Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Muddy vocals from center channel

The dialog mix of Avatar is quite good, the dialog itself is rather lacking.

David, as previous replies have indicated, when playing a 5.1 disc which has discrete center and surround channel content, modes such as DPLII, Neo:6 and Neural Surround have no function. They operate on 2-channel material to extract content from the front channels and direct it to the center or surrounds, as appropriate. With the multi-channel disc you were viewing, using Standard mode will play the DD or DTS content, whichever is present.

As to why the vocals were muddy, the location of the center speaker is important. It should be placed so that the tweeters are close to ear level, or are tilted so as to point toward the ears. It shouldn't be recessed, but rather should extend a fraction of an inch forward, so as to minimize reflection and diffraction effects. Then, there's the fact that dialog on many movie discs isn't mixed especially well.

Here's the instructions, according to my Pioneer AVR.

While listening to a source, press [RECEIVER], then press [STANDARD] (Standard Surround). If necessary press repeatedly to select a listening mode.

If the source is Dolby Digital, DTS, or Dolby Surround encoded, the proper decoding format will automatically be selected and shows in the display.

With two channel sources, you can select from (see note 5):
Pro Logic IIx Movie - Up to 7.1
Pro Logic IIx Music - Up to 7.1
Pro Logic IIx Game - Up to 7.1
Pro Logic - 4.1 (Mono sound from the surround)
Neo:6 Cinema - 7.1
Neo:6 Music - 7.1
Neural THX - Up to 7.1

With Multi-Channel sources, if you have connected surround back speakers(s) and have selected "SBch ON" you can select:
Pro Logic IIx Movie - Up to 7.1
Pro Logic IIx Music - Up to 7.1
Dolby Digitel EX - Creates surround back channel for 5.1.
DTS-ES - Allows you to hear 6.1 with DTS-ES encoded sources.
DTS Neo:6 - Allows you to hear 6.1 with DTS encoded sources.

Note 5: If surround back channel processing is switched OFF or the surround back speakers are set to NO, Pro Logic IIx becomes Pro Logic II (5.1 channel sound)

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I'm a little confused, because I always have it set on standard Neo:6 Cinema (which is still standard), but no matter what I play, it never does any automatic switching, it seems, because the display always says Neo:6 Cinema. Possibly because I don't have any surround speakers.

It doesn't do automatic switching when you specify a surround mode, you have to put it in Auto mode. There should be a button on the remote labeled "Auto/Direct", that will toggle between auto surround mode, and the minimal processing mode, "Direct".

Looks like it's time to set up two more buttons on my Harmony 1100 that will allow me to toggle between auto and Neo:6 Cinema.

I'll have to look at the setup for standard Dolby and DTS. This receiver hasn't been the easiest unit to operate.