Dialogue and surround tuning help for Denon AVR 1312 please..

[NewbieDenon]

Hi,
I have recently purchased Denon AVR 1312XP , which consists of AVR1312 receiver and SYS 1312 set of 5.1 speakers.
I like the sub-woofer sound effects, but the front & surround speakers are disappointing, not sure if i am missing any set-up.

av output 110w per channel
speakers output 60-120w

Since this model doesn't have an auto-set up and i couldn't spend extra money on the other sound measuring devices. I would like to get expert advice on the manual set up i have done.

1. Cross-over frequency
- my active sub-woofer range is 35hz - 150hz
- other speakers range is 150hz - 20khz
based on few reading from forums....i have set the speaker size as small and the frequency cross-over as "150hz" for all 5 speakers! (as my understanding is anything less than 150hz is anyways won't be picked by these speakers and goes to sub)
LPF for LPE is set to "150hz" !

earlier i tried cross-over frequency at 80hz ...and LPF for LPE at 120hz....haven't noticed any difference. (setting at 80hz didn't make sense for range 150hz-20khz)

are these set-up correct ?
because though i enjoy the low-frequency effects....i barely hear the surround effects

2. to increase the dialogue volume, i did the following
- increased the source level to +12db
- tried setting the decode to 'DTS' (available options Auto/PCM/DTS) - when set to DTS, most of the movies go to 'mute'. At 'Auto/PCM' mode i see no difference....again low dialogue volume....need to put atleast around 25db...which blows..when action sequence comes up...

3. distance and channel level
- i have used measuring tape to set the exact distance of each speakers and set the channel levels to Sub-3db, front & center 3.5db, surround to 5db.

am i missing or messing any major factor which affects the surround and dialogue levels ?

NOTE: i have been using my laptop as the input device connecting with Belkin HDMI 1.4 and the movies are mostly BDrip played in VLC player and played few original DVDs too.

your guidance is much appreciated.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

1. Given the specs on your speakers (which I also looked up), I agree - set the crossover for the sub at 150 Hz.

2. Have you tried using "Night Mode" to compress the dynamic range between dialogue and loud action scenes? If not, give that a try and see what you think.

3. Regarding the channel levels, did you do that all by ear? If so, that's not a bad way to go, but I'll ask - do you own a smart phone or have any friends with a sound pressure level (SPL) meter? If you have a smart phone, you can download an SPL meter app for free. The ones on phones aren't great for subs because the microphones in the phones don't have great sensitivity at low frequencies, but it should work for your other speakers pretty well.

 

[bobnegi]

Do not know if this applies, but I found with trail and error of towing in all three front speakers made all the difference. My centre channel was not really aimed properly towards the listening position.

Since I aimed the centre correctly, I reduced the centre gain back to 0db from +3.5Db.