dialog distortion?

[uamech]

Hi - just found the site and am a first time poster.

About a year ago I bought my first home theater setup:

Harman Kardon AVR230
Infinity TSS750 5.1 speaker set
Sony DVD player

I'm sure this is less than small potatoes to you all, but it's actually slightly more than I could afford and I could use some tips. I have the DVD player connected to the receiver with an optical cable and am using the Infinity-supplied speaker cables. The more I use the system the more I notice some distortion in DVD dialog. Recently, I've noticed it in Simpsons episodes & Toy Story. Also, it seems like I have to turn the volume up to understand dialog, but turn it back down during action/music scenes to keep from disturbing the neighbors. I used the Harman Kardon built-in channel balancing system, and have manually turned up the center channel a bit.

All the reviews say the TSS750 is great with no distortion, so is it the center channel speaker, the speaker wire, the optical cable, the receiver? I have an old pair of bookshelf speakers. Could I use them as my center somehow, since they have more midrange? I would buy nicer speakers, but my budget and wife hinder that possibility.

Thanks!!

 

[gellor]

I had something similar to that happen recently. I think it ended up being a combination between the receiver dying and the room being too big for the power of the receiver. If you don't mind moving things around a bit, one thing you could try is to move everything into a smaller room (like a bedroom) and see if it gives you a problem there as well.

You could also try another speaker in the center position to see if the distortion still exists. That might help you narrow it down to what component is causing the problem.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hi - just found the site and am a first time poster.

About a year ago I bought my first home theater setup:

Harman Kardon AVR230
Infinity TSS750 5.1 speaker set
Sony DVD player

I'm sure this is less than small potatoes to you all, but it's actually slightly more than I could afford and I could use some tips. I have the DVD player connected to the receiver with an optical cable and am using the Infinity-supplied speaker cables. The more I use the system the more I notice some distortion in DVD dialog. Recently, I've noticed it in Simpsons episodes & Toy Story. Also, it seems like I have to turn the volume up to understand dialog, but turn it back down during action/music scenes to keep from disturbing the neighbors. I used the Harman Kardon built-in channel balancing system, and have manually turned up the center channel a bit.

All the reviews say the TSS750 is great with no distortion, so is it the center channel speaker, the speaker wire, the optical cable, the receiver? I have an old pair of bookshelf speakers. Could I use them as my center somehow, since they have more midrange? I would buy nicer speakers, but my budget and wife hinder that possibility.

Thanks!!

You may want to go over the manual make sure everything is set up properly. If you have a sub, set all speakers to small. Any other setup of that HK about the center ch. Check the phasing of the fronts.
And, you may need to get a test DVD and an spl meter from Radio Shack, analog spl meter, and see how well the channels are leveled by the internal feature. It doesn't take much to get then improperly set up in the auto mode. You may want to check the receiver and see if it has an internal EQ of any sort, or even tone controls that may be over boosted.

You could try one of the other front speakers to see if you have an issue with the center speakers. You may also

 

[jcPanny]

Speaker setup

You picked a receiver with good features and power. You should be able to get inteligable dialog if everything is setup properly. Double check your speaker distance settings and levels. If possible, buy or borrow a radioshack SPL meter to set the levels. Make sure all speakers are "SMALL" with an appropriate crossover for their frequency range, which is probably 120 Hz. On your HK in particular, there is the option of a serate crossover for the fronts, center, and surrounds. You should probably make them all the same. Bypass the crossover on the sub by setting it to the highest setting.

Another inexpensive upgrade for your system would be a 100 ft spool of 14 AWG sound king speaker wire. The free stuff is usually pretty cheap and is probably 16 AWG or smaller.

 

[uamech]

Sub setting

Thanks for all the great input! I have the sub on its LFE setting, which ignores the frequency knob, as far as I know...

 

[uamech]

shopping speaker wire

Per the recommendations above, I'm seeking speaker wire. After reading the Audioholics articles on speaker wire, the Monster Nav White sounds good. I'd like to use a Best Buy gift card, but all I see on their website is Monster XP Navajo White. Is this the same thing? How does it compare? Is there a good wire I could get at Best Buy, or should I skip the gift card and go for Sound King?

Thanks!

 

[markw]

You can spend your money on that if you wish, but..

... speaker wire isn't the answer to this problem. Reread the therad.

Remember, virtually ALL the dialog comes from just one speaker, the center speaker. The others contribute virtually nothing to the dialog.

That speaker system seems like it might be a nice system at moderate levels in a small room where the viewing positions are fairly close to the TV but it won't play very loud overall, particularly in larger rooms swith a lot of distance between the viewer and the speaker. Remember, those itty bitty speakers can only move so much air.

IMHO, it sounds like you're asking for a bit more volume from the center speaker than it's capable of delivering.


But, if you've got money to burn go ahead.