Center\Surround channel issues

[Neumee]

Hey everyone,

Well,I just finished setting up my surround system and am having some issues I was hoping to get resolved Before i go to far let me tell you a bit about my set up... The heart of my system is the JVC RX-702B Jensen C-7 Towers Polk T-15 Bookshelves and a Bose VCS-10 Center speaker.

I have a Motorola DVR from Charter and a PS3 both connected Via optical audio into the receiver and they both have HDMI out going to my LG 50" plasma.

Previously my setup was just the reciever and the two floor standing speakers, and honestly, it sounded great, but i needed that surround sound experience. After getting the two rears and center channel hooked up and ready to go, I tested it out... and am extremely disappointed. Let me tell you what i have noticed and done up to this point.

My first issue is with volume. To get the same loudness out of my system as i did with with just the two floor speakers, i need to nearly double my volume setting i used to keep it at. IE Watching TV my reciever volume would be about 11, now i need to turn it up to about 19-20 to hear it properly. This is more an annoyance then anything, as atm I live in an apartment building and cant turn it up to loud anyways...

The more serious issue is my dialogue is HORRIBLE in surround mode. I can barely hear what anyone is saying. As a matter of fact is was so quite that unless i was literally not standing next to it, i couldnt even tell it was on. ( I also have this exact problem with both the rear surrounds. I know they arent made to have an exhorbant amount of sound coming out of them, more for just "extra detail" but i wouldnt think i would need my ear next to them to tell if they were on or not...) so I turn it up, and yes it becomes easier to hear, however the sound doesnt seem to be clear. From what i understand is the center channel is the single most important speaker of a set up, accounting for 50% of what you really should hear. I would say i hear 80% out of my front speakers, and 10 % from my center and 5% from each of the surrounds

To help alleviate the problem i changed the distance settings on my reciever ( Originally I had each speaker setting set to the actual distance in feet ) to reflect my floor standing speakers being 1 foot away and my center and surround channels at 10 feet away, and then lowering the ?? Db Per Channel ?? of my floors to 0 (middle of the spectrum) and my center and surround to +10 (spectrum max) These two things helped the problem, but movies\tv still sound noticeably better if i use just my front two speakers.

Any ideas on this would help as i am in a few hundred dollars and it sounds worse then when i started

This next one I am sure is just a setting but i dont know what needs to change... If i am watching something that is in surround, my reciever, as it should, automatically switches to surround, and all speakers, well, lets call it for sure get signal going to them. Ideally what i would like is when i am watching something that is not in surround, all of my speakers still get utilized, instead of the center and 2 surrounds turning off. I can easily manually change it to " all channel stereo " it seems a bit tedious to have to switch settings on the receiver whenever i go from a HD channel to a SD channel...

Any ideas guys??? Or am i stuck having to change back and forth...

I know that room shape and speaker location play a major role in sound quality and performance, so i will be uploading pictures showing my speaker layout \ distances etc. I doubt, however, that it would play much more than a minor role in the issues that i am having.

Well i didn't intend on writing such a long post, so apologies up front Any and all help \ tips would be greatly appreciated!!!



Sean

 

[XEagleDriver]

Not Bose bashing, but that is where the problem is

. . . The heart of my system is the JVC RX-702B Jensen C-7 Towers, Polk T-15 Bookshelves, and a Bose VCS-10 Center speaker.

. . .

Previously my setup was just the reciever and the two floor standing speakers, and honestly, it sounded great, but i needed that surround sound experience.

After getting the two rears and center channel hooked up, I tested it out... and am extremely disappointed. Let me tell you what i have noticed and done up to this point.

My first issue is with volume. To get the same loudness out of my system as i did with with just the two floor speakers, i need to nearly double my volume setting i used to keep it at. IE Watching TV my reciever volume would be about 11, now i need to turn it up to about 19-20 to hear it properly. This is more an annoyance then anything, as atm I live in an apartment building and cant turn it up to loud anyways...

The more serious issue is my dialogue is HORRIBLE in surround mode. I can barely hear what anyone is saying. As a matter of fact is was so quite that unless i was literally not standing next to it, i couldnt even tell it was on.

. . .

Sean

Sean,

Your problem does not lie in the JVC RX-702B, nor the fact you are now using surround sound, it is because the center speaker you choose is incompatible with the towers you have.

The Jensen's have 6.5" woofers and are a pair of real speakers with decent reviews. You know this from your 2-channel experience.

Unfortunately, the Bose center channel is a joke. It has a tiny cabinet (3.2" depth - YGTBSM), weighs only 8lbs (ie. no decent magnets), and has some unspecified woofers (Bose is terrible about releasing pertinent information) which can only be about 4 inchs (at best) due to the tiny cabinet size.

To fix the problem, return or sell the Bose POS and get a "real" center channel as close in performance to the towers as possible--minimum 5.25" woofers, etc. If Jensen makes a center as part of their C-7 series, this would be a great choice.

Sorry if this assessment is not what you wanted to hear.

XEagleDriver

 

[markw]

Several things you should be aware of here.

First off, a good "surround" sound consists of having AT LEAST the front three speakers (Left, center, and right) have the same sonic signature. This assures that as a sound traverses the front plane, that it sounds essentially the same across all three speakers. It's not essential that the rears match for HT but it's nice to have if you play true multi-channel music.

Also, it somewhat assures that each speaker will be playing at close to the same volume level and not get "drowned out". Obviously, that Bose speaker cannot keep up with the others. XEDriver said as much. He also said that that Bose center is a joke. I totally agree.

Second, as for that "All channel stereo" mode, you get what you ask for. When you sak the receiver to play what's being transmitted, that's what you get. If they only send out two channels, that's what you get. You have to manually select that "all channel" mode unless, of course, you leave it in that mode at all times.

As for the surrounds, even the best movies don't hav econstant sound back there. IT's generally reserved for ambiance, effects or whatever. Suffice it to say that there's gonna be a lot of time where there's nothing coming out of them. ..unless, of course, you keep it in th "all channel sereo" mode.

 

[Neumee]

Thanks for the replys!!!

OFC i found out that the bose was worthless AFTER i bought it :/ I had assumed that Bose was still the Bose from 10 years ago, over priced but still sounded nice for how small they are, apparently they lost anything good they had going for them, live and learn

I think the problem may lie in the speakers not matching. My towers are rated at having a 91 Db sensitivity, were as the bose i can not find the sensitivity rating on, that is telling me its low enough bose didnt want it to be know Does anyone know what the Db for it is by chance?

 

[Neumee]

Hopefully i am not the biggest audio noob ever... my reciever is a 7.1 i have a 5 channel set up atm i have the obvious speakers connected properly for sure... front left front right, and center.

Turning on my playstation, i just happened to glance at the speaker indicator, and was surprised by what i saw, I have the rear surround speakers connected to my receiver in the back surround speaker spot, however on the light indicator the "RS" and "LS" (wich i am assuming is Right surround and left surround, respectively...) in the middle of the diagram reflecting that its the side surround speakers is what is illuminated, not the "LSB RSB" lights that i would expect to see. Do i have my rear speakers plugged in to the spot that would be used if i had a 7.1 setup???

 

[markw]

For a 5.1 setup you should have the two surrounds (speakers 4 and 5) in te "LS" and "RS" connections. Speakers 6 and 7 would be the BACK surround speakers in a 7.1 setup.

 

[mpompey]

Your PS3 may not be outputting the back surround channels either. Most receivers can "pull out" ambience information for the back channels from the side surrounds. There are more movies mixed with a 5.1 configuration that a true 7.1 configuration.

I'm an XBOX guy and I can't think of any Xbox games that are 7.1 mixed.