pez
Established Member
Hi all,
Many years ago I purchased a Denon AVR2805 receiver, and the Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 5.1 speaker setup (2 floor standing Aegis Evo 3s, which I love to this day, 2 Evo 1s, the Compact Sub and the Aegis Evo centre speaker). I've fed it stereo RCA inputs, optical digital from DVDs, and currently its taking optical digital from Sky HD and optical digital from a PS3 for Bluray.
Despite trying the autosetup on the Denon in every room where this setup has been placed, I've never been able to get a satifsactory sound from the centre speaker. The sound has always lacked a fair bit of body (mid ranges?), making speech almost unintelligable over the floor standers and surrounds when running it on the autocalibrated settings of the receiver (and other settings, I've played with most over the years). I've read that up to 50% of the sound in a movie soundtrack comes from the centre speaker, and for whatever reason, I've had a better (subjective) experience understanding speech from my TV speakers than I have from the centre. I've tried all sorts of EQ, level, and compression adjustments throughout the years to beef it up and fill it out a little, but nothing I've done allows me to run the setup at a reasonable volume and still make out speech from that centre speaker.
I've just moved into a house with a living room of just over 7m in length, with the floor standers approx 1.5m away from the side walls on either side of the tv (which is located right in the middle of the wall). Our main sofa is directly opposite the TV, about 4 meters away. I've tried numerous placements of the centre speaker, including on its side (just in case I was in a some sort of sound cancelling bermuda triangle), but nothing seems to help.
Now that we're in the new house, I'm starting to look at rectifying this (perceived) fault.
A few quick questions: How can I be sure that it is the centre speaker itself that I've been disappointed with, and not the receiver powering it? I'm tempted to grab one of the Evo 1 shelf speakers that we're using as surrounds and wire that up in place of the centre. Would that be a decent test?
Is there a way I could disable all speakers bar the centre to see how it sounds by itself (without the receiver then trying to mix everything into the centre channel)? If i disconnect everything bar the centre, could I damage the receiver?
I've come across the term tibre matching a fair bit here and on AVSForum, which appears to promote the use of like manufacturer speakers across a home cinema setup. I'm not looking to change everything (I like the sound of the floor standers for everything I put through them), but I am more than open to changing out the centre and the receiver - something with HDMI 2.0a would be nice. Could I remedy this fault without having to splash out on new L,R,and surrounds as well as the centre and possibly receiver?
Lastly, does anyone know of any places in or around Cardiff that will let you demo equipment? Would it be worth taking the centre with me to directly compare, or would that term timbre matching be my enemy here?
Any questions, please ask away.
Best regards,
Pez
Many years ago I purchased a Denon AVR2805 receiver, and the Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 5.1 speaker setup (2 floor standing Aegis Evo 3s, which I love to this day, 2 Evo 1s, the Compact Sub and the Aegis Evo centre speaker). I've fed it stereo RCA inputs, optical digital from DVDs, and currently its taking optical digital from Sky HD and optical digital from a PS3 for Bluray.
Despite trying the autosetup on the Denon in every room where this setup has been placed, I've never been able to get a satifsactory sound from the centre speaker. The sound has always lacked a fair bit of body (mid ranges?), making speech almost unintelligable over the floor standers and surrounds when running it on the autocalibrated settings of the receiver (and other settings, I've played with most over the years). I've read that up to 50% of the sound in a movie soundtrack comes from the centre speaker, and for whatever reason, I've had a better (subjective) experience understanding speech from my TV speakers than I have from the centre. I've tried all sorts of EQ, level, and compression adjustments throughout the years to beef it up and fill it out a little, but nothing I've done allows me to run the setup at a reasonable volume and still make out speech from that centre speaker.
I've just moved into a house with a living room of just over 7m in length, with the floor standers approx 1.5m away from the side walls on either side of the tv (which is located right in the middle of the wall). Our main sofa is directly opposite the TV, about 4 meters away. I've tried numerous placements of the centre speaker, including on its side (just in case I was in a some sort of sound cancelling bermuda triangle), but nothing seems to help.
Now that we're in the new house, I'm starting to look at rectifying this (perceived) fault.
A few quick questions: How can I be sure that it is the centre speaker itself that I've been disappointed with, and not the receiver powering it? I'm tempted to grab one of the Evo 1 shelf speakers that we're using as surrounds and wire that up in place of the centre. Would that be a decent test?
Is there a way I could disable all speakers bar the centre to see how it sounds by itself (without the receiver then trying to mix everything into the centre channel)? If i disconnect everything bar the centre, could I damage the receiver?
I've come across the term tibre matching a fair bit here and on AVSForum, which appears to promote the use of like manufacturer speakers across a home cinema setup. I'm not looking to change everything (I like the sound of the floor standers for everything I put through them), but I am more than open to changing out the centre and the receiver - something with HDMI 2.0a would be nice. Could I remedy this fault without having to splash out on new L,R,and surrounds as well as the centre and possibly receiver?
Lastly, does anyone know of any places in or around Cardiff that will let you demo equipment? Would it be worth taking the centre with me to directly compare, or would that term timbre matching be my enemy here?
Any questions, please ask away.
Best regards,
Pez