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Poor Sound System?

Han Solo
By Han Solo
in Audio
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So my current speaker setup for my living room is a Onkyo - TX 5.2-Ch. with Dolby Atmos 4K Ultra HD HDR (TX-SR393) AV receiver, and 2 Pioneer SP-FS52 Home Audio Andrew Jones Designed Floor Standing Loudspeakers.

I know a good sound bar would do the same and probably better job, but I really like the look of the two floor speakers.

The problem is sound quality (mostly the speech) isn't great, and I have to have it a bit louder than I would like to be able to clearly hear speech.  My question is, is it poor speaker quality, poor receiver quality, or the fact I have no subwoofer, or center channel?

 

My 2nd problem is a buzzing noise coming from the speaks when not in use, it varies with the volume setting.  I have tried doing a bunch of things with the wires to remove interference, and nothing helps.

 

 

Any ideas would be appreciated, thank you.

 

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3 minutes ago, Han Solo said:

My question is, is it poor speaker quality, poor receiver quality, or the fact I have no subwoofer, or center channel?

Have you tried EQ-ing it, either using the automatic function (most have it these days) or manually (at least pulling the 1K and/or 4K value up to boost speech)?

 

4 minutes ago, Han Solo said:

My 2nd problem is a buzzing noise coming from the speaks when not in use, it varies with the volume setting.  I have tried doing a bunch of things with the wires to remove interference, and nothing helps.

Perhaps grounding the chassis would help?

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Most likely it's the no Center Channel.  Even in Matrix mode, I could never get a stereo setup to clearly represent the voice tracks in movies and TV.

 

I personally run a 3.1 setup due to this. 

 

Just my experience.

"Do what makes the experience better" - in regards to PCs and Life itself.

 

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1 hour ago, AbydosOne said:

Have you tried EQ-ing it, either using the automatic function (most have it these days) or manually (at least pulling the 1K and/or 4K value up to boost speech)?

 

Perhaps grounding the chassis would help?

There was an included room calibration tool that I did use, if that's what you mean?

I haven't tried grounding it yet, I'll look into it.

1 hour ago, Dedayog said:

Most likely it's the no Center Channel.  Even in Matrix mode, I could never get a stereo setup to clearly represent the voice tracks in movies and TV.

 

I personally run a 3.1 setup due to this. 

 

Just my experience.

I was thinking the center channel might help, will it matter if I get a different brand of center speaker?

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4 minutes ago, Han Solo said:

There was an included room calibration tool that I did use, if that's what you mean?

I haven't tried grounding it yet, I'll look into it.

I was thinking the center channel might help, will it matter if I get a different brand of center speaker?

no it doesnt matter the brand. just get a decent one

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1 hour ago, Han Solo said:

There was an included room calibration tool that I did use, if that's what you mean?

I haven't tried grounding it yet, I'll look into it.

I was thinking the center channel might help, will it matter if I get a different brand of center speaker?

You'd want a center that matches the tonal quality of the left/rights so transitions and panning sound natural.

 

If you cannot match, get as close as you can.  Quality of course.

"Do what makes the experience better" - in regards to PCs and Life itself.

 

Onyx: Ryzen 7 7800X3D / Gigabyte B650 AORUS Pro AX / ASRock Taichi 7900xtx OC / G. Skill Flare X5 6000CL36 64GB (4x16GB) / Samsung 980 1TB x3 / Super Flower Leadex V Plat Pro 1000 / EK-AIO 360 Basic w/ Silent Wings fans / Fractal Design North XL (black mesh) / LG - UltraGear 45" OLED QHD 240Hz / Mackie CR5BT / SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro / Cherry MX Board 3.0 / Logitech G502 - https://valid.x86.fr/my9nnr

 

7800X3D - PBO +200, CO -30 all cores, 4.90GHz all core, 5.05GHz single core, Cinebench 23: 18401 multi, 1779 single

 

Khaleesi: Ryzen 5 5600X3D (+200, -30) - ASRock B550M Pro4 - G. Skill Ripjaws V 16GB 3200CL16 - Asus Prime 9060XT 16GB - Samsung 980 1TB + Crucial MX500 1TB - Cudy AX3000 PCIe Wifi 6 - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 - Thermalright Frozen Notte RGB 360 White V2 - NZXT H6 Flow RGB White - LG 34" 3440x1440

 

NAS/Plex/Game Server  Ryzen 9 5900XT 16c/32t - Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite AX - TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan 64GB 3200CL16 - MSI 1050Ti 4GB - Crucial P3 Plus 500GB + TeamGroup MP44L 2TB (Game) + WD Red Plus 4TBx2 (Plex) - TP-Link AC1200 PCIe Wifi - EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 - Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE - ASUS Prime AP201 - Currently Hosting: Enshrouded x2, Hytale, Icarus, Windrose. Project Zomboid, Dune Awakening.

 

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GF Rig: Steam Deck 512GB OLED, Vizio 43" 4K TV

 

Extra parts: ASUS 6650XT - Gigabyte 1080Ti - Cooler Master Q300L - Gigabyte 450w PSU - Super Flower Leadex V Plat Pro 850w

 

OnePlus Ecosystem: 

OnePlus 11 5G - 16GB RAM, 256GB NAND, Eternal Green. OnePlus Watch 2 - Radiant Steel, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 - Eternal Green

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Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, AMS, AMS2 Pro (thank you MicroCenter!)

Other Interesting Tech:

- 2021 Volvo S60 Recharge T8 PHEV Polestar Engineered - 415hp/495tq 2.0L 4cyl. turbocharged, supercharged and electrified.

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im not sure if diff speakers will fix that.

 

ive always thought in many films dialogue is WAAAY too quiet compared to the effects volume and its just how life is, ive tried loads of different speakers.

Apparently its just because films are made for the cinema and some more bs. but yh ive had this same problem and idk how to fix it either. i watch everything on the big sound system with subtitles now.

 

😞

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On 8/6/2021 at 3:55 PM, The Torrent said:

im not sure if diff speakers will fix that.

 

ive always thought in many films dialogue is WAAAY too quiet compared to the effects volume and its just how life is, ive tried loads of different speakers.

Apparently its just because films are made for the cinema and some more bs. but yh ive had this same problem and idk how to fix it either. i watch everything on the big sound system with subtitles now.

 

😞

I believe you can turn up individual channels (like the center channel which has most of the dialog) correct? so this could help a little

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some receivers allow you to turn up the center channel, or have a night mode which boosts the speech.  Some playback software allows you to do this too.  This is a common problem and one that producers really need to sort out.  We don't all have a cinema at home, and as such would appreciate stuff being mixed for use at home, not a cinema where it's ok to suddenly go from quiet to VERY LOUD.

 

Although with the current OP set up, make sure you are running the receiver in stereo mode, not surround mode, as only having two speakers, it needs to downmix properly, otherwise you are going to lose sounds as it's trying to output to speakers that are not there.

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10 hours ago, evilcloud said:

some receivers allow you to turn up the center channel, or have a night mode which boosts the speech.  Some playback software allows you to do this too.  This is a common problem and one that producers really need to sort out.  We don't all have a cinema at home, and as such would appreciate stuff being mixed for use at home, not a cinema where it's ok to suddenly go from quiet to VERY LOUD.

 

Although with the current OP set up, make sure you are running the receiver in stereo mode, not surround mode, as only having two speakers, it needs to downmix properly, otherwise you are going to lose sounds as it's trying to output to speakers that are not there.

Thanks for the advice, I am in stereo, I did try surround but it sounded worse, now I know why, I was a but confused before.

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