how does the center compensate

leftwinger57

Hi guys, Back again w/ a question about my center speaker .If some of you remember I had the toughest time of getting my Yamaha RX-V665 to become my pre after my Onkyo P301 died. We ,you guys sorted me out and the 2-chl stereo is terrific but now another question has come up.When watching my t.v. in 7-chl it seems that my center has compensated for the loss of the 2 fonts which were disconnected to achive the what I needed. I tried putting back the 2 fronts w/ not much inprovement.How can 1 speaker take the place of the other 2, all knowing that dialog comes from the center but I'm telling you the others fronts aren't missed. Is this common ?I'll list my rack
just for giggles one more time.Thanks.....LW
H/T>Tosiba au-37 tv>Yamaha RX-V665 avr/pre>Yamaha ysd-11 dock>1st gen I-pod>Klipsch 500 set w/ 8in pwrd sub>Denon 1940ci cdp
2-chl>Adcom gfa 555rack mt amp>Yamaharx-v665 pre>Infinity SM112 spkrs>
Denon 1940ci cdp shared btw both

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Onkyo p301 DEAD!!!

Joe08867

I have no idea what the heck your asking. Are you saying in 7ch the left and right don't do as much as the center? Unless music, action or ambient noise is loud enough than the center will probably do more. That is why there are dedicated center speakers.

That said you probably have it set up wrong if you can't tell the difference with the left and right or not.

do you have two Yamaha pre's? or do you switch stuff around? I am totally confused by your setup.

tonyb

The center does alot of the heavy lifting in surround mode. If your not watching a movie with alot of surround activity, then the fronts won't do much. Basically, with just the center,you have one big TV speaker.
I personally do without the center and run 4 speakers.

mdaudioguy

I think you need a once-and-for-all solution... You disconnected your fronts from your AVR to achieve your 2-channel solution, and now you're wondering why it doesn't sound good in 7-channel mode (which I hope means a discrete or matrixed 7.1 solution and not 7-channel stereo)? How about drawing us a diagram of what cables you have connected between each component and tell us exactly what mode you're in and what your specific settings are? It's also possible that you have a calibration issue. Also, stereo sound for HT/TV is just not going to translate well through a single speaker, no matter whether you miss it or not.

leftwinger57

You guys misunderstood,I never said that it sounded badly after removing the front 2. I'm saying is that the center for whatever reason compensated for the loss of the 2 fronts .Not bad it's still as powerful w/ the center and rears in 7ch. All calibrations were made that I know how to do and the speakers were changed from small to large and I reran the auto-setup. Now for my set-up I can't be any more clear than this. 1.Adcom GFA555 w/ InfintySM112s to that amp and i-cs to the Yamaha as a pre. HDMI from cdp to Yamaha and that's it. For the t.v. I have hdmi out of t.v. into the cable box and then one from t.v. to Yamaha 665 to pick up on screen (YPAO).For the spkr runs I have 14ga. clear to all speakers.I also have a Yamaha dock which is pretty straight foward.I read all the replies when I was having trouble and all was resorted out.I'm sorry if when I posed a question that it sounded like I was having trouble, thankfully this time I was not .All is ok thanks to most of you dudes.

halo71

Totally off subject so please forgive me. But what did your 301 do when it died?

Joe08867

Dude take it easy, sounded like you had an issue. Just wanted to clear it up before I tried to help or explain.

Like Tony said the center does a lot of the heavy lifting in 5, 6, or 7 ch surround. It gets pretty much all the info from the front of the soundstage and the left and right channels add width and bass.

If it isn't to much trouble I would like to know how you have the three front speakers set? Are they set equal or is the center boosted? That will make a big difference as well.

That is why we ask questions, I didn't plan on going to find out how your setup was done you need to give us that info.

tonyb

leftwinger57 wrote: »

You guys misunderstood,I never said that it sounded badly after removing the front 2. I'm saying is that the center for whatever reason compensated for the loss of the 2 fronts .

What do you think the auto calibration feature does ? Don't know why you'd be surprised by this. When you remove speakers, it redirects all the info to the available ones.

leftwinger57

Maybe that was the exact answer I was looking for. Redirection, now is that so terrible.I don't understand you guys .By now you have to be used to my way of talking,yes it's not the most gramatically correct but I think I get the message across.If I have a problem then it gets presented as a problem. If I only present a question then that's all it should be taken as. Yes I was getting confused w/ the avr/pre set -up but it got worked out and have said so many times. I think you've gone way to far dropping the hammer on me this time.I thought it was a legetimate question and NOT a complaint of any kind.Oh, by the way I'am blasting LIVE AT LEEDS right now through the Infinitys'
and loving the power combo of the Adcom 555 and now the Yamaha665.....LW

Joe08867

What is with the effin attitude. Sorry I tried to understand. Guess I can add you to the BOZO list.

Good day,

rdb2001

Guys,

I could be wrong but I think he is saying that he feels like his center is lacking since he started powering his fronts with the adcom. Most people would say in home theater, if you power the fronts with an amp, you should do the same with the center. Have you calibrated using a spl meter? I run my center a little hotter than my fronts and all of my speakers are on seperate amplification. I would suggest running your center a little hotter and see what happens especially since its the only speaker on the front stage that is being powered by the yamaha which definitely is not putting out its suggested power ratings.

mdaudioguy

Joe08867 wrote: »

What is with the effin attitude. Sorry I tried to understand. Guess I can add you to the BOZO list.

Good day,

Clearly he doesn't communicate well in writing... but I don't think he meant it quite that way.

cnh

He admits that himself. It's all good!

To L57: writing can be a lot like talking. Since few have a lot of trouble communicating through speaking, try to write as you speak.

Keep sentences short and direct. Take a breath between them and reflect on what was just 'said', then....continue with the next phrase.

Put a space between them so that the reader does not tire, visually!

And, you're pretty much there.

cnh

Glowrdr

rdb2001 wrote: »

Guys,

I could be wrong but I think he is saying that he feels like his center is lacking since he started powering his fronts with the adcom.

From what I got - you are totally wrong. lol

LW - Just out of curiosity, did you calibrate with all 7 channels connected, then removed the L/R fronts afterwards? Or did you calibrate without the fronts?

The reason I ask is that the receiver only knows 1 calibration (well, that's a lie, as I can have 6 I believe) -but you can only USE 1 calibration at a time. Basically, you can connect and disconnect speakers all day long and your receiver doesn't know squat. It doesn't have any feedback that says "woah - where'd the fronts go? Better crank up the center". Now if you calibrate without the fronts, it will in fact boost the center.

leftwinger57

this is what must have happened.Calibrated w/o the fronts and viola the front center got boosted and took over the show.I also must admit the placement of the Klipsch center is
3 rows down in my t.v. table and yet sounds perfectly centered out of the t.v. That's no bs they for what ever reason were low on the table but it never mattered even after I tried to change it to the first close shelf.

20hz

its a sensitive setup , I overdrove my center and it was eating sub !
I use a decible meter to set levels , I use a $20 radio shack analog type , I have a digital one but I found it easier to watch the needle move .
I have always used differant types of amps but I keep the power ratings on each close .