AndyGas

Speaker setup for my home cinema.....

Am currently in the process of re-vamping my home cinema. Having just had a conservatory fitted to the back of our house (which has now turned into more of a living room) the front room can now turned into more of a dedicated cinema room than a lounge area.

Anyway, my dolby surround system is quite good - it's a few years old now but the sound quality is decent. One thing I like about it is I can input 2 channel sound from two other sources and the decoder converts to 5.1 as well as having inputs for my 5.1 DVD player.

It came with 5 small identical 8 ohm satellite speakers which might not be giving me the best quality sound output possible. I've read on here that systems usually are bundled with bog standard speakers so I'm probably not getting the full enjoyment from my system even though they have quite a decent power handling rating (100w).

At the moment, my centre speaker always sounds low when watching DVD's in 5.1 mode and I can't adjust the sound from that channel as my decoder displays 'not used' when I press the centre volume up/down buttons.

Have been looking on ebay for a decent centre speaker to try and improve the output from the centre channel but at the moment my budget can't stretch to one.

Was having a rummage the other day when I came across a pair of Pioneer surround sound speakers rated at 16 ohm each that I got off ebay a while back. They have a power output of 40w which doesn't really bother me as I don't have the system on that loud anyway. Am thinking of wiring these two speakers together to give me my centre channel but what's the best way of wiring them? Have read on here that if I wire them as series then the total ohm rating would be doubled to 32 ohm and sound would be a lot lower. But if I wire them in parallel '+' to '+' and '-' to '-' then this halves the ohm rating (16/2 = 8 ohm) which would match my 4 other channels.

Have not got much experience with speakers so any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Has anyone replaced their bog standard speakers and noticed an improvement in the sound quality?

John Garcia

I would upgrade the receiver, not the speakers. A receiver that allows you to adjust levels may help with your issue.

Do you hear any sound at all from the center? It sounds like you may have it configured as "none" in the receiver for the simulated DSP modes. For DVDs via 5.1 inputs, your levels are controlled by the DVD player, not the receiver.

Wiring dual speakers will give you more sound, but it will also draw roughly twice the current, which may cause the receiver to clip. With speakers that are not so demanding it might not be a problem, so it's worth a shot if you still have the problem after checking the other things mentioned.

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so." - Mark Twain

HT: Marantz SR-8300, MA500 monoblocks x 2, 5X GR Research A/V-2s, Adire Audio Tempest sub, Denon 2900, Oppo 980H, Toshiba HD-A2, RC2000MkII remote, Panamax 5100, Panamax Max2 sub, Slim PS2, PS3 60G + 320G USB

Bedroom: Marantz PM-7200 Integrated, GR Research A/V-1s, Sony 222ES SACD, RC3200 remote, Panamax M8EX

Audio: Audioquest * Video: Bluejeans

My DVDs My HT

AndyGas

Thanks for the reply....

Yes, there is sound from the centre speaker. What happens is, say I'm watching a film with a lot of noise on the left/right/rear channels (such as explosions), I set the sound level so I can hear the dialogue from the centre channel - then there's an explosion and I end up lowering the sound level. I then can't hear the dialogue properly so I have to higher the sound up again to the correct level. This takes a lot of enjoyment out of the film.

I think what the problem is is that when set to 5.1 my Home Theatre decoder lets the DVD player process the signal (hence I can't adjust any settings) and the signal on the DVD is meant for a perfect environment. Our lounge area is not the best environment to house a home cinema in but it's the only room we can have it in so it'll have to do. When I use the inputs from the other two 'stereo only' sources, I can then adjust the centre/rear levels to suit the room.

Will give the Pioneer speakers a go tonight to see how they sound as my centre.

John Garcia

When the DVD player is doing the decoding, it controls all the settings. You need to make any adjustments in the player's setup menu before you put a disc in.

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so." - Mark Twain

HT: Marantz SR-8300, MA500 monoblocks x 2, 5X GR Research A/V-2s, Adire Audio Tempest sub, Denon 2900, Oppo 980H, Toshiba HD-A2, RC2000MkII remote, Panamax 5100, Panamax Max2 sub, Slim PS2, PS3 60G + 320G USB

Bedroom: Marantz PM-7200 Integrated, GR Research A/V-1s, Sony 222ES SACD, RC3200 remote, Panamax M8EX

Audio: Audioquest * Video: Bluejeans

My DVDs My HT