Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Using phantom center with M80s

When I tried using the phantom center on my old HK receiver it sounded pretty bad. The dialogue was not as clear or as loud as with the VP-150, and the volume levels had to be compensated. With the way they master the sound in some movies I cant hardly hear what they are saying sometimes, and other parts of the same movie are way too loud.

I agree with you, Big. I use the phantom centre for PLII/Neo modes only.

I’ve watched more movies using the phantom center and can clearly tell that it depends on how the center channel was recorded whether it sounds better or worse to me. Movies like Star Wars 3, and the LOTR movies sound better to me. Star Wars 1 and most others sound worse because the dialog is way too low even with the volume turned up.

On the movies that sound better to me I do have to turn up the volume but not so loud as to be distracting.

For some movies and some games Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for example the phantom center definitely sounds better to me but for most movies it sounds worse. The main thing I’ve learned from this is so far is that I don’t want to get rid of my center speaker I just want it to be another M80.