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Ryuga Death posted:Hi, I have a Denon S660H connected with a left, center, and right speaker. I've been watching a few movies over the past few days and notice the dialogue can be a bit quiet compared to the music and action scenes. What setting should I be changing, if any, to make dialogue a bit easier to hear? I know my Denon has an option called Dialog Enhancer, but googling also leads to some results talking about Dynamic Compression and then there's some other option there called Dialog Control. Is this a sudden change? Might there be something wrong with the output to/of one of your speakers (maybe the center channel)?
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Dec 27, 2022 18:27
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Ok Comboomer posted:Is this a sudden change? Might there be something wrong with the output to/of one of your speakers (maybe the center channel)? I just got this all set up within the past month and only started watching movies on it the past few days. I just noticed how much louder music and action stuff was compared to dialog. Is that normal? I watched Home Alone 1 and 2 and Jurassic Park 1 on standard bluray.
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Dec 27, 2022 18:33
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So I'm looking to do the best I reasonably can to soundproof the floor of my living room to better suppress the sound going into the downstairs family unit. I live on the top floor of a two family house and have permission to basically do whatever I want but I'm not investing money into putting in a new ceiling downstairs or an entirely new floor in my room. As it is I have a hardwood floor. So will it materially help suppress sound going downstairs by putting down carpet? And if so is there a preferred type of carpet, or some type of two layer solution for this exact thing?
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Dec 27, 2022 18:45
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Ok Comboomer posted:a pair of 305s will def do the job, but any reason you’re not just getting a receiver+pair of passive speakers? Like you said, the man is 75. It was the closest setup I could find to what he wanted; didn't realize how important the wirelessness was to him. There's no good place to put a receiver where they'll be used / he says he wants the option to move them to a different room easily (  says he never will but that's neither here nor there). It appears the issue with a wire between them is some questionable speaker placements he had in mind.He's good with computers but never quite made the leap to smartphones. Bluetooth he can manage, but having to configure things / muck about with apps would def get in the way for him for simple audio playback.
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Dec 27, 2022 18:47
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:It was the closest setup I could find to what he wanted; didn't realize how important the wirelessness was to him. There's no good place to put a receiver where they'll be used / he says he wants the option to move them to a different room easily ( Sounds like he wants portable speakers then.
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Dec 27, 2022 19:12
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Ryuga Death posted:I just got this all set up within the past month and only started watching movies on it the past few days. I just noticed how much louder music and action stuff was compared to dialog. Is that normal? I watched Home Alone 1 and 2 and Jurassic Park 1 on standard bluray. Same problem here, also 3.0 setup, but Denon S760H. From everything I've read, some shows/movies are just mixed with action scenes and music way louder than dialogue. Seems like both those options may be useful, dynamic compression and dialog enhancer?
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Dec 27, 2022 20:09
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pmchem posted:Same problem here, also 3.0 setup, but Denon S760H. From everything I've read, some shows/movies are just mixed with action scenes and music way louder than dialogue. Problem is I don't know which would be better and at what level i should be setting them at. Scared of messing up and there's no real good explanation for what they exactly do. I also did the mic set up audeyssey thing and it turned on dynamic EQ which may or may not be good?
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Dec 27, 2022 20:12
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I’m home for the holidays and celebrating my new tradition: failing to convince my mom to get bookshelf speakers to replace the tiny home-theater-in-a-box speakers my parents are using right now. Sadly, she insists having “giant speakers” would be ugly, and I can’t really gainsay her— I don’t think they’d be ugly, but it’s clearly a matter of taste. Different strokes!
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Dec 27, 2022 20:25
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There’s a bunch of good powered speakers more friendly for home use than monitors with remote controls and the like, look into Kanto, Aperion, Fluance, Edifier, etc. That way he won’t need 3 power cords and a separate preamp.
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Dec 27, 2022 20:29
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Ryuga Death posted:Problem is I don't know which would be better and at what level i should be setting them at. Scared of messing up and there's no real good explanation for what they exactly do. When you play stuff does it show Dolby Surround or something like that on the receiver? Dolby tends to be mixed to have a lower dialogue level so you have to turn it up so when explosions happen, you get the big loud effect. Dynamic compression basically evens stuff out so you can hear dialog better without having to turn up the volume, it's sometimes called Night Mode. It's good if you're in an apartment or just want to be able to hear dialog more easily. mfcrocker posted:I think most stuff mentioned here has been around the right price point except the NAD C 700 - am I actually going to need HDMI eARC? Animale fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Dec 27, 2022 |
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Dec 27, 2022 21:33
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Animale posted:When you play stuff does it show Dolby Surround or something like that on the receiver? Dolby tends to be mixed to have a lower dialogue level so you have to turn it up so when explosions happen, you get the big loud effect. I never paid much attention to the receiver when the movies were on. I'll do that next time. I do live in an apartment building. I just noticed I linked to the wrong web manual. My actual receiver has an option for something called Dynamic Comp. which I assume is the same thing you're talking about. It seems to be off by default but if I turned it on, what should I put it at? Auto, Low, Medium, or High? There's also something called Loudness Management that seems to depend on Dynamic Comp.
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Dec 27, 2022 22:15
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:So I'm looking to do the best I reasonably can to soundproof the floor of my living room to better suppress the sound going into the downstairs family unit. I live on the top floor of a two family house and have permission to basically do whatever I want but I'm not investing money into putting in a new ceiling downstairs or an entirely new floor in my room. As it is I have a hardwood floor. So will it materially help suppress sound going downstairs by putting down carpet? And if so is there a preferred type of carpet, or some type of two layer solution for this exact thing? It depends on if you're just trying to dampen it a bit or actually "soundproof" it. There are two ways sound can get from your speakers to downstairs - through the speaker's base into the floor and from the air to the floor/walls. You can pretty much eliminate the first with the right stands/mounts/a yoga mat. The second is gonna be basically impossible to do much about. A rug/heavy curtains/bass trap can reduce echoing and help a bit (as well as make the sound better for you), but soundproofing basically requires physically decoupling the room via special fasteners, double drywall, etc.
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Dec 28, 2022 16:16
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Ryuga Death posted:Hi, I have a Denon S660H connected with a left, center, and right speaker. I've been watching a few movies over the past few days and notice the dialogue can be a bit quiet compared to the music and action scenes. What setting should I be changing, if any, to make dialogue a bit easier to hear? I know my Denon has an option called Dialog Enhancer, but googling also leads to some results talking about Dynamic Compression and then there's some other option there called Dialog Control. See, the “proper” way to watch a movie is to set the volume so you can hear the dialog clearly in quiet scenes. And then during loud scenes, you sit back and enjoy the loud sounds and be wowed by the marvels of modern technology etc. So, I mean, that’s why there is a big difference in volume. It’s called dynamic range and it’s what gets a cinema audience to go nuts. For at-home viewing in an apartment, yeah, use the dynamic compression if you don’t want to be the obnoxiously loud neighbor. It should do the job. What it does is reduce the dynamic range of the track, usually by lowering the peaks.
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Dec 29, 2022 14:24
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I boost my center channel by +3.5db to compensate for the quiet dialogue issue. I have a Yamaha but it looks like you can do it in the Denon as well under manual speaker setup.
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Dec 29, 2022 18:48
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Yeah that’s usually the best solution since only dialogue comes out of the center generally it won’t screw anything else up.
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Dec 29, 2022 18:53
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Dogen posted:Yeah that’s usually the best solution since only dialogue comes out of the center generally it won’t screw anything else up. Is this sarcasm? Because typically 80% or more of surround audio is sent to the center channel. Basically everything that isn’t music or specific surround effects. It’s why if you have one its positioning and room acoustics are by far the most important.
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Dec 29, 2022 22:12
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Sorry I forget sometimes people aren’t long time readers of this thread, yes. We’ve just had this conversation like a trillion times.
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Dec 29, 2022 22:36
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Dogen posted:Sorry I forget sometimes people aren’t long time readers of this thread, yes. We’ve just had this conversation like a trillion times. if there's good advice to be had, perhaps the 7 year old OP could be updated. it says "The next most important speaker is the center channel. Practically all speech gets reproduced there: if you can't hear what people are saying it's a pain to watch a movie." -- which to a non-bookmarked thread visitor, would make it seem like adjusting center volume is a good way to go. a lot of shows and movies are mixed like poo poo and being able to consistently hear stuff without adjusting volume is a really common problem
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Dec 30, 2022 00:27
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My receiver has pretty much crapped out after almost 15 years and I've been using a lovely mismatched bookshelf 3.1 setup except the sub stopped working a few years ago and I'm going to start from scratch. I also just got a new media unit that doesn't really have space for a receiver so it's time to make some choices. The options I'm considering are a) Soundbar (Sonos Arc maybe?) b) small stereo amp 2.1 setup c) powered speaker 2.1 setup Does anyone have any thoughts on the pros and cons of these? I just want to watch tv and movies and have it sound halfway decent. When I was younger I had more patience for loving around with home theatre and maybe someday if I get a better room for it I will again but for now I just want a setup where I'm not constantly putting my ear next to speakers to make sure they're actually getting sound. I was thinking the soundbar would be the simplest setup but also the most expensive because I don't want a lovely one. The amp would probably be the most cost effective but also the most moving parts. And then the powered speakers with sub out would maybe be the sort of middle of the road choice. The Sonos Arc is polarizing too, some reviews say it sounds great and others say it sounds awful. Obviously everyone in the Home Theatre/Audiophile community is still scandalized by soundbars so I don't know how much that plays into it. But it's really expensive and adding a sub almost doubles the price, and then I'm locked into the Sonos world (I don't own any other Sonos gear) Not sure what the right move is here.
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Dec 30, 2022 07:21
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Need a budget and what country you live in to give more specific recommendations, but, in general... 2.1 with a stereo amp powering passive stereo speakers and an active sub will be the best bang for your buck and provide the best flexibility for future upgrades/changes in your desire for HT sound 2.1 with active speakers and sub can potentially sound as good as the above but can cost a lot more to get comparable sound depending on the price point A soundbar is easy to set up but will not compare to even the most basic 2.1 in terms of sound quality, though it will still be an obvious upgrade over TV speakers
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Dec 30, 2022 16:30
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prom candy posted:My receiver has pretty much crapped out after almost 15 years and I've been using a lovely mismatched bookshelf 3.1 setup except the sub stopped working a few years ago and I'm going to start from scratch. I also just got a new media unit that doesn't really have space for a receiver so it's time to make some choices. The options I'm considering are The IOTA SA-3 amp I mentioned above-thread is nice and compact. It should fit in a lot of shelves too narrow for an AV receiver. 50 WPC at 8 ohms plus subwoofer out, expandable to 100 if you can fit a PA-3 into the unit/your budget.
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Dec 30, 2022 17:13
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aparmenideanmonad posted:Need a budget and what country you live in to give more specific recommendations, but, in general... Canada, and maybe $500-700 without sub? I think my subwoofer works and it's my receiver that stopped sending audio to it. Because of my setup I can only really support bookshelf speakers and they can't be taller than about 10.5" (unless it's okay to put them on their side instead, can't seem to find a straight answer on that.) Speakers or an amp that can be controlled from my LG TV's magic remote would be awesome too. Ok Comboomer posted:The IOTA SA-3 amp I mentioned above-thread is nice and compact. It should fit in a lot of shelves too narrow for an AV receiver. 50 WPC at 8 ohms plus subwoofer out, expandable to 100 if you can fit a PA-3 into the unit/your budget. Good suggestion but I think this is more than I want to spend on a receiver. It also seems like if I go into stereo amp territory I can get something a lot smaller.
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Dec 30, 2022 18:09
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Also the speakers I currently have are the Polk Audio T300 that I picked up used a few years ago. I haven't been blown away by them but that might be because I'm running them with a mismatched centre channel and no sub. Not sure how they'd do in a 2.1 setup. And also with my new media unit they'd need to run on their side or else they'll block the TV a bit.
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Dec 30, 2022 18:23
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prom candy posted:Good suggestion but I think this is more than I want to spend on a receiver. It also seems like if I go into stereo amp territory I can get something a lot smaller. Unless you’re buying used, going sub-like-$399 for your amp is gonna put you at bottom-tier for amplifiers/receivers. There’s plenty of stuff available, but nothing from a big company is going to be particularly small (Yamaha and Okyo and Sony have a few offerings as cheap as $100 but they put them in the same full-size receiver enclosures that all of their other gear comes in) and I wouldn’t really encourage you to run your setup off of a Lepai or random Chinese class D desktop amp or whatever. You could do something like 2x JBL 305s or ADAM T5V but then you’ve got two amplifiers that have to work together, which I don’t really consider a great value option when the failure of one often means replacing both.
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Dec 30, 2022 19:02
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I know I'm in the minority but there are some pretty good sound bars out there today for not a ton of money. I have a full 5.1 setup in our game room/second living room and a TCL Alto 8 3.1.2 Atmos soundbar in our main living room and honestly the sound bar gets the job done for 98% of what I want to watch. Before the TCL I had a basic Yamaha YAS-107 sound bar with no subwoofer and it was better than the TV speakers, but it was only like 99 bucks I think. I grabbed the TCL on Walmart clearance for like half price so I took a chance on it and liked it enough to keep it. My biggest issue with the soundbar is I can't tweak the sound like I can with my Yamaha receiver. Poorly mixed audio on TV shows (especially anything live like a music award show) I end up dropping to stereo mode. The soundbar does a really good job with properly mixed surround sound audio though. I've watched a fair bit of movies during the holidays and it handles I think sound bars work out great where you don't have the space, or necessarily want a full surround sound system (partner acceptance factor, complication of setup etc), and the newer ones sound really good. Everything sounds better than built in TV speakers though. I'd try one from a place with a decent return policy and if you hate it go in a different direction
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Dec 30, 2022 19:10
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Ok Comboomer posted:Unless you’re buying used, going sub-like-$399 for your amp is gonna put you at bottom-tier for amplifiers/receivers. There’s plenty of stuff available, but nothing from a big company is going to be particularly small (Yamaha and Okyo and Sony have a few offerings as cheap as $100 but they put them in the same full-size receiver enclosures that all of their other gear comes in) and I wouldn’t really encourage you to run your setup off of a Lepai or random Chinese class D desktop amp or whatever. What's the benefit of a receiver vs a simple stereo+sub amp for a 2.1 setup? Is it a power/loudness issue?
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Dec 30, 2022 19:19
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prom candy posted:Because of my setup I can only really support bookshelf speakers and they can't be taller than about 10.5" (unless it's okay to put them on their side instead, can't seem to find a straight answer on that.) Yes, it’s OK to put the bookshelf speakers on their sides. It won’t compromise sound reproduction. In fact, I have a similar problem and I run one speaker standing and one lying down. You may want to try to put them at the same height, or as near as can get.
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Dec 30, 2022 19:23
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prom candy posted:What's the benefit of a receiver vs a simple stereo+sub amp for a 2.1 setup? Is it a power/loudness issue? For these purposes they’re both essentially the same thing. Unless you’re looking at a superbasic power amp/plate amp/something meant more for pro or installation purposes. You’re going to want volume/gain control and probably at least one or two inputs, preferably digital. I haven’t suggested any AV surround receivers to you. Everything I’ve mentioned is 2.0/2.1. “Receiver” vs “amp” is largely marketingspeak unless you’re specifically talking about AV receivers or power amps with no onboard preamplifier/input switcher.
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Dec 30, 2022 19:30
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The biggest downside to using cheap Chinese amps is flexibility. Specifically, as far as I know none of them do bass management/crossover properly like an AV receiver does, even the ones with a subwoofer output. This matters because if you can take the load of reproducing deep bass off of the amp it gives more headroom to the higher frequencies. This is more important with smaller speakers because they tend to be less efficient. IMO the best value going right now is used mid to high end pre-2.1 receivers, but those are large and complicated to set up. You get a lot of bang for your buck with Topping/SMSL/etc. but they tend to do literally one thing so as long as you understand that you might not be able to use your TV remote or add a sub easily, etc. there's nothing wrong with them. skipdogg posted:I think sound bars work out great where you don't have the space, or necessarily want a full surround sound system (partner acceptance factor, complication of setup etc), and the newer ones sound really good. Everything sounds better than built in TV speakers though. I'd try one from a place with a decent return policy and if you hate it go in a different direction qirex fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Dec 30, 2022 |
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Dec 30, 2022 20:07
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prom candy posted:Because of my setup I can only really support bookshelf speakers and they can't be taller than about 10.5" (unless it's okay to put them on their side instead, can't seem to find a straight answer on that.) It really depends on what you are listening to and your listening position, but no it's not ideal. The only speakers I would suggest laying horizontally are ones with coaxial drivers like Kef speakers.
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Dec 30, 2022 20:15
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prom candy posted:Canada, and maybe $500-700 without sub? Hmm, not sure if you have access to US deals, but 2x KEF Q150 bookshelf speakers on their side would be a big upgrade from your T300s and they're 50% off at $300USD/pair at best buy and other retailers right now. Use the rest of the budget on whichever receiver and remote setup meets your needs - getting something that's 2.1, can take your TV remote's volume controls, and also not be a huge boxy AVR may be the hardest part of this.
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Dec 30, 2022 21:06
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qirex posted:The biggest downside to using cheap Chinese amps is flexibility. Specifically, as far as I know none of them do bass management/crossover properly like an AV receiver does, even the ones with a subwoofer output. This matters because if you can take the load of reproducing deep bass off of the amp it gives more headroom to the higher frequencies. This is more important with smaller speakers because they tend to be less efficient. Easily adding a sub is important to me, the other stuff is just nice to have. I really, really don't want a large amp/receiver that I have to fuss around with. I spent so long fooling with my receiver when I originally got it way back when and it's just not something I have the patience for anymore. Especially in the room I'm in now where it's oddly shaped and the seating arrangement isn't good and I don't have room for rear speakers. Someday I'll finish my basement or move to a different house and get way back into home theatre but for now I just don't think I'm gonna reap the benefits. It sounds to me like since I already own some passive speakers and a sub getting one of these class D amps with optical in and sub out is probably going to be my best bet for what I'm looking for and give me better sound than spending the same amount or more on a soundbar.
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Dec 30, 2022 21:45
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aparmenideanmonad posted:Hmm, not sure if you have access to US deals Nope but these will give me something to look at upgrading to down the road. I just realized I have some smaller passive speakers at my desk setup so I can probably swap those with the T300s and run them vertically for the TV for now. Controlling the amp with the TV remote is just a nice to have, I could never get it going with my old receiver anyway. It sounds like LG is capable of hitting a lot of different IR devices though so maybe, but if not we're used to having a lot of remotes around already.
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Dec 30, 2022 21:49
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I'm pretty sure Accessories 4 Less ships most items to Canada as well.
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Dec 30, 2022 21:54
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Just looked it up and the speakers I've been using at my desk are Tesla ARS 908s. Made in Czechoslovakia in 1975 lol.
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Dec 30, 2022 22:51
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aparmenideanmonad posted:Hmm, not sure if you have access to US deals, but 2x KEF Q150 bookshelf speakers on their side would be a big upgrade from your T300s and they're 50% off at $300USD/pair at best buy and other retailers right now. Use the rest of the budget on whichever receiver and remote setup meets your needs - getting something that's 2.1, can take your TV remote's volume controls, and also not be a huge boxy AVR may be the hardest part of this. The Q150s are 450 CAD at visions.ca with free shipping. They seem to fluctuate between 450 and 500 CAD when "on sale". KillHour posted:I'm pretty sure Accessories 4 Less ships most items to Canada as well. The few times I did check, they wanted an exorbitant fee for shipping to Canada. e: And just double checking, they want $573.52 USD for shipping a pair of Q150s to Toronto. No, that's not the total cost including shipping. That is just just for shipping.  The grand total is $873.52 USD.
CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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Dec 31, 2022 01:39
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prom candy posted:Easily adding a sub is important to me, the other stuff is just nice to have. I really, really don't want a large amp/receiver that I have to fuss around with. I spent so long fooling with my receiver when I originally got it way back when and it's just not something I have the patience for anymore. Especially in the room I'm in now where it's oddly shaped and the seating arrangement isn't good and I don't have room for rear speakers. Someday I'll finish my basement or move to a different house and get way back into home theatre but for now I just don't think I'm gonna reap the benefits. There shouldn’t be very much fussing with a 2 channel receiver/amp. Just plug in your speakers, set your input and turn on/off + volume up/down. Those ultrabudget class D amps can be a bit jankier sounding than you might anticipate.
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Dec 31, 2022 01:55
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i hope someone finds this as entertaining as it was absolutely terrifying for me. I've had this onkyo tx-nr535 since april 2015. it got hit by lightning around this time last year, frying all but 1 HDMI input. we haven't replaced the fried gadgets and have been getting by with the 1 functional input by just continuing to use a PC. for as long as we've had it, we've kept it "on," i.e., powered up & not in standby after use. early this morning while we were still fast asleep the center channel suddenly started blasting complete garbage at volume 60. it sounded kind of like coarse static combined with a ~200 Hz square wave tone. very jarring and angry-sounding! if it had been all 5 channels (or even more than that one) I probably would have died from an MI before figuring out WTF was happening in my still addled semi-conscious state. since the one wacky channel was directly in front of me with nothing else close by it was the only possible source of the racket. i pulled the speaker leads from the thing ending the noise, though i imagined that i could hear the receiver still making a new noise. because of the bizarre flakiness of this particular receiver ever since i've had it, it's powered via a sonoff wifi relay so that alexa/home assistant can power cycle it for me when it goes to lunch. i asked alexa to turn it off and read twitter until my endocrine response titred down and allowed me to go back to sleep. anybody ever heard of that happening before? if this thing is possessed or dying, what should I look to replace it with? i just want a solid 5.1 receiver with HDMI inputs.
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Dec 31, 2022 02:37
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Turns out my dad had an SMSL Q5 Pro just sitting unused at his house so it's mine now. Got it set up with those Tesla speakers but they don't sound great so I'll probably blow the budget on some better ones. Also my subwoofer is definitely messed up. The SMSL also works well with my tv remote for volume up/down.
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Dec 31, 2022 02:43
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Ok Comboomer posted:Those ultrabudget class D amps can be a bit jankier sounding than you might anticipate. When you say jankier sounding what do you mean?
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Dec 31, 2022 05:17
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