# Stumped.. All new stuff, sounds funny.



## Spinnetti (Dec 12, 2009)

Background
So I read through the forums, did months of research, and did a fresh remodel of my basement, including a dedicated rectangular theatre area. I got HSU 5.1, 63" Samsung plasma, and a Pioneer VSX-23TXH rx. I'm primarily using a brand new Mac Mini (with HDMI) for my movies, but also have a blue ray player. I set the speaker heights and distances per common guidelines (except the sub which is in the back instead of the front). The fronts are free standing and the rears are in-wall.

Current situation
Its all set up, and I did the MGACC or whatever its called and auto-setup the speakers. It all tests fine, calculated the speaker distances pretty accurately and all the test tones came from the right speakers at the right levels.

Issues
For some reason, when I actually watch a movie, almost all the dialog seems to be coming from the left rear speaker! (I thought the front center is where that was supposed to come from?) It doesn't matter what the source is (disc, off the mac whatever).... That SR speaker volume is always too high, and the right rear too low. I adjusted the gain of both rears (left way down and right way up), and its still way off. The rx shows I've got it all hooked up correctly. and the test tones work right.

Ideas? I reset the receiver and tried it all again, and check all the connections but get the same results. Stumped


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

I think you have your wires crosses. Check to make sure your speakers are wired properly by using your AVRs built in test tones, or the test tones included with most DVDs on the THX optimizer.

IF you have done that and you still have a problem, turn off the auto-cal and any sound modes. Start with stereo. If that works, bump up to 3 channels across the front (disable the surrounds in your AVR). If that works, add you surround back in. Let us know how it goes.


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## Spinnetti (Dec 12, 2009)

eugovector said:


> I think you have your wires crosses. Check to make sure your speakers are wired properly by using your AVRs built in test tones, or the test tones included with most DVDs on the THX optimizer.
> 
> IF you have done that and you still have a problem, turn off the auto-cal and any sound modes. Start with stereo. If that works, bump up to 3 channels across the front (disable the surrounds in your AVR). If that works, add you surround back in. Let us know how it goes.


Thanks... with my receiver, you can do that with the on screen display. it shows on the tv what speakers are hooked up, does test tones, lighting up the speaker its testing, uses echolocation to determine speaker placement and comes back with the measurements from the mic to the speakers etc.. All that comes back as it should, and at the test tone level its all normal. Its almost like the center channel and back left channel are backwards, but they aren't.. that's whats so strange...


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

I would do a full reset on your AVR and then check the cabling that none of the wires have been crossed with other speakers and re-run the calibration process and check that each tone generates from the correct speakers.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

Unplug everything from the receiver and carefully plug in everything again. I'm betting you did an oops somewhere.


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## Spinnetti (Dec 12, 2009)

recruit said:


> I would do a full reset on your AVR and then check the cabling that none of the wires have been crossed with other speakers and re-run the calibration process and check that each tone generates from the correct speakers.


Did that last night.... The rx detects a backwards hookup and tells you... Did that when I first set it up... Like I said, the test tones come out right, and from the right speakers..... only on content playback. I'll check the wires again, but 99% its set up right.


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## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

You can use a nine volt battery to pop test each speaker wire, before hooking them into the receiver. 

Matt


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

Just switch the center channel and the back left surround wires- problem solved!  


(ok, don't really do that)




Have you checked the speakers themselves? If the left one is shorting lightly it could potentially be directing more power to one of it's speakers, making it louder than anything else in the room. Listen to make sure all of the speakers are playing, and that they are all at the same volume level with regards to the others in the cabinet. I would also suggest making sure the other surrounds are fully functional as well, since a failing speaker can potentially have a few different affects on the system overall, one among those being volume discrepancies


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Spinnetti said:


> Did that last night.... The rx detects a backwards hookup and tells you... Did that when I first set it up... Like I said, the test tones come out right, and from the right speakers..... only on content playback. I'll check the wires again, but 99% its set up right.



You have not got a DSP mode set which alters the sound in any ways, some of these manufacturers put so many DSP modes in that it is easily done.


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## Spinnetti (Dec 12, 2009)

Thanks for the feedback all.. No real way to test the speakers, but will give it another shot this weekend. Odd thing is, when doing the test tones, they all sound normal. I'll try some more sources to make sure its not some weirdness there.


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## OvalNut (Jul 18, 2006)

Spinnetti said:


> Thanks for the feedback all.. No real way to test the speakers, but will give it another shot this weekend. Odd thing is, when doing the test tones, they all sound normal. I'll try some more sources to make sure its not some weirdness there.


Then you have one or more speakers wired with their wires out of phase mostly likely. Should all be + to +, - to -.


Tim
:drive:


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## Spinnetti (Dec 12, 2009)

Thanks for all the tips.. Finally figured it out... just a software setting that wasn't obvious <sigh>... anyway, all's well now. Thanks.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Spinnetti said:


> Thanks for all the tips.. Finally figured it out... just a software setting that wasn't obvious <sigh>... anyway, all's well now. Thanks.


Glad you got it sorted


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