I've just bought Planthead's old AV amp - but leave that aside for a minute . It's not the issue ..
I currently have a Marantz AV amp (4200) playing through some relatively high end B&W front speakers. The centre speaker is also B&W. The rear speakers are some average Richer Sound Eltax things ...
The AV amp used the pre outs for the fronts, so I can play them through a Musical Fidelity Amp( and yes they level are set right)
I have a bog std 8 year old Yamaha sub attached
Excluding the one I have just bought, I have had two amps ... a Sherwood and this Marantz. Both have the same issue ... when listen to either tv played through it, or DVDs, the voice track always becomes really buried. I end up turning the centre level up just so I can here what has been said.
Whilst it could be my ears its not - cos wifey has the same issue. Am I doing something fundamentally wrong?
How have your wired this? Do you have a 3-channel amp?
My old setup (now boxed and stored) used a denon receiver with two amps, a 3-channel for the front and two channel for the rear. This was upgraded as the receiver did not support HDMI and ended getting a great deal on an Onkyo.
I've just bought Planthead's old AV amp - but leave that aside for a minute . It's not the issue ..
I currently have a Marantz AV amp (4200) playing through some relatively high end B&W front speakers. The centre speaker is also B&W. The rear speakers are some average Richer Sound Eltax things ...
The AV amp used the pre outs for the fronts, so I can play them through a Musical Fidelity Amp( and yes they level are set right)
I have a bog std 8 year old Yamaha sub attached
Excluding the one I have just bought, I have had two amps ... a Sherwood and this Marantz. Both have the same issue ... when listen to either tv played through it, or DVDs, the voice track always becomes really buried. I end up turning the centre level up just so I can here what has been said.
Whilst it could be my ears its not - cos wifey has the same issue. Am I doing something fundamentally wrong?
Sounds like a config problem, either your 2 fronts are too loud and drowning out the centre or the centre isn't loud enough. In the Yamaha you can set the 2 front speakers as small, do not set them as large, large is for cinema speakers.
Have you entered in the speaker distance as well, that needs to be as accurate as possible, otherwise sound arrives at the wrong time.
Other things I would try are making sure it is bi-wired and that the wiring is all ok.
Where is the centre places, ideally it should be at ear height, if it is on the ground the sound is probably being absorbed by something.
The last thing I would try is to buy an SPL and set the levels manually using that.
It is kinda hard to make a buying decision in CH because prices are a bit skewed and choices are limited. So I just want to list out HI-FI dealers in the UK who ship out here, and with whom I have had experience with.
Quantum is quite good, and I particularly like their "package builder" feature on their website, where you can mix and match speakers for your home theater system. The owner partipates quite actively on avforums.com and seems to have quite a positive reputation. http://www.quantumelectronics.co.uk/
Divine Audio has sent me a few stuff, even Atacama speaker stands! Not much mentioned in the forums though, so I'm not sure about their overall reputation. Impressive personalized service, coming from in internet company. http://www.divineaudio.co.uk/
Audio affair - seems to be a big one with lots of choices. Delivery was quick. But problem recovery is problematic. I had a problem and it took one too many phone calls plus a post in What Hi-Fi Forum to sort it out (the owner lurks around there too). http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/
They all told me about the Euro/Swiss warranty policies. However, if you have to send something back, you would have to pay for the delivery yourself.
I haven't found anyone who would deliver B&Ws though. But for premium items, maybe a local dealer is more appropriate.
This user would like to thank axman for this useful post:
Personally I would buy here as I don't want the hassle of having to send something back if it breaks. Plus I have contacts for good prices on certain brands
Sounds like a config problem, either your 2 fronts are too loud and drowning out the centre or the centre isn't loud enough. In the Yamaha you can set the 2 front speakers as small, do not set them as large, large is for cinema speakers.
Have you entered in the speaker distance as well, that needs to be as accurate as possible, otherwise sound arrives at the wrong time.
Other things I would try are making sure it is bi-wired and that the wiring is all ok.
Where is the centre places, ideally it should be at ear height, if it is on the ground the sound is probably being absorbed by something.
The last thing I would try is to buy an SPL and set the levels manually using that.
Well, after reading the set up where the beardy guys says set up all front speakers as "small", I did that last night ... and it seems to have made a huge difference. I guess all the bass stuff now goes out to the sub, as a) It doesn't seem to fill the whole house and b) you do seem to be able to here the dialogue track.
I only tried it on a Sky plus recorded film , so I will try a DVD tonight
Centre speaker is at around ear height ( well, off the floor, anyway) , distances are set correctly, bi-wiring on the fronts is as it should be ...
It isn't amp specific - and with my previous sherwood, as I had big speakers, i thought the fronts should be large ... but I have now been corrected on that!
Next question ... is there an AV amp that is actually good at playing music?? Most do there AV duties well, and music from a iPod sounds passable ...
But most are not good at playing CDs ... or does anyone have a different experience?
You'd need to spend a lot of money to get an AV amp that's good in stereo too. So much so that you might as well buy a separate stereo amp.
I am quite surprised how good music from itunes via airport express is. It sounded terrible before I switched to optical cable between the airport express and my amp. I demoed the Musical Fidelity V-Dac a few months ago and was also very impressed. I am thinking of getting one, but I also want to demo the new Arcam rDAC next time I am in England. Having a DAC would mean that I would transfer all my CDs to my computer via lossless format and then play it all via airport express/DAC. It should sound as good as a separate CD player.
I am quite surprised how good music from itunes via airport express is. It sounded terrible before I switched to optical cable between the airport express and my amp. I demoed the Musical Fidelity V-Dac a few months ago and was also very impressed. I am thinking of getting one, but I also want to demo the new Arcam rDAC next time I am in England. Having a DAC would mean that I would transfer all my CDs to my computer via lossless format and then play it all via airport express/DAC. It should sound as good as a separate CD player.
I think airport sounds, at the best, average. But it fulfills a need. Perhaps I need to look at the optical route ...
Everything is burnt to lossless - it takes a bit of space on the hard disc !!
Optical v Analogue is a bit of a question. I always thought the sound would be better over Optical but not everyone agree's, it is a matter of personal preference. Anyway I wouldn't look to putting optical in as a fix to good stereo music.
Basically as already said because of all the extra gubbins inside an AV Receiver it will never play Stereo sound as well as a similarly priced dedicated stereo amp.
I guess something from Arcam would be your best bet.
My theory on optical v analogue cable is this - on a CD player, the data is coverted on board (with a decent DAC) and sent analogue to your amp.
If I use an analog connection with airport express, I assume the conversion is performed by the airport express itself. That can't be good at all.
My aim is therefore to keep the music on lossless digital data format (exactly like the CD) for as long as possible until it reaches the part in my system which can best convert it to analogue format. For now this is my amp. Hence I hear a huge improvement with the optical cable.
Next step for me is to improve the conversion. So I would like to get a decent DAC between the express and the amp.
There have been a few posts about HDTV recently and seeing as I am bored here at work and it's late I thought I'd write down some stuff I know.
Also most devices (except blueray players) will only output at a maximum of 720p..SkyHD included.
You will only use your 1080p picture when you watch a blueray.
Actually a lot of broadcasters are using or planning to use 1080i which the TV can easily convert to 1080p
Edit, found the evidence to backup my claim:
Quote:
1080i 1080i (1,080 lines of resolution scanned in alternate fields consisting of 540 lines each) is the most commonly used HDTV format, and has been adopted by PBS, NBC, CBS, and CW (as well as satellite programmers HDNet, TNT, Showtime, HBO, and other pay services) as their HDTV broadcast standard. Although there is still a debate as to whether it is that much better than 720p in the actual perception of the viewer, technically, 1080i provides the most detailed image of all the 18 approved DTV broadcast standards. On the one hand the visual impact of 1080i is lost on smaller screen sets (below 32").
Looks good (I bought a 46" Samsung LCD TV - LE46C750 - earlier this year, and am very happy with it).
For electronic stuff, I always check toppreise.ch. I prefer to order online (better price) and get it delivered (easier, no damaging it trying to bring it back home).
Looks good (I bought a 46" Samsung LCD TV - LE46C750 - earlier this year, and am very happy with it).
For electronic stuff, I always check toppreise.ch. I prefer to order online (better price) and get it delivered (easier, no damaging it trying to bring it back home).
HTH
Thanks - do toppreise take away the old equipment too?
I'm not very techie, but the TV is dying so need a new one pretty quickly.
Anybody got an opinion on whether or not this looks like a good buy from Interdiscount?
we bought the 46" version of that one recently, good tv, only down side is the speakers are at the back, facing backwards, so they are useless, unless you already have a surround sound system then you'll also need to buy one, or a sound bar.
This user would like to thank bigblue2 for this useful post:
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