Mushy sound (1 Viewer)

[ejtaur70v]

The sound from the following setup makes irritates me enormously, as the sound is mushy----I have other surround setups in three other locations, which are considerably "less able" not to mention older and less expensive, which sound superior in clarity and projection. This is important to me, as I have tinnitus from years of printing presses and power tools.

Setup:

Panasonic TH-50PH9UK

Marantz SR5001 7.1
Speakers A:

Polk RTi4 fL/R & rL/R speakers w/ Polk Sub-woofer

Bose in wall duplicate fL/R through Russound SDB 2.1

Yamaha NS-C444 center speaker (replacing less clear Polk CSi-3 center,)

Marantz CD changer

Monster Power HTS 2600 MKII
and various DVD, DVD-R, and Roku input sources

Located in the section of the room (no windows in this part) which is 18' x 12' with 13' ceiling. TV, etc. on 12' walls.
Speakers B:

AR bookshelf speakers ULT108721 (act as stereo)
Located 24' away from other speakers, in another section of room (at a 30 degree angle from the other section) which has floor to ceiling windows on 18' wall, smaller ones L&R, and 8' opening into kitchen.

All controlled by a Logitech One remote. Professionally (supposedly) installed.

The sound quality here is enough to send me to my den (13' x 19', 8' ceiling), where I (nonprofessionally) set up a Yamaha HTR-5660 5.1 and 4 of the 5 of its speakers, with 2 6" Yamaha speakers duping the fL/R about 17' away, under my desk. Good sound.

So, what could be the problem with the first setup? Signal processing in the Marantz? The Polk speakers? Can't find good reviews of any of this stuff to help sort it out. 'Nuf to make me nuts.

 

[Jason Charlton]

There are several possibilities:


1 - Why are you running two pairs of front L/R speakers, and an even bigger question is why are they from two different manufacturers (Polk/Bose)?


More speakers does not equal better - in fact, adding a mishmash of various speakers will do exactly what you describe - create a muddy, mushy soundfield. In addition, you'll get no love around here for either Bose products or in-wall speakers, let alone BOSE IN-WALL speakers. I would suggest disconnecting these speakers and re-calibrating your system


Which brings us to...


2 - How did you calibrate the system (or did you calibrate at all)? Does your receiver have a built-in setup function with microphone? If so, use it. If not, you should consider getting a SPL meter and using it in conjunction with receiver test tones to properly set up the speakers levels?


Also on a possibly related note,


3 - You replaced the Polk center because it was "not clear" - that could have been the result of not properly calibrating/setting up the system in the first place. Generally speaking, it's VERY IMPORTANT that all three front speakers be "timbre-matched" meaning that they share the same sonic qualities. This is best achieved when all three speakers are from the same manufacturer and same line. Properly calibrated, the Polk center is more likely a better match to your Polk mains than the Yamaha.


As a first step - ditch the second pair of mains and properly calibrate your system. If after calibration you still have a hard time discerning dialog from the center channel (a common complaint with lossy DD encoding on DVDs) you can try bumping the level of the center up a bit to compensate. If it's still unsatisfactory at this point, try swapping the Polk center back in the mix and see if that helps.