Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Dialogue is just too quiet

Mahesh, you just made me feel so much better!

I noticed this on The Fellowship of the Ring though too, which someone else posted they thought the dialogue on this movie was amazing.

Was it me?

I also thought the dialogue was good on LOTR TTT!
gthomas

Are you guys using the DTS or DD soundtrack? I often find the dialog is mixed at noticeably different levels between the two.

DD soundtrack here.

Hi,

I started with DTS (which was worse than DD when it came to dialogues) and then switched to DD Ex in the setup menu. My Yamaha 2095 receiver doesn't support EX format but I have played other DD EX discs and no such issues in the past.

The details in the loud scenes are fantastic (DTS & DD). Its just the center channel (dialogues) that is very low on both tracks. I even tried boosting center channel only by a couple of db but it just wasn't enough.

I know its not my hearing for sure. I read a review of this DVD at The Digital Bits site and they too found the audio excellent although they haven't written about the dialog clarity.

Can't figure this one out !

I switched my front left and center speakers, all still played at 75db. I switched them back, but changed the connection going to them (front left on the amp is now going to center speaker, center on amp is going to front left speaker) still at 75dB. Watched House of 1000 corpses last night (yeah, i know, its not lord of the rings!), but the dialogue seemed too quiet still. I cranked up the center all the way possible on my receiver and it to a satisfactory level.

Hopefully i'll have some time to put LOTR back in and see what I think it sounds like now. Also need to get the pink noise out again, see what my center registers at now.

twopecker,

It sounds like calibrating the center channel a few dB "hot" may be just the right thing for you. When you say "cranked up the center all the way possible," by how many dB was the center channel over-calibrated or "hot"? Also, how does music sound with the center channel left over-calibrated like that (both in the DPL II Music mode and in discrete 5.1 music programs)?

the front L&R are at about +4, center is at +10.

I only listen to music in 2 channel (and the sub sometimes)

What DVD player do you have? The reason I asked is that I had the same problem on my Pioneer Elite 45a. Did a little investigating and found out that the center speaker was set to off in the DVD setup menu. Funny, because even though it was set to off I could still sound coming from it. It might not be the receiver set up, it might be the DVD player. Worth a check.