Improving vocals on my AV set up

MichaelHo · 26 Dec 2012 at 11:00

Hi guys,

I may have asked this question before but I cannot seem to get a solution. I have a Yamaha 1067 AVR with a pair of B&W 685s, i.e. the home theatre amp running a stereo set up for the time being. When I play DVDs and watch TV the vocals are balanced but when I watch Blu-Ray the vocals tend to lower and ambient noise is too loud when I turn up the volume so that the vocals are at a good level.

Before I get my surround sound set up which will include a centre speaker does anyone know how I can make the vocals louder? Is there any I can change on the EQ to improve it?

I was watching The Dark Knight Rises last night and at the beginning scene on the plane, Bain's voice was good but the FBI agents voice was too low. Very strange!

Katoom · 26 Dec 2012 at 11:03

Is the output of the Blu-ray player/film set to stereo?

MichaelHo · 26 Dec 2012 at 12:46

I haven't changed any output settings, but I thought the amp handled it all and adjusted to stereo automatically as it knows I only have two speakers connected?

Lorddalron · 26 Dec 2012 at 13:02

a centre speaker is key to vocals. Given the fact that you already have front speakers it is advised to match the centre speaker to those to get an even balance.

Once you get your setup complete, including your surround speakers you will notice a huge difference

Neme · 26 Dec 2012 at 16:06

Lorddalron said:
a centre speaker is key to vocals. Given the fact that you already have front speakers it is advised to match the centre speaker to those to get an even balance.

Once you get your setup complete, including your surround speakers you will notice a huge difference

Bingo

You will be amased what difference a centre speaker will make, before then the only thing you can really do is check the settings on your amp and make sure everything is set up correctly for a stereo configuration.

As above, when you do get your centre, try and get it from the same speaker range as your fronts, any tonal shoft with sounds panning across the front can be quite distracting.

MichaelHo · 26 Dec 2012 at 17:41

When I initially bought the set up I was planning on extending to a full B&We 685 theatre system but has since decided against that. In the future I'm planning on getting a satellite style package and use the 685s for a stereo hi fi set up. I really don't want to be a B&W big centre speaker. Will a cheap centre for the mean time make a big improvement?

9designs2 · 26 Dec 2012 at 22:10

Really need to check carefully the set-up and make sure it's in "Phantom mode" to make sure the centre information is being added to the Left+Right channels.
Also might want to experiment with dynamic range compression in the settings if your amp and speakers are not good at managing the BD dynamic range.
I've used my set-up with and without centre for years with problems.