Home theater help!

[swifttal]

Need help from the smart people on here in troubleshoting problem- here's what's goin on...

When I'm whatching movies on my home theater, when things start getting busy with sound, my system tends to make the background/surround noise quiet- voices still stay loud though- yet when I'll watch the same movie on my friends $200 sony home theater system, eveything is loud- What's goin on with my system? To equate it to a car audio system, it almost sounds like I need a capacitor. Here's what I'm using for HT audio...

DVD- Mitsubishi DD-8020
Receiver- HK AVR 525
cable- Nordost flatline- speakers, regular sony optical for interconnect (for now anyway)
Speakers- B&W 600 series (FR-604s, C-600, Sr-602s)
Sub- Velodyne HGS-12

Now here are some of my guestimates, let me know if any would make sense-

1) Am I using to much power on one circuit breaker which is starving my system?
2)Is my receiver not powerful enough for my main LR speakers? Do I need to add amps for my main LR?
3)Is something wrong with either my receiver or dvd player?

Any help greatly appreciated- it's driving me nuts with the money I've spent on my system, I shouldn't be having this problem!!! Thanks!

 

[snickelfritz]

You need to go into setup(for your HK) and adjust the speaker levels.
All receivers are slightly different. The manual will explain it.

BTW, you don't capacitors, or separate amplifiers, or silver plated braided Litz wiring.

 

[Darin_SD]

Drc

Mits players have had a circuit called DRC which will lower loud sounds and raise softer sounds. It is there so that if you are watching a movie and don't want to wake the kids it controls the audio levels. Check and see if that is turned on. It may solve your problem.

 

[swifttal]

Mits players have had a circuit called DRC which will lower loud sounds and raise softer sounds. It is there so that if you are watching a movie and don't want to wake the kids it controls the audio levels. Check and see if that is turned on. It may solve your problem.

That sounds exactly like what's going on... unfortunately, I went back made sure it was off, and I still have the problem...

 

[Darin_SD]

Night mode on the receiver...

Check to see if night mode on the receiver is turned off.

 

[racquetman]

You may be equating loud with accurate

The way to guarantee that you are hearing the material properly is to buy a SPL (sound pressure level) meter and make sure all your channels are balanced (equally loud from a fixed position). Most choose the Radio Shack version which works well and isn't too expensive (less than $40 I believe). By playing test tones you can use the channel trims on the receiver to make each channel equal in output. Once you have done this, you will hear the material as was intended when it was mixed (realize that not all DVDs, if that's what you're watching, are mixed well. Sometimes dialog is too quiet and then louder passages end up being way too loud because you had to crank up the sound to hear the dialog).

Just because everything is loud on your friend's system doesn't mean it's accurate. You can crank up the decibel levels on your surrounds and get the same effect if that is the way you want to hear things. If you want balance, follow the procedure above. Realize that tweaking is a part of having a home theater. I always have my receiver remote handy as I like to play with the channel levels on the fly during movies (like I said, they're all mixed a little different). A good receiver will return to the preset levels when it is shutdown.

Hopefully this helped you!!