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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
martykl
3,578 posts
 
Personally, the first thing I'd try is increasing the level of the center channel. So many dvd/br these days are mixed with the effects and backgroung noise at distractingly high levels, making the dialog difficult to follow - regardless of the speaker.

Just one more idea.

Marty
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Speech inteligibility is maximized by limited and contoured frequency response, which, of course, is not good for music. Unless the speech is localized in one channel (center) you are between a rock and a hard place.
speavler
32 posts
 
the VR4 gen II's are exceptional speakers. Hearing these about 14 years ago driven by bi-amped brystons and naim front end is something i still remember clearly to this day. it was a religious experience. phantom mode is a no-go. pick up a VS center channel - there are still new ones to be had.
rleff
1,065 posts
 
I always thought my dunlavy scIII's and my friends snell c4 and c5's were excellant on voices.
indiansprings
4 posts
 
One issue is the Phantom Mode. You must realize that a center channel is really what you need. Secondly, room acoustics is usually 9/10 the issue. Keep the VR4's.
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