Voices Too Quiet? Change This AV Receiver Setting

Comments · 143

• CA

  @CalebRated · 2 months ago · pinned

  Hey everyone! Love all the alternative ideas for center channel clarity or dialog clarity in movies. Just remember, if you alter the EQ, you are altering a LOT of the other sound, not just the dialog. I love the placement and angle ideas, and also, those of you with ported center channels placed in a cabinet, try blocking the port with a washcloth or something similar and see if that reduces the chesty bass and makes things a bit more clear. More ideas I and members of this awesome community thought of after the video came out!

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• DA

  @dalef3583 · 2 months ago

  It's amazing how low the dialog is compared to the special effect sounds, but whenever there's a commercial the dialog becomes crystal clear.

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• CH

  @ChadCourtneyTAZ427 · 2 months ago

  Yep, constant frustration.  I have no issues cranking up the volume and then letting the action scenes roar, but it pisses the wife off to hear it across the house.  So, while I've played with the DRC settings, and it does help to a degree, I tend to ramp the volume up and down when my wife complains.  Hopefully with the new home being built, which has a dedicated HT room, with insulation in the walls, and solid core doors, this will enable me to enjoy it the way it's supposed to be enjoyed.

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• SL

  @Slickman2006 · 2 months ago

  Also scary movies do that on purpose, then you have to turn it up, then all the sudden.....BOOM! 😂

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• BR

  @brettster3331 · 2 months ago

  Great advice Calib, my receiver a now 16 year old Pioneer 7.2 channel has a speaker balance system that puts out a white noise  sound and cycles through each speaker and alows you to adjust the volume for each individual speaker, this is so easy to use and get the sound right, I do boost the center channel a little.

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• DO

  @dougrobinson8602 · 2 months ago

  A lot of receivers and processors allow you to select "Small" as a speaker size for any speaker. You could set your center speaker to "Small", which would limit bass signal to it. This can help with loud effects coming through the center speaker. It's worth a try. It also helps to aim your center speaker directly at the listening position. I had to angle my floor mounted center speaker upward. It helped considerably. Your center speaker might have better off-axis response than mine. I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

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• FO

  @fonkenful · 2 months ago (edited)

  Only addition I’d make to the centre channel is most important speaker comment is that the entire front row should be as close to possible in terms of timbre matching. Pick your own adventure in terms of strategy, but it’s worth mentioning that there are mainstream and lesser known specialty manufacturers offering MTM types with crossover and driver layout configurations designed to reduce lobing concerns that enables them to be used across the front row, with the centres layer horizontally, and the L&amp;R vertically. Since more granular control of bass management can be achieved by setting all speakers to small and experimenting with their individual crossovers to the sub/LFE channel, start at THX recommended 80Hz *, the heavy lifting of any loss of bottom end from the front will easily be handled by the sub(s).<br><br>*Caleb, if you’ve not already done so, a deep dive into that subject could be very illuminating.

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• DJ

  @DjCarlos17cuzn · 2 months ago

  Now that goes beyond normalisation. In streaming now the rule that maybe need a whole video by itself is Dialogue Gating at the time of measuring loudness and for the major services it&apos;s required to be -27LUFS which is pretty quiet in comparison with the other elements of the mix that go by themselves on their full dynamic range. This fits well when you listen to the mix at reference level and have a dedicated room but meanwhile you&apos;re not. Then you listen to a blu-ray that doesn&apos;t have to comply to loudness targets and it works fine on most systems. I&apos;ve personally tested mixes from my Blu-Rays of Star Wars, Mamma Mia, Wicked, Madagascar 2, Surf&apos;s Up, Dune... both in Spanish and English (there&apos;s also the difference between the TrueHD and DD+ packages but not really noticeable in this matter for most people) and streaming it&apos;s clearly worse because of loudness levels.

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• SO

  @Soldierblue211 · 2 months ago

  Voice clarity can also be helped by room treatment.. diffusion or sound panels can help with reflections interfering with certain frequencies!

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• JT

  @jt-xr8hc · 2 months ago

  I have been &nbsp;watching you even before the beef with it. Im actually poor and would love that. I look up to you guys and look forward to buying a economical system

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• AT

  @atomicpunk2025 · 2 months ago

  To Dave and Mrs Dave . I too, suffered horribly from low dialog for many MANY years. <br>I got rid of my older Yamaha AVR and bought the most current Yamaha out there. &nbsp;It , for the most part solved my low dialog issues . Now, I used the included mic and did the fancy setup like recommended, didn&apos;t touch any other settings. Dialog is now a happy thing Dave. Not sure what black magic this new receiver uses but life is so much better now. <br>Good luck to you and one more thing , I&apos;m still using my trusty dual speaker Cerwin Vega center from decades? ago. Works awesome. <br>Happy 4th !

• KE

  @kevinc7286 · 2 months ago

  @calebrated the problem with dialog goes beyond home theater. They’re just mixing voices too low in the mix. &nbsp;Obviously the worst offender is Christopher Nolan’s movies from Dunkirk to present. For tenet I watched at home with subtitles and I still couldn’t understand much of the dialog.<br><br>This is the reason that even Gen Z is watching with subtitles and theaters have screenings with subtitles.<br><br>Someday I hope they get a grip and realize that as much as we love explosions, we still want to understand what’s being said through the movie WITHOUT SUBTITLES.

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