ProCinema woes (1 Viewer)

[Kevin.K]

i bought these a while (i have the 80's) back and am still not happy. i bought a Radio Shack spl meter to try to get it calibrated and can't seem the do it. the main issue is with center channel dialogue and surround effects. my receiver is a Sony STR-DE895. i have tried the dynamic compression. i can't seem to get a good volume from the center and the rears. i am beginning to supsect a bad receiver. the only strange thing is that HD feeds from my DISH 811 sound just as they should. i really only have the problem with DVD's. DTS sounds better the DD.. any suggestions. i've also tried COAX vs. Optical on the DVD player.

thanks

 

[John Garcia]

I never liked the ProCinemas. They always sounded boxy to me because I can hear the plastic cabinets resonate. They lack any useable bass, so you will want to use a relatively high x-over with them.

I prefer coax to optical.

What DVD? If it sounds OK on other sources, then why wouldn't you suspect the DVD player itself? IMO, DTS generally DOES sound better than DD, but that will vary from movie to movie.

 

[Ricky c]

I'm going to dissagree with you ther even though it's your right to have an opinion.But the def.tech. are far from "boxy".I had the 100's for 3 yrs till i upgraded to other spks more of a change than anything else.FWIW per def.tech they recommend wiring the mains thru the sub spkr level and the subout via the receiver simultaneously(best of both worlds)set the sub xover at about 80 and set mains to large and sub yes.All other spkrs to small.This is the way i had mine and they were great fot HT/TV and music.As far as the center dialogue maybe the settings on the reciever may be off, or some other adjustment.Did this problem just occur all of a sudden?

 

[Kevin.K]

well, hooking them up that way is not an option. i don't have a Def Tech sub. I'm going to try to mess with the DVD player and do some other test to attempt to find my problem.

 

[Nathan Stohler]

What do you mean? Do you mean you had problems making the adjustments on the receiver? Or do you mean that you calibrated all the speakers to output the same SPL, but you didn't like the results?

If you've calibrated, and you still think the dialogue is too soft, there's no law against bumping up your center channel a few decibels.

Also, don't expect to be overwhelmed with sound from your surround speakers. Most of the time, they should blend in with the rest of your system. They shouldn't be drawing attention to themselves.

 

[John S]

I am of the opinion dialog / the center channel, needs to be set by ear by source. bets of luck with it.

 

[Kevin.K]

about the SPL meter, i can't even get the Sony test tones to even register 60db and the AVIA Digital Essentials had about the same results. i haven't done the test with HD material though. it may very well be my dvd player

 

[John Garcia]

The reason they recommend hooking up the ProCinemas that way is because they cannot handle lower midrange, just like most small satellite speakers. The way you hooked them up, the mains were probably using a fixed crossover at 100-120hz creating a slight dip in the lower midrange if you were using an 80Hz x-over on the sub (~90% of subs use a fixed high-pass when used this way). For the price, I was less than impressed. They sounded like any other small plastic satellite speaker to me, and while that may an opinion, it is based on many years of experience. Don't take it personally though, it's just an opinion. I listened to both the 80s and 100s, crossed over at 80Hz and full range, and found the same thing with both.

When calibrating, you need to have all DSPs, and dynamic compression turned off!! Check this first.