I am looking at upgrading my amplifier - I currently have an old Onkyo TX-DX575X. My wife and I being mid-'50s and having attended perhaps one to many Who and Rolling Stones concerts years ago, hearing and ability to distinguish dialogue is not as good as it once was. I boosted the center track and that helped a bit, though BBC shows and DVD's with heavy Scots or Midlands accents can be a problem.

I have always had good luck with Onkyo receivers, so I am looking at the Onkyo SR607 - or something else in the sub $500 range. Does anyone have any views on whether (1) this has good separation for the center channel on 5.1 (or 7.1) so I can boost the voice track over the music; and (2) are there other features that might make it easier to distinguish the voice over competing music and ambient noise that I should take into account.

Note: At the risk of storm of Bose-bashing, I am currently using Bose Acoustimass 15 speakers with the center channel cube replaced with a VCS-10. I probably need to upgrade these as well, but they generally seem to perform well on clarity of music - it is just the voice being overwhelmed by the music that I don't like.

Paul

It's not your amp that you are hearing (or not hearing). A new AVR with Audyssey (or similar auto EQ) may help iron out a few issues, but (at the risk of Bose bashing) it is your speakers that need "upgraded".

Perhaps you should shop for speakers first......concentrating on the front three.

Perhaps you should shop for speakers first......concentrating on the front three.

Transducers are FAR more important than electronics. Definitely invest in some REAL speakers (and calibration) and you will hear in instantaneous difference.

Thanks - I guess I kind of expected that. The speaker discussion columns seem a bit overwhelming, so beyond listen, listen, listen and start with a few highly regarded brands (Polk, Infiniti, Klipsch), any recommendations on two areas?

1) Beyond bringing along a bringing along a test DVD that I have the hardest time hearing, what should I be looking for to hear the best sound? If it is speakers, then the lack of an equalizer on the receiver means that it is more than just boosting the speaker(s) with the range that most covers the human voice. Since a lot of the music is in the same frequency range I guess an equalizer would not help that much anyway. So what it is in speakers that would make a difference? Some type of separation of the sound waves? (I am a little out of my depth on the engineering but am looking to learn). How is this measured?

2) Does it make the most sense to look at just the three front speakers, a whole new set of speakers or receiver and all new speakers at once?

Depends what you can afford. On a minimum budget get three matching fronts. If you can swing all three, get a complete speaker set, a sub and a new AVR.

SVS makes a 5.1 set for around $1000 including a very good sub, and any $300-500 AVR will get you into HT bliss.

http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-scs01.cfm

You'll soon wonder why you ever thought Bose sounded good.

Thanks - I guess I kind of expected that. The speaker discussion columns seem a bit overwhelming, so beyond listen, listen, listen and start with a few highly regarded brands (Polk, Infiniti, Klipsch), any recommendations on two areas?

1) Beyond bringing along a bringing along a test DVD that I have the hardest time hearing, what should I be looking for to hear the best sound? If it is speakers, then the lack of an equalizer on the receiver means that it is more than just boosting the speaker(s) with the range that most covers the human voice. Since a lot of the music is in the same frequency range I guess an equalizer would not help that much anyway. So what it is in speakers that would make a difference? Some type of separation of the sound waves? (I am a little out of my depth on the engineering but am looking to learn). How is this measured?

2) Does it make the most sense to look at just the three front speakers, a whole new set of speakers or receiver and all new speakers at once?

When I said "concentrate on the three front", I didn't mean leave out the surrounds. I just meant spend most of your money on the fronts.

Paul,

It may be that your room acoustics need improving, and the center channel speaker upgrade won't help. When a room is too "live" (reverberant), the speech intelligibility goes down. And unfortunately, today's movie sound mixes often have the music and effects at levels where they can overwhelm dialog under non-optimal listening conditions.

I boosted the center track and that helped a bit, though BBC shows and DVD's with heavy Scots or Midlands accents can be a problem.

That issue faces most of us, I'm afraid. Perhaps the BBC needs to provide English subtitles? :)

Regards,
Terry

:D Rotfl

Thanks all. I think I have to do my bit to stimulate the economy, so new speakers and a new receiver it is. From what you have all said, it seems like covering a couple walls with some type of sound absorbent fabric (e.g. wall hangings) might also be helpful. I will also give that a try.

P