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

Ah... Okay, one mystery solved.

In that case, assuming that you are listening/watching at "commonsense" volume levels, I would check the speaker placement next. How exactly are the front L/C/R speakers placed relative to the front and side walls? Is the VP150 sitting on top of the TV? What's the height? Is it tilted down or up so that the tweeters fire right toward you?

Sushi...once again, sorry about the receiver...my blunder =/

here is a pretty good picture that will give you an idea of the speaker setup:

http://members.cox.net/axiomaudio/ht/HT2.jpg

The front right speaker is about 16" from the side wall, about 22" from the back wall. The front left speaker is about 22"back of the a from the back wall, and the side wall is about 4ft away. The center speaker is dead center between the 2 fronts and approximately 4" behind (maybe not even that much, once again I am at work (d'oh!) so I cant get out the tape measure.

the height at the top of the speaker is about 35.5". I tilted it up just a tiny bit, it made no noticable difference. It looks like its pretty straight on w/ my listening posistion, so I do not think that angle is an issue.

Volume knob adjusts from -4dB to -94dB if that is still good info for you to know.

Nice front projection setup, twopecker!

Hmm... I don't see anything overtly wrong in the picture and your descriptions, except that the L/R mains appear to be fairly close to each other. Given that you are 10' away from the fronts, the ideal distance between the L/R would be 8'~10'. And if you can, try moving the M22's further forward, so that the L/C/R are all equidistance from you (and accordingly change the delay settings on the receiver). These maneuvers may further improve the front soundstage and dialog clarity.

Coming back to the volume level issue, when you say you calibrated the system to 75dB at the listening position, what level did you set the master volume knob? (I ask this because the 41TX doesn't seem to automatically reset it at 0dB.)

JohnK's suggestion of temporarily swapping the VP150 and one of the M22's to see if it improves the dialog clarity is a good idea, too. In fact, since you use front projection, you can get another M22/stand as the center channel (move the electronics rack somewhere else in that case).

I tried playing w/ the positioning quite a bit when I first set everything up. Due to space constraints, it is setup about as close as I could get every speaker so its equidistant from the listening spot.

To calibrate the speakers to 75dB, I used the Video Essentials DVD. I had to turn the volume to -25dB to get a good baseline, and did the fine tuning from there.

Once again, due to space, I am unable to move the rack from its current spot. The price I have to pay for being an apt. dweller I guess. I was already planning on switching out the center and one of the fronts to see what kind of results I would get. I will probably wait until wed. when I can have my SPL meter in front of me again though.

if you want the dialog louder without making the rest of the movie too loud i think the best option is using dynamic compression (what cam suggested). your receiver might call it "midnight mode" or compression or something. it will make the quiet parts louder and the louder parts quieter. that way you dont have to turn it up as loud to hear the dialog. of course it wont be as dynamic, so the loud parts won't knock your socks off like they otherwise might if your receiver doesnt have the option, your dvd player might have it in the setup menu.

Yup, I was about to clarify but foof beat me to it. I used to turn down the dynamic range when I lived in an apartment and it could be a good solution for you if you're not crazy about the huge volume changes that dvd's are capable of.

Just a quick note. My brother was noticing the same phenomena as you. He ended up having his hearing checked and discovered that he had developed a loss in the frequency range exactly corresponding to the vocal range. As it was slight, no need for an aid, he simply adjusted the volume to make up for his loss.
One thing that is almost never mentioned in guides to set up home audio, is our personal sensitivity to frequency ranges. The whole point of home A/V is to create a pleasurable experience. If you are happier with the level of the center speaker higher, then go for it. There are so many variables involved in setting to reference levels that I wonder if we shouldn't look at the process almost as a good cook looks at a recipe. Start with the basics, but feel free to make adjustments based on personal taste.

amen

Doug

you wrote
And you guessed, tonight, in The Theatre Del Twopecker, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers!

Maybe it was jsut that movie, we'll see.

I have to agree with this. I watched LOTR (Two Towers) last night and I too found the center channel horrible (inaudible dialogues). At 60% volume on the receiver knob I could barely hear anything. Usually I dont go past 30-35% on the volume level for movies.

There is so much irregularity in the audio seperation of the channels on this DVD. After quiet dialogues, all of sudden it would blast off when there was a musical score in the background or some action scene (and I had to scramble for the remote).

I got so tired of going back and forth that I stopped the movie (I have seen it at the cinema when it was released) and put on 'The Perfect Storm' which has greater center channel usage and I didn't have to hold the remote control of the receiver throughout the movie.

I dont think it is your ears or your setup. Has anybody else had a good experience when it comes to clarity in dialogs (centre channel) when watching LOTR (Two Towers) ?

Cheers / Mahesh