Hi All,

We currently run a pair of stereo speakers for HT applications. The speakers sound great but in some applications for TV and movies we lose a bit of the dialogue. It's especially bad in action/adventure/sci-fi stuff, where the background noise seems way louder than the dialogue.

Will we be better served by adding a 3rd speaker for center channel audio (along with a newer receiver), or would a newer receiver with better decoding to stereo solve our problems without the 3rd speaker?

Our audio gear: Phase technology 7.5T speakers; Harmon-Kardon AVR-30 A/V receiver. We're happy with how our music sounds and are leaning toward a newer H/K receiver.

We won't go 5.1, as we get more than enough bass from our speakers and living in a loft makes rear speakers impractical.

Thanks.

--JES

Add a centre speaker that is as close a match to your existing speakers. You'll be surprised with the difference there. If you don't want surrounds due to your room, fair enough its your call, but I would still recommend a sub woofer and setting your main speakers to small. It will lower system distortion, increase the frequency response and improve dynamic range (all of which are very important in action films and music) with your current AVR...

Mark

...and the surrounds in a 5.1 system go on the sides, not the rear.

Isn't odd how people still call them "rears" after all this time and still think that they go at the back of the room even though the instruction book nearly always shows them at the sides.

My first AVR labelled the surrounds "Rear", but all other upgrades since have called them "Surrounds"...

Mark

Will we be better served by adding a 3rd speaker for center channel audio (along with a newer receiver), or would a newer receiver with better decoding to stereo solve our problems without the 3rd speaker?

.................................... are leaning toward a newer H/K receiver.

You don't need a new receiver to add a center channel speaker. In fact, since you only plan to run 3.0, at the most, a new receiver would probably not really be money well spent.

A new receiver probably won't make 2.0 sound any better, either.

I would still recommend a sub woofer and setting your main speakers to small. It will lower system distortion, increase the frequency response and improve dynamic range (all of which are very important in action films and music) with your current AVR...
The OP was (sort of) clear that he didn't want a subwoofer.




...and the surrounds in a 5.1 system go on the sides, not the rear.
Isn't odd how people still call them "rears" after all this time and still think that they go at the back of the room even though the instruction book nearly always shows them at the sides.

My first AVR labelled the surrounds "Rear", but all other upgrades since have called them "Surrounds"...
Why are surround speakers even being discussed? :confused:

The OP clearly stated he isn't going to run surrounds, either.

He said he had bad sound. Methods of improving the condition were volunteered. He didn't want surrounds because speakers in the rear were not practical. Since the surrounds don't go in the rear, perhaps side mounted become a practical solution.

We currently run a pair of stereo speakers for HT applications. The speakers sound great but in some applications for TV and movies we lose a bit of the dialogue. It's especially bad in action/adventure/sci-fi stuff, where the background noise seems way louder than the dialogue.


Getting the reverberation under control will do more for dialog intelligibility than a third speaker or electronics changes.


We won't go 5.1, as we get more than enough bass from our speakers and living in a loft makes rear speakers impractical.


Relieving 2-way speakers of the last few octaves cleans up the midrange due to less IM distortion and the separate sub-woofer can be placed for flatter bass that's more reaslistic sounding.

He said he had bad sound. Methods of improving the condition were volunteered. He didn't want surrounds because speakers in the rear were not practical. Since the surrounds don't go in the rear, perhaps side mounted become a practical solution.

Thank you Dennis...

Mark

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I'll reconsider the subwoofer though since we live in a condo with people below us, I'm not sure we can get away with the added bass.

On the side speakers (and yes, I didn't know that surround was side, not back, so thanks for that): does it matter that our HT is not even close to eqidistant between walls? IE, the right speaker would have a wall a few inches behind it; the left one would be several feet away (though it could be mounted on a column in the middle of the room so there was something behind it)?

As to the acoustics, that's a good suggestion but I'm almost positive it's a levels thing specific to a kind of programming, as otherwise midrange (where the voice is) comes through quite well.

Thanks again.

The difference in distance between the speakers can be accommodated (within the limits of your processor) by going into the speaker set up menu, adjusting the SPL of each speaker and setting the distance between each speaker and the listening position.

You mentioned you live in a loft (IMHO the worst architectural invention of the modern world). These spaces are very highly reverberant making even conversation between two occupants difficult. I wouldn't underestimate the value add of well placed treatments and other 'soft surface' architectural elements.