Film club Help

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I help run a film club in Highclere near Newbury(www.highclerefilmclub.co.uk). We're having some problems with our sound setup and am looking for some advice.

Currently our setup is the following:

Sony STRDA 1200 AV amp

Tannoy EFX5.1 speaker system

Helios X4000 dvd player

The problem we seem to have is that the soundtrack often tends to overwhelm the dialogue - we showed Sweeney Todd last week and the sound was awful and it was a real struggle to hear the words. We ended up offering a refund to anyone that wanted it.

In terms of system setup I tend to use the auto calibration microphone from the amp and just go with whatever settings the amp decides. 

Now, the problem could be the discs we use, as a film club we have to hire the films we show from FilmBank in London (costs about £100) which allows us to show to a paying audience. The discs they send often seem to be of questionable quality - the discs are never originals but seem to be 'backups'. On a couple of occasions the discs have only had a prologic soundtrack.

But before I give FilmBank a hard time I just want to make sure our kit is set up well. I'm not convinced the the tannoys are up to the job at the front, bearing in mind we are using a large village hall for our performances (it has a low ceiling - so the acoustics are pretty good). The helius dvd player is not great either.

I've been given the go ahead to buy some new toys, so what should I look to replace first?   

Thanks for listening,

Mat 

 

 

 

 

[Anonymous]

To start, whats your budget ?

 

[Anonymous]

About £600

 

[Anonymous]

Hi murky, firstly the speakers need to go. There ok for entry level average sized living room setup but for a village hall you definitely need presence in front.The amp is fine and from what i know of the Helios it's a decent player aswell.I'd be a bit worried about the sound quality of back-up dvds, maybe you should do a bit of private testing with your own personal dvds.If it was me i'd blow the lot on this speaker package but if you want a new player check the new Toshiba XD-e500 or the Onkyo DV-SP406, reviews are on site for both and these maybe.

 

[professorhat]

How big is the hall? I'm concerned £600 isn't going to be enough to get a system that will fill the room, unless it's more a of a big living room sized hall rather than a typically quite large village hall.
I agree though, I think the speakers are the main things that need to be upgraded. As marvsins says, I'd be looking at some full size traditional speaker packages personally to give a fuller sound in the room. As well as his suggestion, you could also look possibly at something like the Mordaunt Short Alumni package or possibly the Q Acoustics 1010i package. It's all dependent on the room size really though.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, that's good advice.

ÿAs you suggest it is a big hall, though fortunately it has low ceilings so it is not too echoey. Do you think the tannoys might be ok on rear effects duty? It would give me more to play with at the front?

Cheers,

Mat (aka murky)ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

You are right about the FilmBank DVDs - we have had at least two that didn't work at all and we always make sure we have our own original to hand - there is an improvement in sound when we do this but it could still be better.ÿ