# turn down surrounds or turn up center?



## PRAYER (Jun 18, 2011)

I hear too much side-content/reverb and panned information that while listening to stereo mixes is quiet in comparison. Good stuff happens when I turn down the surrounds, but I still sometimes A/B it with the stereo mix and feel like I am missing the main content of the soundtrack.

If need be I can post pictures of my setup, but I'm pretty much exactly as THX suggests for 5.1.

What should I; and what do you do in this case?


----------



## chris71478 (Dec 2, 2011)

What have you used to set your levels?


----------



## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

Well, my first answer is pretty much "set it up the way YOU like it".
How did you set your speaker levels? Sound level meter? By ear? Receiver automatic system calibration such as; Audyssey, YPAO, MCACC, Auto Setup and Room Equalization function etc?


----------



## Guest (Dec 29, 2011)

Even after auto calibration I've found that a center (movie dialog) can be hard to hear during loud bits when the sub and surrounds are going off. I've found that turning up the center 3db can really help.


----------



## PRAYER (Jun 18, 2011)

I used an SPL meter, on a stand at ear level and pointed at the ceiling in my sweet spot, to set the levels all equal.

Thanks for the quick replies!


----------



## PRAYER (Jun 18, 2011)

Generic said:


> Even after auto calibration I've found that a center (movie dialog) can be hard to hear during loud bits when the sub and surrounds are going off. I've found that turning up the center 3db can really help.



Glad to hear this. I was previously turning down my surrounds *alot* because I felt like they weren't discrete enough. I'll play with this design a bit for now.


----------



## Guest (Dec 29, 2011)

If your doing a manual setup, then I would match everything even, but try an extra 3db on the center. Also, break out a measuring tape and set the distance up too (if you haven't already).


----------



## PRAYER (Jun 18, 2011)

Generic said:


> If your doing a manual setup, then I would match everything even, but try an extra 3db on the center. Also, break out a measuring tape and set the distance up too (if you haven't already).



thanks Generic: I think my girlfriend wants to throw my tape measure out the window, if ya know what I mean.

I had to ask this here because I've heard a few people say they turn down their surrounds a bit. Coming from an audio engineering background, it seems that when I use Dolby PL II on stereo sources that I should focus on tuning my system to achieve unbroken imaging between the speakers; hence if I get better center output with Stereo, I should just chuck my center speaker out the window.


----------



## Guest (Dec 29, 2011)

What receiver are you using? If a source is stereo, I don't like fake surround modes, but that's just me. I only use surround for movies with dolby digital or better source. On the last receiver I had that had Dolby II, the stereo enhancement modes didn't even use the center channel.


----------



## PRAYER (Jun 18, 2011)

It is a Yamaha RX-V361. 
A hand-me-down, which I am exploiting every inch of. 
I get you with the fake surround, I think it's worthy for Grateful Dead audience recordings because it seems like it places me more in the spot that the mics were in.
But alas, I was really just using the PLII as a mean's to hear the difference between imaging. 
.. I guess you're saying that it might not be a good way to check out if I'm missing center-panned content.
This receiver does use the center channel for all Neural, PL, and "5 channel Stereo" modes.

Gonna call it a night. Hope this thread helps anyone else with the same questions.

Thanks fellas


----------



## PRAYER (Jun 18, 2011)

*update*

this thread will now show off a classic oversight:

I plunged deep into my Blu-Ray player's manual and setup menu... then discovered that I had "7.1 reformatting" on. 

Originally I thought that this feature was supposed to downmix 7.1 to 5.1... but it actually reformats 5.1 up to 6.1 or 7.1... Hence; my receiver was taking the extra two signals and playing them out of my surrounds and overpowering the fronts.

After switching it off I didn't even need to boost the center anymore. All is well in my world.


----------

