Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater vp100 too quiet

I have had my epic grand master sytem for about three months now. Watching movies the dialogue in the center (vp100)doesn't seem to be loud enough. I turn up the main volume to hear the movie and then when there is an action seen the surrounds, fronts and bass are almost too loud and I have to turn it down. I calibrated with sound meter ect. and even turned the center cannel volume a little higher than it should be. Our room is only 15x15x8 (square with only two door openings. and the listening position is only about 10 feet back, any comments or should I upgrade to the vp150? wish I would have in the first place. I thought that maybe it was just certain movies but having watched about 50 movies since I got the system, I have the same problem. Thanks.

My first suggestion would be to turn up the center channel even more.

Also, I would make sure the VP100 is on-axis with the main listening area (if above the tv, maybe stick a rubber doorstopper behind the speaker so it points slightly downwards towards your ears. This lo-tech solution and very slight physical adjustment can have a dramatic effect.

Thanks for the suggestion. The center volume is at 9 right now (10 being max) and it should be at 7.5 according to the spm. I also already have it angled downward. Maybe I will just turn it up to 10, I just didn't want to throw off the full surround effect. Thanks

You could also turn your mains, sub and surround down a bit to better obtain a "mix" that's more strongly favoring the center in comparison.

jrmav,

Have you done a full speaker calibration with an SPL meter? Have you tried moving the center forward/2 fronts back a bit? Do you have th ecenter wired correctly to the receievr (blackt o black, red to red)

Yes I have done all of the above except move the center forward/fronts back, maybe I will give that a try and also try turning down the mains, sub, and surrounds a bit as MarkSJohnson recommended, thanks alot.

come on everbody stop giving that crappy advice and tell this man what he really wants to here! you need to upgrade, and fast i would probably do it right now.

LOL......thanks.

I made one amusing mistake when SPL-ing my system -- I stood up in the middle of the room when using the SPL meter but sat down on the periphery of the room when listening to the system and that made a 2-3 dB difference in center channel setting.

Make sure you have the SPL meter in approximately the same place as your ears will be when listening. My first guess is that (a) your center channel needs to be turned up a bit more, and (b) all your settings are high because you have one pair of sensitive ("loud") speakers in the system and have turned everything else up instead of turning those speakers down.

If you're running out of adjustment room just shift everything down the same number of dB. It's all relative anyways. What are the settings on your other channels ?

I stood behind the couch and pointed the SPL up at ear level in the center of the couch. As far as the other settings: FR 8.5, center 9, FL 8.0, Rrear 4.5, Lrear 4.0, sub -2. Thanks I will play with it some more when I get a chance, just looking for some ideas, I really appreciate all of the help!!

A camera tripod helps out big time (as long as your meter has threads). Just set it up in the listening area or sweet spot. I found that it helps me produce more consistent calibrations. Then again, I might be too anal .

If calibrated properly and you still find the transient differences too much you could always just use the compression modes in your amp and set it to Night or Low/Mid/High - which ever you have. This will allow you to turn it up more for your center channel and reduce the volume peaks of action scenes.

There will always be a substantial volume difference between dialogue only and full-on multi-channel assault due to the dynamic nature of the format.

Dave

Ahh, there you go. I would take everything down about 8 dB myself. That will take your sub down to -10dB but that's just natures way of telling you the dial on the front of the sub is set up a bit too high.

If you feel really diligent, adjust the level on your subwoofer (at the sub, not the receiver) down a bit and then recalibrate the sub level in your receiver. All that will do is let your sub setting be in the same range as the other settings, don't think it will make much difference otherwise...

If you don't want to recalibrate, maybe take everything down 5 or 6 dB so the sub isn't right at -10 and you still have some adjustment room.

Anyways, shift everything down, crank the center up a couple more dB and see if that makes your problem go away.

jrmav,

Everyone's advice here is excellent, but I'd also point out that once you've recalibrated downwards so you have more adjustment range for the center, keep in mind that dialog intelligibility is very important, so don't feel you have to keep the center at a particular setting!

With some movies and shows, dialog is mixed too low (the director and mixer have heard the dialog a million times and know it, so sometimes they mix it too low. I hear this in cinemas sometimes.) So just nudge up the center if you can't understand the dialog. I vary my center's level adjustment depending on the movie or program. Most movies are fine, but occasionally, you have to adjust the center.

Regards,

Thanks alot everyone for all the replies. I went through and recallibrated and also tipped the center so it is directed more downward to the listening position and this seemed to help alot. I just watched the movie Troy and it all seemed to blend pretty well. Thanks again!!

Don't get too excited - you haven't seen the bill yet!