Would a centre speaker improve things

[admin_exported]

Ive only just recently bought an av system, so quite im green.

The av amp Ive bought is the Sony STR-DH810. When watching films, if I have the volume set where I can hear speech, as soon as there are any action scenes, I have to turn the volume down as its so loud. Is there any way this can be tweeked or would a centre speaker be the answer so there isnt such a big volume difference between speech & action (hope this all makes sense)

King regards

Neil

 

[AmigaNut]

With a centre speaker added you can alter the centre volume to higher than the surrounds. so speach becomes louder and effects quieter.

 

[Anonymous]

A centre speaker will help, but you should also switch on the dynamic range compression on your AV which will make the difference between quiet and loud "less". It's not advisable for music, but I also have to use it for movies as I have kids asleep most of the time when watching!

By the way, I wouldn't personally make the centre speaker louder than it ought to be as it isn't only speech coming from it, and the sound will be a little erm, disjointed. But even without doing that, the voices will become more focussed, especially for people not sat in the sweet spot.

 

[Chewy]

If your AVR is correctly down mixing the 5.1/7.1 soundtrack to stereo, there shouldn't be such a difference between the speech and other sounds. Does the AVR definately not 'think' you have a centre speaker connected? Go into the settings (if you haven't already done so) and check the centre speaker if off, or set to 'No' or similar - check the same for all the other surround speakers too whilst your at it (assuming you're just running FR/FL), and ensure your two mains are set to 'large' unless you're running a sub.

You shouldn't need to use dynamic range compression to fix this, that for the specific purpose of low level listening, and frankly ruins a soundtrack.

The addition of a centre speaker will ofcourse give you a better soundstage with greater separation and clarity etc, but it shouldn't make any difference to the balance and sound pressure levels for various elements of a sound track.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies. I've taken the info on board & Im sure I'll be able to improve the dynamics with your help. Thanks again

Neil

 

[AudioPlaya]

Also try entering your AV settings and turning on the "Dialogue Lift" option, most modern AV amps have the option, pretty sure the STR-DH810 will.... this will help quite a bit. A center speaker should also help but mainly if you are running in 5.1 or 7.1, but I'm wondering how many speakers you are running right now? in stereo or 2.1 the center won't be as effective as you won't be getting seperate channels and would have to use a forced "stereo 5.1" mode.. which isn't great for films.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers AP - I've just got a 4 speaker set up at the moment.

As yet I've not done any tweaking since I received the replies, but will do as soon as the wife lets me have a bit of 'me time'

Thanks for your help