Center Channel Hard to hear...

shawn474

I have a Yamaha RX-V995 receiver and the Polk RM6005 speakers with an infinity BU2 subwoofer. During movie playback mostly, I have a hard time making out some dialogue. Voices at conversation are sometimes very hard to hear. Maybe I am getting hard of hearing, but at age 30 I hope that's not the case.
I guess my question is two-fold.
1.) I already have the center channel adjusted to the maximum output so that didn't seem to help. Are there any other adjustments to be made that would help fix this?
2.) Would putting an amp on the center channel make a difference?

I do realize that these speakers are not the top of the line and the sensitivity may be an issue, but is there anything I can do without getting a new center or spending money on an amp?
I have the mains tied into the subwoofer and the satellites and center connected directly to the receiver. Any thoughts are very appreciated and have a Happy Holiday.

danger boy

yes, check your audio menu settings in your DVD player.. sometimes they have "limiters" or "enhancers" for the center channel.. check the setting on that. if you have your center cranked up all the way.. then something is not right of course.. this problem has creeped up before i know. I don't think there is one solution for every single problem of this.

but i'm thinking it's some kind of menu setting in your DVD player or your Yamaha. make sure all DSP settings are turned off on your receiver.. like stadium, hall, church.. etc.

How is your DVD player hooked up to your Yamaha? optical, coax, RCA's ?

shawn474

Thanks for the reply. One thing I forgot to mention is that the DVD player (Panasonic) has a dialogue enhancer. It doesn't seem to make a bit of difference when I use this feature. That's why I'm stumped.

The DVD Player is connected to my yammie with an optical cable. All of the movies that I play are Dolby Digital and the receiver is set up to automatically switch to dolby digital.

I should mention that it doesn't seem to be this way on my music DVD's. I can always here the lyrics well and everything sounds great from the music DVD's. It's just that sometimes in movies the normal conversations seem to fade out of my listening range.

Sami

Have you checked the speaker if it is broken? Swap one of the mains to its place and run a movie. Is the amp on your receiver blown?

shawn474

If the amp was blown, wouldn't it affect everything else and not just conversation tone voices? Also, the speakers are practically brand new. I just bought them in September and haven't had any other problems with them. I can't imagine that it is a broken speaker, but the amp thing has me a little worried now.

Pines

I have the yamaha 750 and csi5 and was a bit bummed that I had to put the center channel up so high to keep up with the overwhelming effects from my rti8's. In the setup menu on the receiver there is a dynamic range setting. Selecting normal rather than high toned the effects down and helped the center compete. Not sure if this will help the problem but you could give it a shot.

McLoki

Do you notice if it is mainly male voices rather than female voices?

If you have the center channel turned all the way up, do you notice it as significantly louder than the other channels and just kind of muffled, or is it not that loud either?

Switch your center and right speaker (plug your right channel into your center channel speaker wire and vice versa) does the center still channel or right channel now sound muffled?

It could be alot of things, but that should narrow it down for us.

BTW - have you calibrated your system with a radio shack spl meter? Do you have all channels running (roughly) the same volume?

Michael

Edit - also is your center channel beamed right at your head or is it lying flat over your tv (shooting over your head) or under your tv (shooting at your legs/feet)?

dholmes

Thats why I use two center ch spks csi40 sitting side by side, I know most wont agree with me but I could tell a big difference in sound. But I guess we all hear in a different way. I hope your eq is okay!

shawn474

Guys, first thanks for all of the suggestions. I am slowly getting to each suggestion, but here's what I have so far. I actually watches Cinderella Man tonight and had a hard time hearing some of the conversation (both male and female voices). So, I switched the dynamic range to standard (it was set on max) and that seemed to make a noticable difference (not sure if it was wishful thinking), but not so much to help me forget my problem. The voices are never muffled, just hard to hear.

To answer some of the questions, I did try to switch the right and center channels and it didn't seem to make a difference. I haven't ever calibrated my system (wouldn't even know how to go about doing that). I am a newbie and just getting into this really. Even when I had the center channel turned all the way up, it didn't seem to increase the conversation tones. The center channel is mounted above my tv and pointed to ear/head level. Thanks again for all of the replies. I am open to learning how to calibrate my system if it's easy to explain how. Again, Happy Holidays to you and yours.

SuperDave

I would check the setup and make sure it is at 0db for the center channel. Changing the dynamic range is significant for low level listening. I use low when my daughters have a sleepover so I don't get blasted out of bed by War of the Worlds.

SuperDave
Yamaha RX-V992
Panasonic DVD-A310
Sony XBR 27"
DVR
Polk LSi25 Fronts
Polk LSiC Center
Infinity RS1 Rears
Monster THX Cables

disaeur

I have a Yamaha RX-V2500 with LSi9 mains and LSiC center with the exact same problem. i have tried numerious setting changes but still have problems hearing the center speaker during movies. Could it be unique to Yamaha????

janmike

I have a Yamaha RX-V1500 and can hear the voices very well on the CSi5. The Yamaha powers the centre & rears, fronts are powered with a Rotel amp. I just used the YPAO to calibrate and everything is good to go.

shawn474

Anyone else not know what a YPAO is? I would like to know hpw to calibrate, but need to know what that is first. Also, I have been toying around with the idea of getting an amplifier, but don't know if it makes much sense given the fact that my speakers are pretty low end (even though they are Polks). Thakns again for all replies.