Big mistake or glory?

[rendu]

Only 1 month ago I finalized my speaker system by adding the SW150. It has improved a lot for cinema but only for action movies which I do not oftern watch. For the other movies most of the sound is only comming from the center and the feeling of "cinema" is almost non-existing.

I was in ebay the other day and I saw an offer I could just not resist so, I bought a Dali Suite C0.7 ex-demo for 50 pound. I think that now that I had a "balanced" system this was pretty stupid but, for that price I took the risk of trying. I never really thought that the Diamond 9 CS that I have was really of same tone as the 9.1. so I do not know how big this miss match will be. I just have the feeling that for cinema the center speaker is key to get the feeling of cinema sound for the non-action movies.

Thoughts? Comments? Opinios? Anyone ever heard the Suite C0.7?

 

[The_Lhc]

I've got to say it's kind of a bizarre idea, if the only sound you get is from the centre speaker then I'd have thought you need to look at the rest of the system to see why you're not getting the surround effects. Is there actually any sound coming out of the other speakers when listening to a full surround soundtrack? I'd guess your haven't got your channels properly calibrated on the amp if all you can hear is the centre channel. Either way I wouldn't be looking at changing the centre speaker in order to fix the problem.

 

[rendu]

The last movie that I watched was "An education" and 80% of soundtrack was only the center channel which was just like watching TV. Then for the other 20 % music + effects all the other channels come into play and works very good. I believe I could also have a problem with the back channels possitioning because I can not place them on the side facing towards me so, they are on the wall right above the couch 1.5 meter up. I am considering to replace by dipoles maybe.

 

[The_Lhc]

rendu:The last movie that I watched was "An education" and 80% of soundtrack was only the center channel which was just like watching TV. Then for the other 20 % music + effects all the other channels come into play and works very good. I believe I could also have a problem with the back channels possitioning because I can not place them on the side facing towards me so, they are on the wall right above the couch 1.5 meter up. I am considering to replace by dipoles maybe.

Funnily enough that's the last film I watched as well, this weekend, on DVD, so only Dolby Digital but there was clearly audio coming through from all speakers, especially during the night-club scene but it's a "talkative" movie, so the centre channel will be doing a lot of the work, it's not exactly the sort of film that's going to stress the surround channels much either. I was still very aware that the front left and right speakers were in use though, so I'd still be inclined to check the levels on all your channels.

It would also make more sense to sort out the rear speaker arrangement, rather than replacing the centre speaker, as that isn't going to imrpove the rear soundstage at all.

 

[rendu]

Thanks, I appreciate your comments. Yes, the next move may be to replace the 9SR by the 9DFS but, I do not know whether this will make any noticable difference. I can not change the possition of the speakers so going dipoles is the only solution I can think of.

I do not have SPL meeter but, I have balanced more or less the output. There is one thing though that I forgot to mention and is that the center is behind the TV because it does not fit under the TV and I have it set up 6db above the rest in order to compensate and also to minimize impact of dinamics during action scenes. This was also the main reason for looking for other center channel to be able to put under the TV and not behind (which is certainly ridiculous place for a center speaker).