[therascaldude]

I have a pair of really good Insignia bookshelf speakers for my 2.1 system. They have plenty of bass (and I'm in an apartment) so I don't need a subwoofer. They are currently on the floor and, though they have great sound, for some reason dialogue is frequently drained out by other sounds that are produced. So I find myself having to raise the volume constantly for dialogue scenes and then when any action hits, i quickly have to lower it because of the loudness. I'm no audiophile so I don't know why this is.


Also, should I leave the speakers on the floor, or should I get stands for them? I heard speaker stands improve audio quality a bit and will be less annoying to close neighbors.


Thanks

 

[quadriverfalls]

Absolutely get them off the floor. For the best over all sound, especially clear vocals and dialog, the tweeters should be as close to the height of your ears as possible while seated. Measure the distance from the center of the tweeter to the bottom of the speaker to determine what size stand you will need. Generally, it will be in the neighborhood of 24", 28" or 30" for book shelf sized speakers (possibly even 36" if they are fairly small speakers).


I've found that www.racksandstands.com is a great place to buy racks, stands, mounts and storage stuff.


Good luck.

 

[riker1384]

Look for the Sanus Basic foundations series. They're about as cheap as you can get for full-sized stands.

 

[maxcooper]

I think you should get stands, too.


But in the meantime, you could tilt the speaker up to point at your ears to improve dialog intelligibility.


-Max

 

[MasterColin]

What might also help alot would be going to a 3.1 system Then that center channel would do alot of the dialog.

 

[therascaldude]

Cool, I'm thinking of getting some stands and adding a center channel speaker. Since there are virtually no 3.1 receivers in existence, can you guys recommend some good (cheap) 5.1 receivers that can be used as a 3.1 system?


Thanks

 

[sivadselim]

Getting your speakers off the floor is imperative. Cinder blocks make for great speaker stands. You can paint them to suit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by therascaldude /forum/post/15525938


Cool, I'm thinking of getting some stands and adding a center channel speaker. Since there are virtually no 3.1 receivers in existence, can you guys recommend some good (cheap) 5.1 receivers that can be used as a 3.1 system?

All multichannel receivers can be configured for 3.1 operation. Or 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, etc.. I think that most multichannel AVRs being made today are configured for 7.1.


Also, seriously consider a 3rd matching Insignia speaker as your center channel speaker. This would be the best choice.

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

Being on-axis with your tweeters really sharpens things up. High frequencies "beam" like the light from a flashlight, and it's ma waste to be playing them into your shins. If you can get the tweeters 40" high, it'll sound like you have new speakers.

 

[agb2529]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterColin /forum/post/15523615


What might also help alot would be going to a 3.1 system Then that center channel would do alot of the dialog.

+1 and then some - will probably make more difference than raising the L+R speakers (although that should be done too). Getting another identical speaker is a good idea.


And BTW, if you don't have a sub then you have a 2.0 setup, not 2.1.

 

[therascaldude]

Thanks for the replies guys. The bookshelf speakers are pretty big, so I don't think I can really add another identical speaker as the center one, as it would block a lot of my stand. I'm thinking of just getting a center channel speaker (one of the small, wide ones to put in tv stand) and a cheap 5.1 system I can find.