Last night I was watching Natural Born Killers and I noticed the dialog was kinda low. I have calibrated my system (I will re-calibrate anyway) and I have my VP150 on top of my entertainment center with the rubber door stoppers angling it towards the listening position. I have done everything short of getting a laser pointer to aim the center towards the listening position. Now I know that a lot of these Dolby Digital movies have a wide sound range and sometimes certain movies just have lower dialog then others. However, this drives me nuts. It almost makes the movie unbearable. My only conlcusion is that my room dimensions really kill the sound from the center channel. Unfortunately, my system is in the main living room making wall treatments pretty impossible. I know this is a popular problem and I was wondering if anyone has come up with any feasible solutions? As I said before, I will recalibrate using sound and vision and also go through the dvd player menu as well as the receiver menu to see if some sort of setting is on that shouldn't be.

Jason

I've never seen Natural Born Killers, but my VP150 has always been crisp-clear when it comes to the dialog. A couple of basic questions just to make sure we aren't missing anything obvious:

(1) You've correctly set the distance (delay) for the center channel, right?
(2) Are you using the THX processing on the receiver? THX significantly rolls-off the treble, possibly affecting the clarity of the dialog.

It's been awhile since I checked the distance but I will re-check it. I added a Parasound monoblock a few months ago and it is THX certified. Think that might be the difference?

Jason

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I added a Parasound monoblock a few months ago

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Did you use an SPL to calibrate the gain after doing so?

(nice choice btw)

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it is THX certified. Think that might be the difference?

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That's not what Sushi is talking about. There's a difference between THX processing which attempts to adapt the signal to THX's preferences for audio and THX certification which is just a guarantee that the particular product holds up to THX's quality standards.

The fact that the amp is THX certified won't play a part in this. Your receiver, on the other hand, may include THX processing in which case some of the trebble may be rolled off by the receiver in an attempt to keep Lucas happy.

It may be that you just prefer louder voice data than the movies were engineered with. In this case, you could boost the center gain in order to lift that channel above the others to a degree that pleases you.

Just when ya think ya gotta handle on stuff......My receiver is a Denon 3802 and is not THX certified. Like I said I have to go through and re-calibrate check settings, get some 3 and 1 oil, some gauze, and ball bearings. It's probably just the Fetzer valve. Maybe I need a refresher course.

J

LOL, J.

Sorry I didn't get here sooner - I was going to suggest the Fetzer valve. If that doesn't work, some duct tape will fix that right up.

Tom Tuttle from Tacoma...scary that we think alike.

Okay, here's what I did. I got out my trusty tape measure and checked all my distances for the delay time. Sure enough they wer off by a foot or 2. After adjusting that I broke out my trusty Rat Shack sound meter and calibrated using the sound and vision disk. Normally I just use the internal test tones of my 3802. I'll be damned if each speaker wasn't off on the low side by 2-3 db. I adjusted each speaker accordingly. then I threw in NBK again it id made a slight difference. I am convinced that movie is just a bad mix. I double checked with X Men, the Rock and LOTR.They all sounded much better from a dialog standpoit. LOTR qas absolutely amazing. The dialog was sweet but the soundstage blew me away. I still felt that the dialog was a bit tinny so I went to the tone controls and bumped the bass up two settings and it sounded much more natural. The biggest improvement was watching tv. Normally I would not use the PLII for tv because it just didn't sound right. Now it sounds amazing. I will be watching more tv in PLII

J

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I added a Parasound monoblock a few months ago



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Did you use an SPL to calibrate the gain after doing so?

(nice choice btw)

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Why dont you just buy one already.

http://show.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/sh.pl?ampsmult&1057978210&item&Audiovault&4&5&6&http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fs_srch.plQQANYAAAApurlsrchAAEXYAAst26AAAAAAparasound

Because I just bought a 73" Mitsubishi!

Nice!

And... how much did you pay for that tiny little 73", Semi?

About $3600...

Thats a nice Panny L300 front projector and a 100" Dalite 16:9 High power screen.

plus investment into a solution for blocking out the windows in a house I don't own...

Us non-home-owners need to stick together and wallow in our collective misery.

You need to calibrate with an SPL meter, and sometimes you may need to adjust "on the fly" with action movies. Soundtrack recording is getting much better, but even releases from 1-2 years ago (Star Wars I as a glaring example) were just brutal for soft dialogue channels.

If you don't want to spring for an SPL meter, you can also try setting the mains at -2 to -3 dB and turning up the overall gain.

It's ALL ball bearings nowadays!!

I have a thought on blocking light if you're interested...

Yes, I am interested, even if Semi isn't.

I did calibrate with an SPL meter. I found there was a major difference between calibrating with a disk as opposed to internal test tones. Go figure....

J

Exxxxxcellent choice, if I do say so myself.. :> I'm pretty sure that one comes with the HD receiver, correct ? Gives you the best of both worlds; DVD 'AND' HighDef broadcasts..
You have cable or sat ? I'm running my HD via a roof top antenna and love it..

The Diamond comes with a built in receiver, but the Gold Plus (which I have, I think) doesn't.

And yes, I'm interested in thoughts on light blocking.