Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater First Axiom speakers...first impressions

Hi Crimson,

As Mark has correctly pointed out, dialog is often mixed at too low a level not just for TV shows but movie soundtracks as well. If you are having real trouble understanding dialog using the stereo (no center) mode, I recommend you get a center channel before you get your surrounds.

I routinely run my center channel speaker at +4 or +5 dB louder than the other channels. One of the reasons for low dialog mixes is that the director and sound editors know the actors' dialog backwards--they've been editing and hearing the same scenes over and over during the show or movie's assembly. I was present for a feature movie mix session at the Alfred Hitchcock mixing theater in Hollywood, and it was clear to me at the time that the dialog was not mixed loud enough. All the discussion centered around how loud to mix a crow cawing in one of the surround channels during an outdoor scene. I felt like saying, "Forget about the crow; I can't hear what the actors are saying!"

It's a huge advantage of Dolby Digital to be able to bump the dialog channel up in level, if necessary.

The Vassallo finish you got looks really nice.

Regards,
Alan

Wish there was an easy way to boost the center channel, like a 1 button deal. I guess I should look into faking up a macro on the Harmony.

My reaalllly old Onkyo receiver has a button on the remote for the center channel level. I always liked that feature.

The 2808 and probably most of the Denons give you a button to get immediate access to channel levels. I don't find I need to bump the dialog very often. In some movies with very quiet dialog I occasionaly struggle. Now that I have the Denon its not that hard to bump the dialog.

Ken, my Denon allows me to easily ajust the levels of any of the speakers from the remote, you can't do that?

He is talking about having a single/dedicated button(s) up and down to adjust the centre channel without having to select the channel first.

pretty easy, you hit the "Main" button on the remote twice to get to the center, then go up/down to adjust the levels, not that hard.

Tell that to other people in my house. I want a button that boosts it by, say 3 db and then unboosts it. One press. I don't have a problem doing it, but...

Oh boy, do I know how ya feel.

Let me be clear: we shouldn't have to press 6 buttons to improve dialog. There should be a button to do that. Sure, we can, but why should we have to?