Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Tuning timbre of center channel of vp150

Maybe I am hearing something different, but when I listen to the pink noise going from my left front to my center to my right front, the sound changes to a higher pitch. Aren't they supposed to be the same? Also I know my reciever (yamaha 5790) has individual equalizers built in that I can play with, but I would have no idea what frequencies to move around to make them match. How do I do this or am I just nuts? My center is sitting on top of my tv which is about 2 feet higher than my right and left front. My fronts are m60's Also what settings do most of you run you system at?
Crossover
Front mains(large or small)
Processing sound fields? (Dolby digital) straight?

I am still learning but I have the avia disk and have been noticing a few things here and there learning as I go. I love my system that is for sure. I just wish I was better at tuning it in. I absolutely LOVE my Ep 500. My soon to be wife isn't all that pleased with it, maybe cause it vibrates the house from the basement. Well, thanks for any help you can give me.

Play with how the VP150 is locaTed on the TV, ie pull it out so it overhangs the TV etc.. -- that makes a big difference. Also if you have any surfaces above or beside the center channel that will make some difference.

I noticed a VERY large difference between M60 and VP100 which turned out to be a blown tweeter in the M60, but that is not the norm

Keep in mind that even two identical speakers will sound different depending on where in the room they are located. Unless your room is a circle and all the speakers are located equidistant from your ears and the walls, then pink noise test tones won't all sound the same.

Yesterday I took 150 off of the tv and put it on a very technical piece of equipment in front of the tv. I put it on a laudry basket to see if that would make it seem better. It definitely made the voices sound like they were coming from the person on screen instead of a speaker off the screen. I did not run the pink noise test though. How much of a difference will i notice by correcting this? Where do you find a stand that is small that can sit in front of a big tv like mine? Hitachi Ultravision 65 s500. Also how do you keep a sub from sounding boomy. I like hearing low subsonics that is for sure, but I don't want a muddy mess. How do I make it so I minimize this effect?

In reply to:

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Where do you find a stand that is small that can sit in front of a big tv like mine?

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Racks And Stands

Stands And Mounts

You'll find they carry a lot of the same stands, but look for the one that has best price on the stand you like.

There are other places to find center channel speaker stands. Once you find the stand you like, you might do a google search to see if you find it for less somewhere else.

You could also disconnect the center and connect the center channel to one of the left/right mains and see how the pink noise sounds. And/or, hook the VP150 in place of one of the left or rights and listen. That will tell you whether the equalization is messing it up or if it is a response difference.

-Brian n8wrl

As per Alan, the pink noise test is not particularly representative of how well speakers will mesh.



OK, I didn't have anything else to say other than that.

Hi jhunt17,

As pmbuko noted and kcarlile stated so gracefully, that "pink noise is not especially representative of how well your center and front speakers will blend with actual movie soundtracks or music," it must be emphasized that pink noise is a brutally revealing test signal.

Pink noise is so revealing of any slight deviations in frequency response, whether caused by your room, interference effects, nearby boundaries, or problems intrinsic to the speaker, that two or three identical speakers in the same room will never have identical timbral signatures with pink noise. That's because a pink-noise signal contains equal energy per octave across the audible spectrum. But when we listen to musical works or movie soundtracks, that never occurs. Content in each octave varies all the time. You can confirm that if you look at any real-time graphic display of music or soundtrack playback. So in effect real music and soundtracks are a much less critical "test" signal. We're far more accepting of slight tonal discrepancies in that we rarely notice them.

But the goal is to locate your center and mains so they have a reasonably close tonal match. Then when you play music or movies, the tonal balance is close enough so you get a nice seamless blend.

And yes, you discovered with your scientific laundry basket test, that a center will often sound its best in free space, on a stand away from the face of the TV display. If you can manage a setup like that, excellent. Otherwise, you have to play around with the center location until you get a reasonably good blend with music or movies.

Regards,

Thanks for the information. I was wondering though, if I have to leave the vp 150 ontop of the tv it will be off. I am not an audio afficianado, but I know that each line I have has a separate equalizer. If the the pitch of the vp is higher what frequency bands do I increase or decrease to zone this in, or am I understanding these controls incorrectly?

JH, defining a "higher pitch" is somewhat subjective. My thought would be to first try the 2.5KHz band on your equalizer, but experiment with different bands or combinations of bands to see if you can get an improved result.

Another thought would be to use the "Front" setting on the auto-equalizer to attempt to adjust the other speakers to conform to the mains, if you haven't already tried this.