Issues with Sound (DirecTV) (1 Viewer)

[LoveHT]

Hey gang:
It's been awhile since I have posted. Quick question to point me in the right direction. When watching a source from blu-ray or DVD, my audio sounds great.

For normal viewing of TV if you will (DirecTV) I never seem to be able to achieve the same quality I get from my blu-ray player.
I know that you lose some audio traits in compression and processing, etc. How do you guys compensate for such an issue?

Before I start pulling my set-up apart, I thought I'd get some ideas, as to where to start to make changes.
I'm running the following set-up. I did have to move recently, My set-up is in an unfinished basement, but I ran measurements for sound set-up. See my list of equipment in my signature.

Thanks, for reading,
Rocky

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Hey Rocky,

In the realm of audio, “quality” is a term that has no concise meaning , as it is different things to different people. So you’ll need to give us more detail as to what “quality” you’re looking for but are not hearing.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[LoveHT]

Wayne:
Thanks for the reply. You make a good point. Generally speaking my sub-fires much better when the source comes from a dvd or Blu-ray.
When Listening to DirecTV my sound is more muted and the sub never really fires.
I'm having trouble putting it into words.
The sound is dull no lows, no bass.

It's kind of on the same scale as playing compressed music.
I'm looking for ideas on to how to adjust my receiver to compensate for it. Right now I'm focused on DirecTV as my source, later I'm hoping to tackle music.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Rocky

 

[PhilAR]

Rocky,
Have you checked your DirecTV box audio settings?

Phil

 

[LoveHT]

Thanks for the reply, Yes it was among one of the first things I checked.

 

[TonyD]

My sound from Dtv is fine.
It will never be as good as a bluray as that has lossless audio, Dtv is lossy.

 

[LoveHT]

UPDATE
I decided to adjust my set-up by using Audyssey. It gave me good results with my rear channels; but my sub is still an issue.
I may just have to bite the bullet and manually adjust the set-up. My underlying issue is that I recently moved, and my set-up is in a small area of an unfinished basement.

I'll keep you guys updated. I plan to mess around with it today.
Thanks,
Rocky

 

[LoveHT]

New Question?
My sub is an Energy ESW-C10. Here is the question.
I have the sub volume set around 50%.
The sub is set-to "ON", rather than off or auto.
Here is the new question?
During set-up of my system utilizing Audyssey, my crossovers are auto set. What should I set the crossover to be on the actual sub?
The sub has a volume type knob for the crossover.

Lastly I have phase switched to zero.

 

[PhilAR]

I'd start by matching the cutoff freq. of the surrounds. If Audyssey set those up to drop out at 80 Hz, set the sub x-over to pick it up from right around there. Check out some of the bass management vids on youtube. They may be able to help you pinpoint your problem.

 

[LoveHT]

I looked up some of the set-up videos. According to what I read the crossover settings on the sub itself should be set to max.
But get this....I have my crossover on my receiver set to the following:
250hz for my front and center channels.
120hz for my suround channels.

I manually set this up and now I'm getting much better results from the sub. But I don't know why this is such an atypical set-up?
Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks,
Rocky

 

[PhilAR]

It doesn't sound like an atypical setup. Just about everyone I know that runs auto setup (Audyssey or equivalent) runs the setup for distance and delay establishment, then they go in and manually tweak the levels to match their speaker setup and until it sounds good to them. You're basically doing the same. Glad to hear it's working. Those fronts and center are pretty high, though....What are the frequency ratings of your speakers?

 

[LoveHT]

SOLVED:

It doesn't sound like an atypical setup. Just about everyone I know that runs auto setup (Audyssey or equivalent) runs the setup for distance and delay establishment, then they go in and manually tweak the levels to match their speaker setup and until it sounds good to them. You're basically doing the same. Glad to hear it's working. Those fronts and center are pretty high, though....What are the frequency ratings of your speakers?

My front channels are Energy CF-50's their freq. Response is 39Hz-20Khz +-3DB
My surrounds are Energy CB-5s their freq. Response is 71Hz-20Khz +-3DB

I'm marking this as solved.
I had Audyssey do the heavy lifting by adjusting the sound and room specifications, then I tweaked the settings of my crossovers, which gave me the sound I was looking for. Thank you all for the replies.

 

[ArmSC]

I'm glad to hear that you got it sorted. It sounded like your xover levels were very wrong when I was reading it. I would double check that mic as I've never seen xover levels that high even with small sats (120Hz is about the highest I've seen). It sounds like it's not working properly to me. If your AVR is still under warranty you could contact support and as them for a replacement.

 

[LoveHT]

I'm glad to hear that you got it sorted. It sounded like your xover levels were very wrong when I was reading it. I would double check that mic as I've never seen xover levels that high even with small sats (120Hz is about the highest I've seen). It sounds like it's not working properly to me. If your AVR is still under warranty you could contact support and as them for a replacement.

Thanks for the reply. I didn't think to check the mic, but I can do it easily enough. I think I may have a way to borrow one.
Rocky

 

[LoveHT]

I got my hands on another mic. I basically got the same results. But since my sound is good after adjusting the crossovers (see Previous post in this thread). I'm happy that I have figured out my best set-up.

Thanks all.

 

[ArmSC]

I'm glad to hear that you have it sounding the way you want it to. However, I'm just a bit curious as to why two different mics chose to cross the fronts at above 200Hz? That seems awfully strange to me considering they are towers.

 

[LoveHT]

I'm glad to hear that you have it sounding the way you want it to. However, I'm just a bit curious as to why two different mics chose to cross the fronts at above 200Hz? That seems awfully strange to me considering they are towers.

I know what you mean,. This why I posted in the first place. I wasn't exactly sure of my issue. Now I'm doubting myself again. (even though the audio sounds good to me)