eliminate some of the lower frequency boom when you don't want it, but that's about it from my observations.

So this leads me to three possible theories......

1. Ditch Cox and change to another provider, The only other option in my area is satellite.

2. Buy the bigger RC64, that is louder. (Not sure that this will make a huge impact though)

3. and this is the most expensive and far fetched idea... I am a church musician and our drummer is a sound guy by profession for several local cover bands. He seems to think that my system is hungry for power (eletricity). He seems to think that a 20 amp cicuit is not good enough to power my home theater and that I should have a circuit for the amp alone. Now all I have on this circuit is the TV (52" Toshiba DLP), DVD, Amp, Pre Amp, The sub, and a couple of lamps. I have never triggered a breaker so I am a little suspicious of this idea. but the concept does make a little sense.

Any thoughts, I appreciate all of your input.

[jamhead]

Have you ever calibrated your system with Pink noise and an SPL meter?

How do you have your cable box hooked to your receiver?

Are you using any special Yamaha listening modes (hall, concert, etc.)?

[oldtimer]

Good questions jam. I would not worry about a larger dedicated circuit, it should not be necessary.

[Islander]

Have you tried just turning up the level of the center channel?

[gibbie]

If you listen to a CD or FM radio is the sound the same? If not then I would suspect the problem is in the COX receiver.

[Guest srobak]

+1 Gibbie. I didn't realize we were just talking about cable tv here. Depending on the model, there are some codes and such you can enter on most of them to get into advanced menus and such to adjust a variety of things including audio.

[Arky]

I understood his first post to say dvd isn't appreciably better. I'd double check channel levels.

btw, welcome to the forum.

[oldtimer]

He could throw a cd into his dvd player. he did mention that dvd's were a little better than broadcast but not much. There's one clue. Dvd's should be obviously better than broadcast. What is the common element here? I would think that would be the receiver/amp. This is interesting, troubleshoot one issue at a time.