Does not using a center speaker cause dynamic compression?

[mtrot]

It seems like I read some time back that the absence of a center speaker will cause some sort of compression in multi-channel film tracks. I'm not sure if this was with DTS or Dolby, or both. Anyway, I was watching Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom recently, and it seemed like the T-rex roar was just not as loud as it should have been, considering the volume setting. I do not have a center speaker at this point and selected "NONE" in the setup for center channel speaker. Any info much appreciated.

 

[Verdinut]

It seems like I read some time back that the absence of a center speaker will cause some sort of compression in multi-channel film tracks. I'm not sure if this was with DTS or Dolby, or both. Anyway, I was watching Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom recently, and it seemed like the T-rex roar was just not as loud as it should have been, considering the volume setting. I do not have a center speaker at this point and selected "NONE" in the setup for center channel speaker. Any info much appreciated.

In my opinion, if you are playing any source, either music or movie which contains audio for 3 front channels, there will be a very noticeable dynamic compression if you don't have a third front channel amp and speaker, unless the disc has a separate track for 2 channel stereo playback.

 

[Kingnoob]

It seems like I read some time back that the absence of a center speaker will cause some sort of compression in multi-channel film tracks. I'm not sure if this was with DTS or Dolby, or both. Anyway, I was watching Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom recently, and it seemed like the T-rex roar was just not as loud as it should have been, considering the volume setting. I do not have a center speaker at this point and selected "NONE" in the setup for center channel speaker. Any info much appreciated.

Can you get a identical speaker to your fronts or a matching center ? Phantom does not seem to work well anymore as center channel is coded in most new movies .


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[j_garcia]

I am not sure I would necessarily call it dynamic compression but I would say phantom was just never really to my liking. Audio often tends to go to one side or the other, not evenly distributed between both. When it DOES go to both, it sounded too quiet. I tried it for a while in a 2ch setup and it drove me nuts. I'd pony up for a center speaker or set the source for stereo as mentioned.

 

[baronvonellis]

I've had a 4.0 setup for years, and could hear dialog in movies just fine. I just upgraded to 5.0 yesterday, and dialog does seem to be louder and punchier now. 4.0 never bothered me, but it does seem more like a cinematic experience with a center as the dialog seems to come right out of the screen. I have my TV sitting on top of my center. Although with old movies or tv shows that were done in mono, the sound field seems to shrink to a point as it's only coming out of the center. Where before it was coming out of the L and R speakers.

 

[VonMagnum]

I don't recall this being an issue when I had my Carver speakers in a 5.1 setup back in the late 1990s. There was no way to perfectly match a Carver ribbon with a center channel so I used the best match I could find at the time without visiting every shop around (Energy brand center), but I'd turn it off (phantom) if I was the only one watching and sit in the center seat and it sounded perfect that way (with Dolby Digital and DTS). I'm pretty sure once they were properly volume matched that I heard no difference with it on or off as I had a hot key on the remote to switch quickly to compare as I don't ever remember volume being one of the differences.

I use no center with the Carvers today either and movies don't sound weird. Maybe the volume wasn't loud enough? I'd say it's more likely the home version of the movie was neutered. If anything, sound effects are too low on most movies. The cinema DTS soundtrack for The Matrix has way louder relative sound effects for the same matched dialog with the Atmos home track, for instance. I actually prefer for that reason.