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Optimized Center Channel

Many years ago, I bought a seven channel AV receiver and speakers and voila!  home theatre.  No matter that my room layout is far from optimal or the equipment was more mainstream than high end.  Pop in a Blu-Ray and the system came to life.  My system is now 7.2.4 with very good electronics, and despite technology improvements and investment in better equipment, my home theatre experience leaves me wanting just a bit.  Don’t get me wrong, my system is very, very good, and I can hear Atmos at work much of the time, albeit limited by the audio track and ability of my processor to enhance it.  However, it’s not like sitting in an IMAX theatre and having your visual and auditory senses titillated.  But hey—my space isn’t the best and can’t change, my screen does not go from wall to wall, and I don’t have megawatts going into mega speakers and subwoofers placed all around the listening space to bombard me.

 

As DVDs have effectively disappeared, my HT entertainment is brought into my home via streaming.  I attempted to maximize the process with ethernet to fiber converters, a high-end network switch, a highly modified Apple TV-X streaming box, and quality electronics and cables.  Not the best money can buy (that’s not me or my budget) but pretty darned good.

 

HT constitutes 85% of my entertainment time, the remainder is audio.  The audio side of my house has dramatically improved since I first dipped my toe into those waters.  My latest and hopefully one of the last improvements on the audio side is a new amplifier, a Coda 16, which replaced a McIntosh MC152.  I really enjoyed the Mac, but the Coda is another level altogether (at triple the price, it better be).  The clarity, soundstage and power of the Coda puts a smile on my face every time I sit down for a listen.  It has also added considerable weight, punch and presence to my HT experience driving the front L/R speakers.  The dramatic improvement on the audio side made me wonder…

 

My hearing is nowhere near what it used to be, actors don’t enunciate, I watch too many shows from the UK (I suspect the problem is reversed when they watch American shows) and the dialog is not optimally recorded.  As a result, I have subtitles on all the time.  Surely there is a better way.  Thus, and finally, my question to you in the Audigon HT community: how to overcome the dialog dilemma.  Is a dedicated high-end/ audio quality amplifier to drive the all-important center channel the answer?  My Marantz AV10 processor is by no means shabby, but do the Storms, Trinnovs or Lyngdorfs of the world smooth dialog’s rough edges?  My center speaker is a Focal Kanta 2 connected to one of the three 300-watt outputs on an Emotiva XPA-11 Gen 3 amplifier.

 

I appreciate learning how others live with, or have overcome, the dialog issue.  Thanks for your time and input,

Robert

traubr

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,900 posts
 

I’ve typed this a lot.  I have experience both in theaters and homes and built my own center channel. Here’s the absolute truth:

Center channel speakers will not help you hear dialogue better.  They help you hear the center channel track as if it’s coming from the center of your screen.   If you always sit dead center the center channel speaker does nothing at all for you.   It’s when you sit off center, stand up, sit below that the center speaker becomes important.  

You have a really nice rig, which I believe has custom EQ features.  My suggestion is to sit very close to the speakers.  If the dialogue magically becomes good the issue is your room.  That’s not something fixable by a more expensive center channel.  https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-center-meaured.html

Also, interesting article here saying it’s really not us, it’s them.  

One reason I know the center doesn’t matter in the center is I have an anthem MRX.  They are all buggy.  They’ve acknowledged they are buggy and lack the previous generation’s feature which is to enable Dolby Surround regardless of the actual incoming source.  Lots of things on Netflix are digitally marked as 2.0 so the MRX will 100% refuse to apply Dolby Surround processing to it but will still tell you it’s on.  End of that story.  I’m glad there are tarrifs on your gear now.  Stupid Canadians... laughAs a result I have the stupid thing double blind testing me all the time.  Effer.  If I’m sitting in the center I 100% can’t tell the difference.  If I’m lying down to the side I 100% can. 

Their previous generation of processors allowed this feature. 

One thing you can have because you have a nice Marantz instead of an Anthem is to use the PEQ features which I think you have to modify the sound track and boost mid bass to mid.  Around 500 to 4 kHz or higher. 

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