Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Center Speaker question

New to this forum...thank for any help.

My family just purchased a new 42" plasma and it is connected to our Onkyo receiver for surround sound. I don't have anywhere to put my center speaker so I changed the tv speakers to be the center speaker. However, the sound from the tv does not sound like it is in unison with the rest of my speakers, it almost sounds like my surround speakers are a split second behind the tv speakers and it almost echoes. I am using HDMI connections from cable box to tv and an optical connection to my receiver. Is there any way around this? Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks.

What speakers do you own? Have you considered speakers that mount on the wall, like Axioms architecture series?

First off, welcome....

Secondly, you are actually running in to 2 issues using your TV speakers for the center channel.

The one that you didn't mention is the timbre matching issue of using completely different speakers for the center vs. your other speakers. That means that you will have an ununified sound stage.

The other is a delay issue that you mention. Are you saying that there is a delay between your TV and the surround speakers behind you, or to the right and left speakers? There should be settings on the receiver to adjust for the surround delay. Another factor could be the difference between the two audio paths. If it is a delay between your TV and the right and left speakers, than that may be what is causing the problem.

So I guess a little more clarity on the problem would be helpful, but this should get you started.

Busy day at work for you too Sirquack?

This will not be exactly correct, but it should give you a rough idea of what's happening. I'll leave it to those with more technical understanding to explain it exactly.

It would be helpful to know exactly how your TV is hooked up to perform as a center channel. I can't see how you could get the center channel signal from the receiver to the TV, so I'm assuming you are simply using the normal stereo sound from the TV speakers as a pseudo center channel, and adding the sound from the speakers connected to your receiver to provide the surround sound.

If so, what you probably are experiencing is the difference in time it takes your TV and your receiver to process the audio signal. One is doing the processing slightly faster than the other and, to the best of my knowledge, there is no fix for this.

Edit: I sound like an echo!

Thanks for the info. I suspect there is nothing I can do about this and I will have to go back to my center speaker with my surround system (ugh!! takes up more room).

It is a delay between the tv speakers and the right/left. The center (or tv speakers in this case) I thought should be primarily speaking/voices and the right/left should be background sounds, however, my right/left also have the same voices/sounds as the center (although slightly muted) which is where the echo is coming from. Also, my tv audio setup has the ability to assign the tv speakers as a center channel so the tv is not communicating at all with my receiver. All audio communication to the receiver comes from the cable box. Does this sound like a difference in the time it takes the 2 separate devices to process the audio signal...which I can do nothing about? If this is the case, why is it even an option on the tv to make it the center channel?

Here's another separate question. I can no longer get certain audio modes on my receiver (i.e. DSP modes) when using the cable audio input...is that because I have a hi-def (optical cable) connection/signal for that input? If I want to use a DSP mode would I have to have a separate (non-optical) input?

Thanks again.

Yep, cruising Monster.com and Axiom looking for that dream job.