Best speakers for home theater/voice clarity?


I presently have a Von Schweikert VR4/Gen II- the bass is superb, but the voice intelligebility is very poor. I even bought a pair of ribbon supertweeters from VS, to no avail. I am considering the B&W 802D, the Martinlogan SummitX, and the Magnepan 3.6 or 20.1. Also the Salk HT3 if I ever get a chance to hear them.

My room is 14x18'. For home theater, the most important feature is voice clarity, 2nd is bass depth and clarity, and 3rd is dynamics.

Any comments on the above, or other suggestions would be very much appreciated.
tvjunkie20

Showing 3 responses by shadorne

Yes this is normal for high end audiophile type speakers. These sell because of boom booom tizz. Nearly all manufacturers do this so I am in no way trying to single out Von Schweikhart. It is very simply the same as voicing your speakers with a bass and treble boost - it sounds impressive in a shop floor demo.

My room is 14x18'. For home theater, the most important feature is voice clarity, 2nd is bass depth and clarity, and 3rd is dynamics.

Professional models of speakers like ATC or PMC or Meyer or Westlake are what you are looking for. These are used in countless studios for mastering 5.1 audio. Pros want a flatter more realistic response so the speakers tend to be voiced for better accuracy rather than being impressive boom boom tizz sounding. Pros also seek speakers that convey proper dynamics rather than the prototypical consumer designs that compress the mid range at movie SPL levels.
I second Musicnoise. Unless you have a problem with your setup then you are experiencing the prototypical midrange scoop - the VR4, like many audiophile speakers, is crossed over at 3.5 KHz - this is similar to most B&W's (for example). The large midrange will start beaming at around 1 KHz - so you tend to get a "scoop" or hole in the off axis response from 1 to 3.5 Khz...this is detrimental to voice intelligibility. This is well known in physics of speaker design but manufacturers prefer to build a speaker with boosted bass, recessed mids and boosted highs - it is cheaper to make and it sells....boom boom tizz sounds really good with music and will sell over a flat response in a shop floor A/B comparison (with untrained listeners)

Figure 1 is your problem and you need a speaker like Figure 2.

"Midrange beaming can be reduced by lowering the crossover frequency. The high-frequency driver’s lower range will then provide wider dispersion and the bass/midrange driver’s output can be rolled off before its dispersion narrows."