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Stereo sounds better than surround

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DougoMan

Senior member
I just hooked up my surround system (decent Sony speakers - real ones not from a kit) and am disappointed that stereo sounds better for the most part. I get a much fuller sound when everything is running through the two big floor standing speakers. It seems like they just pump way too much sound into the center speaker, which is a lot smaller.

Maybe I need a giant center channel speaker?
 
In stereo you are probably running full range to your fronts while in the multi-channel they are cutoff at 80hz and if you are missing a sub then they are going to sound very thin.
 
vi edit said:
In stereo you are probably running full range to your fronts while in the multi-channel they are cutoff at 80hz and if you are missing a sub then they are going to sound very thin.
Click to expand...

Whoa what - the fronts get cut off at 80hz? That is crazy. Is this with all receivers? What is the point of having big front speakers if they are going to work like some crappy satellites? I do have a sub, but that doesn't really help with midbass.

I tried calibrating the center channel speaker down a bit, and it is better. But now voices are a little too soft. I think the "orchestra" mode on my receiver helps a bit.

The center is 2 x 5.25." Is that too small? (Front and surround are 3 way 8")
 
Some receivers let you set the crossover per channel. Most older and budget the crossover is for all channels.
 
DougoMan said:
Whoa what - the fronts get cut off at 80hz? That is crazy. Is this with all receivers? What is the point of having big front speakers if they are going to work like some crappy satellites? I do have a sub, but that doesn't really help with midbass.

I tried calibrating the center channel speaker down a bit, and it is better. But now voices are a little too soft. I think the "orchestra" mode on my receiver helps a bit.

The center is 2 x 5.25." Is that too small? (Front and surround are 3 way 8")
Click to expand...

Your receiver should have settings for the front satellites, center and rear satellite speakers to choose between Full/Small speakers. Check to see what each are set to default. I would also recommend setting up the receiver properly. Setting the relative levels, delays and speaker positions can help.
 
DougoMan said:
Whoa what - the fronts get cut off at 80hz? That is crazy. Is this with all receivers? What is the point of having big front speakers if they are going to work like some crappy satellites? I do have a sub, but that doesn't really help with midbass.

I tried calibrating the center channel speaker down a bit, and it is better. But now voices are a little too soft. I think the "orchestra" mode on my receiver helps a bit.

The center is 2 x 5.25." Is that too small? (Front and surround are 3 way 8")
Click to expand...

The center is one of the most important speakers in a surround setup. The bottom line is, it doesnt matter if there's a war scene going on (like Saving Private Ryen or something similar) if you cant hear the voices CLEARLY, its either too small or set up wrong. You shouldnt have to strain to hear voices.
 
Is it even possible that a 5.25" speaker can reproduce the full vocal range? It just sounds like something isn't there.

How big do I need to go?
 
DougoMan said:
Is it even possible that a 5.25" speaker can reproduce the full vocal range? It just sounds like something isn't there. How big do I need to go?
Click to expand...
IMHO yes they are big enough, have a dual 5.25" with 1" tweeter for my center and voices sound very full and rich, of course the low end of the voices is filled out with a 12" sub...from the sounds of what you have I think you just need to get things calibrated better
 
As others have asked, did you run the calibration software on your receiver? Also, do you have a sub? As others have also mentioned, your AVR (Audio Video Receiver) won't send frequencies to your L/C/R and surrounds that are above the crossover freq (usually defaulted at 80hz) for most AVRs when in surround mode. When running 2-ch, your AVR may be sending full range to your speakers (mine won't however).

As sdifox mentioned, properly setting up a system makes much more of a difference than speaker size. Hell, speaker size really doesn't make too much of a difference at all (for our purposes) unless we are talking about LFE (i.e. < 120hz).

I suggest you read this: http://forum.blu-ray.com/receivers/38765-calibrating-your-audio-spl-meter.html After you run your calibration software, follow the instructions in that link. I would suggest you read it over multiple times to get an understanding on what you are doing.

I also suggest you pour over the message boards on that entire site. Read all the stickies made by Big Daddy. You will learn more crap you ever thought was possible when dealing with a home theater system. Also, buy an SPL. You can't properly calibrate your system without one!

I see systems all the time that are setup like crap. The box stores trick people into thinking they can just buy speakers, subs, and AVRs and just throw them into a room and they will sound great. However, it takes proper calibration, room treatments, and quality products to really blow the socks off people. Anything else is just (loud) noise...
 
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I remember being at an av expo and they were playing the 5th element dvd. It sounded strange and I asked if I could check the settings. Turns out the idiots were demoing their system with the 2 channel track...
 
Typically with a surround sound setup you should make sure your front L/R are timbre matched with your center. This way, when someone walks across your front soundstage during a movie, their dialogue follows them from one speaker to the next without sounding different than the previous speaker.
 
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