How to increase bass clarity from center channel speaker?

[flycaster]

...In the OPs case increasing the center volume makes the bass bloat worse.

My best suggestion is that he pulls that speaker as far away from the wall and boundaries as possible.

I think you may be on to something. The Center is away from walls, but it is within my entertainment center-behind a solid mask with a speaker screen cut-out which hopefully allows the sound out. In other words, the Center is in a mostly closed cabinet-bad news, eh? Aside from trying the other suggestions, I will also lower the Center's level to match that of the Mains.

 

[j_garcia]

EQ may help some, but I agree with what TLS said - you may want to raise the x-over to 100Hz or 120Hz on the center to see if it helps. I used to own a CC170 and I ran it with an 80hz x-over and it did OK, but it is not one of Paradigm's better center speakers. I actually upgraded from the Performance line because of the limitations of that center (kept the Titans as surrounds).

*edit - your problem is almost certainly that you have it basically sitting inside another box. 1) lift it up off the shelf it is on a bit, slightly angled up (or down if it is above you) at the front. 2) Pull it as far forward in the space that it is set in as possible. 3) Possibly plug the port, since a rear ported speaker inside an enclosed shelf is almost the worst possible situation.

 

[flycaster]

EQ may help some, but I agree with what TLS said - you may want to raise the x-over to 100Hz or 120Hz on the center to see if it helps. I used to own a CC170 and I ran it with an 80hz x-over and it did OK, but it is not one of Paradigm's better center speakers. I actually upgraded from the Performance line because of the limitations of that center (kept the Titans as surrounds).

*edit - your problem is almost certainly that you have it basically sitting inside another box.

Unfortunately, I may have to agree about the "box" situation as I can't change the physical placement of the Center. Also, when you say raise the x-over to 100/120, this will occur for the Mains too as these speakers don't have indiviual adjustments?

 

[theJman]

EQ may help some, but I agree with what TLS said - you may want to raise the x-over to 100Hz or 120Hz on the center to see if it helps.

Don't you mean the opposite? By raising the crossover the subwoofer is being used more, making the "chesty" problem even worse. It's better for the crossover to be lowered, to minimize it's impact in the 80Hz range.

 

[j_garcia]

Unfortunately, I may have to agree about the "box" situation as I can't change the physical placement of the Center. Also, when you say raise the x-over to 100/120, this will occur for the Mains too as these speakers don't have indiviual adjustments?

Looking at the manual it appears to say the x-over is NOT adjustable (pg 37). When set to small, the x-over is fixed at 90 for the center and oddly enough (unless it is a typo) 88Hz for the mains as he stated earlier. So I don't think this is an option.

Don't you mean the opposite? By raising the crossover the subwoofer is being used more, making the "chesty" problem even worse. It's better for the crossover to be lowered, to minimize it's impact in the 80Hz range.

That's going to depend on the sub, and unfortunately we are talking about a PDR-10, but the center getting "congested" would seem to indicate too much bass below the tuning. Yes, offloading it to the sub may create a different issue. It appears it can't be adjusted though.

 

[Grador]

Don't you mean the opposite? By raising the crossover the subwoofer is being used more, making the "chesty" problem even worse. It's better for the crossover to be lowered, to minimize it's impact in the 80Hz range.

If the issue is the ported speaker in a tight space, raising the crossover is the correct solution. If the issue is the subwoofer, it will make it worse. If the OP had shut off the subwoofer and reported back it would be easier to tell which it is.

 

[twoeyedbob]

Summed up well

Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk 2

 

[TLS Guy]

I think you may be on to something. The Center is away from walls, but it is within my entertainment center-behind a solid mask with a speaker screen cut-out which hopefully allows the sound out. In other words, the Center is in a mostly closed cabinet-bad news, eh? Aside from trying the other suggestions, I will also lower the Center's level to match that of the Mains.

That is a horrible situation, especially for a rear ported speaker. You will have very poor voice clarity with an arrangement like that. You have to pull the center out of that cabinet.

If you must have it in the cabinet, pull the drivers and fill the interior with Polyfill and then put a stopper in the port. The center will then have no bass, I'm guessing it will raise F3 to somewhere between 110 and 130 Hz, but speech discrimination will improve.

As far as Eq is concerned, this just about never cures loudspeaker ills, and more often than not makes matters worse. These sorts of problems are all about retained energy. It is absolutely impossible to make a bad speaker sound good with Eq.

 

[flycaster]

OK, think I got it sorted...sort of.

Always set to the SW, never to both. I checked my DCR and it was set at Max (factory setting and something I didn't understand so I had left it when first setting up the unit). But now I have a little better understanding of it. Also, I originally had never touched the Center's GEQ. So here's what I did and I think I have improved the vocal sound quality:

First put on a TV movie that was in DD. Fooled around with varying the the the LFE levels (10a), and really couldn't tell if I was having an effect-but, of course not, as I was listening to dialogue, so left it at its factory setting = 0. Fooled around with DCR (10B) and thought I may have heard a little bit clearer male vocals when set to STD (factory setting was Max). Lastly I lowered the level of the Center to match the Mains, and WOW!, I think I have improved on the male vocals - that is, their bassiness was reduced. I will try the sock in the port if I feel that the unwanted bass is still there.

All this was done while having a DD channel playing a movie; I wonder how it will sound when I get to some of the news channels where I think I'm having the bassiness problem. Will have to listen more to see if this really has helped...nonetheless, I think I'm on it...