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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
bryoncunningham
890 posts
 
Like several other posters have suggested, I suspect there is a setup problem. You mentioned that you are running in phantom mode. That could be the problem. Do you have poor dialogue intelligibility in (unprocessed) stereo? Do you have it from all sources equally, or are some sources worse than others?

If the answer to these last two questions is yes, then the next place I would look is at the room. Bad room acoustics can easily lead to poor dialogue intelligibility.
somec59
245 posts
 
Dhalquist DQ-10's are 3x3 feet wide and have horns and great for the center channel/voices
mr_man
72 posts
 
"Phantom" mode is generally used when no center channel speaker is used.
Do you lack a center channel speaker?
If so, I'd say that's likely the problem or a very big part of it.

I've experimented with this setting on multiple processors and always felt they were a poor substitute for a proper center channel.
tvjunkie20 OP
4 posts
 
I have digital outputs from both my Sony PS3(Playstaion) and my Directv DVR. I am running 5.1 in phantom mode. I can't say that the clarity differs from one source to the other. I frequently notice that the vocals are buried in the "background" effects, but I attributed that to the mix. Also, live tv vocals (such as newscasts) are always clearer than movies.

I do not have a center channel speaker because it would be either to high or to low in front of my 72" RPTV.
sthomas12321
408 posts
 
For just voice clarity alone, Id choose the Magnepans. Spooky real. Easily the cleanest voices Ive ever heard. Just listen to a diana krall cd with them, incredible! For bass, get a sub. Nothing beats a good properly set up sub(better yet 2 or 4. Magnepans have better dynamics then some will have you believe. If you want loud, I would not go with the Magnepans. They can get loud(not very loud), but you have to drive them hard, and cross them over in my opinion.
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