Unbalanced sound from center and L&R speakers (1 Viewer)

[jontalk]

I have a Marantz SR8000 that's about 7 years old, along with B&W 601S2's, matching B&W center channel and surrounds. I also have a 7 year old, entry level JVC progressive scan DVD player and Panasonic 42", 720p plasma screen. The speakers are connected with heavy duty speaker cable, though the cables to the L&R are rather old Monster cables. The rest of the cables are newer and I do not use banana plugs as yet.

I have been noticing over the past year or so that when watching a DVD, it's difficult to hear voices when the dialog in the movie drops even though I have calibrated the Marantz with increased level to the center channel.

I'm trying to figure out if the problem is: A) the old DVD player, B), the cables, or C) the Marantz. I've never had problems with the receiver and have always felt B&W loudspeakers are quality, even though these tend to be on the flat side.

I'm contemplating upgrading to a Panasonic Blu Ray player, but am just wondering if anyone else has had this experience and what your suggestions might be. The equipment is all in a large armoire and it's pretty tight space-wise.

Please give me your thoughts on what it might be and/or solutions. I don't want to spend a fortune and feel the system while not audiophile is a good one.

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

[AudioENG]

Hey Jonathan,



I would start by doing a simple volume test. I would try and find out if the center speaker isn't keeping up with the speakers when you are just watching DVD's (with specific data for a center channel) or if it's a problem with the actual amplifier or connections. Does your receiver have a test tone setting, where it plays white noise? This may be a good first start to test the levels from the amplifier and see if you notice a significant difference between the center and all the other speakers. Also might be kinda a strange suggestion, but try and swap center for another speaker and see if that speaker has the same problems, this may easily rule out whether it's a problem with the speaker or something else.

Also how do you connect from the dvd player to the receiver optical cable, digital coax, or 6 ch output?

Speaker cable can oxidize over time and corrode, but I'm not sure how much that actually affects the sound quality or volume. You could try to cut off the old ends of the speaker cable to ensure fresh connections.

 

[Stephen Tu]

- BD good upgrade if you sit close, like 7-9 feet. If 11+ feet I'd maybe work on getting bigger set first.

- voice quality center channel. Is it the volume or the intelligibility? Like Tim said use test tones, from receiver or calibration disc. Do you have a sound meter so you can adjust levels to be even? Swap cables, swap speakers, try phantom mode (center channel off in receiver setup), that can maybe narrow down the issue.

It's highly unlikely to be the DVD if connected digitally, problems there would result in sound dropping out intermittently/entirely not level imbalances. So receiver/cables/speaker. Or your own hearing, ack!

 

[chuckg]

Stephen already mentioned it, but have you had a hearing test lately? I've noticed that in the last year or so, the volume control on my sytem needs to be a bit higher than it used to be.....grin.

 

[silentworld]

I got the same problem. Thanks for sharing!