2. speakers
  3. 1110503464

Do I need better center ch speaker-dialog unclear?

I currently have a PSB Image Series C9 center channel. I had though this was a decent enough speaker, but have grown increasingly frustrated. For example, today I was watching the new release of Chariots of Fire that has the DD 5.1 track. Maybe it is just the big echo-y ancient rooms they shot the film in, or maybe it wasn't miked well, but I cannot discern much of the dialog. There are many other movies I have had the same problem with.

Not being satisfied with the intelligibility of dialog in movies, I recently upgraded to a seperate 5-channel power amp, using my Sony DA4ES receiver as pre-amp. I do not use any soundfields or such, just straight DD or DTS. This helped the clarity vere minimally.

This not having helped all that much, I next upgraded the speaker cable to one of Paul Speltz' Anti-cables, which have received great reviews. This, again, may have helped just a tad, but I am still having the same problem with dialog.

I am now down to the point of nothing left, that I know of, other than to consider upgrading the center speaker.

So, does anybody have any other tips short of a new speaker?

If not, can anyone reccommend a significantly better center speaker that would integate at least decently with my Legacy Signature III front mains? I can't now afford to go with one of Legacy's centers.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
mtrot
theo's avatar
theo
2,665 posts
 
I agree with swampwalker, also what cables are you using?
You may want to try a silver based cable and maybe gain a little speed to possibly clarify the dialog. Also the other suggestions for relocating the ctr spkr are good ideas.
avguygeorge
2,300 posts
 
I use a Lowther single driver center speaker with a DX3 driver. You can't imagine how clear dialog is from this speaker. I live in an apt-(no sub) and never crank it so dialog intelligbility is important to me.
mtrot OP
804 posts
 
Thanks for all replies.

The speaker sits on top of my Mits RPTV. I have the center speaker set to "small" in the receiver. I have the speaker angled down toward seated ear level. I just intalled a run of Paul Speltz' AntiCables, which has helped just a little.
timf
237 posts
 
You could always try removing the center channel temporarily to see what is gained or lost. Just a thought.
mtrot OP
804 posts
 
Update 1: About a year ago, I replaced the PSB with a Paradigm Studio Monitor cc570 version 3. This is definitely better and clearer than the PSB. It should be, as it is significantly more expensive. However, we still had a lot of problems understanding dialog in movies.

Update 2: Removed the spade connectors from the Speltz anti-cables, and connected the bare copper. This resulted in a definite increase in clarity. Much easier to understand dialog.

Update 3: Just yesterday took delivery of a single run of Alpha Core Goertz MI-2 speaker cable for the center channel. I also got some of their jumpers to jump down to the LF binding posts of the cc570, whereas with the anti-cables, I was just using the stock jumpers. I have only yet sampled one movie, but there does seem to be a difference from the anti-cables. It seems like there is more "presence" and "air". There seems to be more high frequency response and it is clearer(is that a word?). I do think this addition has improved the clarity of dialog even further.
More to discover