87GT Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 I've always rocked a 2.0 sound system setup for my main TV. The sound from everything runs into my receiver and then out to both of my speakers. It has been great for everything except audio or dialog in certain BR/DVD movies. I have to turn up the sound on some to hear people talking. With horror movies it is the worst because right after a half naked dumb blond says anything there is a huge loud creepy noise and it shakes my windows. I am tired of always changing the volume so I don't blow out my ear drums. I am kind of limited on space at the moment with my TV stand. I thought about a slim sound bar only for a center channel but after reading up that sounds like a bad choice. Anyone here run a smaller slim center speaker? What do you recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 I've always rocked a 2.0 sound system setup for my main TV. The sound from everything runs into my receiver and then out to both of my speakers. It has been great for everything except audio or dialog in certain BR/DVD movies. I have to turn up the sound on some to hear people talking. With horror movies it is the worst because right after a half naked dumb blond says anything there is a huge loud creepy noise and it shakes my windows. I am tired of always changing the volume so I don't blow out my ear drums. I am kind of limited on space at the moment with my TV stand. I thought about a slim sound bar only for a center channel but after reading up that sounds like a bad choice. Anyone here run a smaller slim center speaker? What do you recommend? Could be more receiver related. I forget the name of the setting on my unit but it is sort of a "night-time" mode which emphasizes center channel voices but doesn't then blast the sub or surround sounds as much. We use it all the time as our great room is big and open and voice can get lost and like you said, the other sounds then blast. Doesn't help much I know but it's an option worth looking into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not Brian Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Is a 5.1 system out of the question? Tim recommended Dayton Audio speakers. For $200 they're actually pretty amazing, and you can pick up a solid receiver from bb for about the same. Sound bars and stuff always sound like something I'd use in Iraq or a trailer or something, not my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.cos Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Is a 5.1 system out of the question? Tim recommended Dayton Audio speakers. For $200 they're actually pretty amazing, and you can pick up a solid receiver from bb for about the same. Sound bars and stuff always sound like something I'd use in Iraq or a trailer or something, not my house. we also have the system that tim suggested and its amazing.. like shake shit off the walls awesome.. I have no idea how to move it down to center channels only but would love to know that.. maybe i should research it.. as our bedroom is just above the tv room and the speakers are mounted to the ceiling... Not my idea, and yet im not affected by it, he is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 we also have the system that tim suggested and its amazing.. like shake shit off the walls awesome.. I have no idea how to move it down to center channels only but would love to know that.. maybe i should research it.. as our bedroom is just above the tv room and the speakers are mounted to the ceiling... Not my idea, and yet im not affected by it, he is. ^^ Center channel volume would be a control available on your surround sound settings in the receiver. Check to see if your system supports individual channel volume controls. Glad you enjoy it too! I remember when I came across them and visited their location while traveling and I was like WTF how could that be so awesome for such a great price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87GT Posted May 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Could be more receiver related. I forget the name of the setting on my unit but it is sort of a "night-time" mode which emphasizes center channel voices but doesn't then blast the sub or surround sounds as much. We use it all the time as our great room is big and open and voice can get lost and like you said, the other sounds then blast. Doesn't help much I know but it's an option worth looking into. I will take a look at that when I get home. I forget the model number and I didn't get a manual when I bought this used. Is a 5.1 system out of the question? Tim recommended Dayton Audio speakers. For $200 they're actually pretty amazing, and you can pick up a solid receiver from bb for about the same. Sound bars and stuff always sound like something I'd use in Iraq or a trailer or something, not my house. I don't know if it is out of the question. My room setup is my couch on the back wall and the TV is right in front of me on the other wall. The distance is around 10 feet I am guessing. I never bought back channel speakers because of the size. If I did buy them there wouldn't be much space from the back speakers to my ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.cos Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 They are small speakers - maybe 8"x4"? We are 14' from our tv, but have a very wide room, so the speakers are speread out, but i would feel comfortable witht them being just behind the couch on either side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trouble Maker Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 At our previous apartment I put a smaller center channel on a shelf that was level with the top of the TV. The TV was mounted on the wall with a full motion TV mount. I also mounted the cable modem, wifi router and a power strip to power it all onto the bottom of that same shelf. It probably only stuck out from the wall about 8~10 inches. That was fine considering the (smaller) tower speakers and floating shelves came out from the wall at least that much. The full motion mount was nice because you could move the TV out and work on stuff without removing it from the mount. If you mounted a smaller center channel directly on the wall, it would probably be about as deep as your TV+mount unless you got a super slim TV and mount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dafunk13 Posted May 24, 2016 Report Share Posted May 24, 2016 Receiver processing issue. Movies are mastered to that shitty reference level (quiet talking, LOUD EXPLOSIONS) and most newer receivers have settings to counteract that, should you desire. My Denon calls it "dynamic volume" and it's awesome for just what you're complaining about. Turned off it sounds like a theater...speech is duplicated at a normal volume...explosions, etc. are duplicated at what would be their normal volume...loud. With it turned on you hear it all at a reasonable volume. More speakers probably won't help. The movie itself has these levels encoding into the disc/file. It's up to your receiver to duplicate (or in this case, redistribute) the stuff according to speaker number, size, placement, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87GT Posted May 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2016 After reading through my manual for my receiver I don't think has a dynamic volume. For the most part the sound issue is when I am watching movies on VLC. I figured out some settings to tweak to normalize all the sound in VLC. I figure I will post them here for anyone else who finds this in the future. Navigate to Tools>Preferences. Select Audio. Check the "Normalize volume to:" box and set the value to 1.6 Now switch to Advanced view by selecting "All" in the "Show Settings" box at the bottom left Expand "Audio" and highlight "Filters". Check the "Volume Normalizer" box. You should see "normvol" added to the text box at the bottom Expand "Filters" and highlight "Volume Normalizer". Set "Number of audio buffers" to 10 and "Maximal volume level" to 1.6 Hit the "Save" button at the bottom Restart VLC, as settings are not applied until restart. As I did this in increments, you may have to apply one step, save, and restart VLC between for menu options to be present. I haven't tested applying all settings at once, but I believe you can do this all at once. Double-check all settings are correct after VLC is restarted. Worked out swell for me. I will continue to use my 4 foot tall speakers I bought in high school until they blow up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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