How to improve film dialogs on my stereo system?

[iMark]

couple of pointers here that might help.

http://hometheater.about.com/od/hometheateraudiobasics/qt/centerchannelq...

The issues tend to happen because downmixing to stereo isn't great, or it's just mastered that way to keep it as it was in the cinema

I have noticed the same thing with both Bluray/DVD and Netflix. If we don't select 2.0 on either the Bluray player or within the Netflix app the TV does the downmix from 5.1 to 2.0 and the dialogues don't sound great. When we choose 2.0 we get the original stereo mix which is much better than a downmix.

The Bluray player has now been set to play 2.0 content (Bluray/DVD/SACD). But it's annoying that I have to change the setting every time within the Netflix app.

We don't have a 'dialogue booster' but the 2.0 settings certainly improve things.

 

[steve_1979]

Hi Steve,

If I buy second hand or lower end AV receiver/processor and use it only as preamplifier connected to my system(Rotel in power amp mode) will I be able to set “phantom centre speaker” to improve dialogs (vocals) in films? Or Is there any “universal” BD/CD player with possibility of sound settings that would solve my problem?

I have posted this question in another forum as well

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/home-cinema/phantom-centre-speaker

Hi Tomas.

I have no experience of using a phantom centre myself but I have read about this function in the manual for my Yamaha AVR and it does allow the option of increasing the volume of the phantom centre independently of the left and right speakers.

I have no idea which other AVR's or DVD/Bluray players have this function though.

 

[Tomas]

Thank you. I'll have a look what is on ebay

 

[Oie]

Equaliser?

I had the same problem and I sorted it using some of the features that JRiver (software) offers.

Effectively, I have a set of settings for music and a set of settings for films. On the settings for music there are not filters but on the settings for films the voices become louder and clearer so is easy to understand them even at low volumes.

My source is Nas-computer(jriver)-dac-amp but you could add a equaliser to your system to get similar results?

Regards