Soundbar help!

[Tee Hee Johnson]

I have a Denon AV amp, minx2 sub and a pair of Dali Spektor 2’s set up well as far as I can see in regard to sub crossover, automatic positioning with the the mic, etc.

I struggle to hear dialogue clearly, probably doesn’t help that my right ear is a bit rubbish.

I was thinking about a soundbar and sub for between £200-300 to replace the current setup… perhaps with some form of clear voice or something.

Current setup sounds great, but needs to be loud loud for me to make out things!

What say OCUK?

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

Lol what

Just look into a mode on your avr where you can boost speech.

Doesn’t have one

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

I bought the avr about 6 years ago, x540bt, its options are pretty minimal apart from the likes of auto setup with mic, audio delay, limit levels, etc. can’t see an option at the moment.

I’ll look into centre speakers, but somewhat running low on space!

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

Buy the matching center that'll allow you to set center channel level, and adjust dialogue enhance, download your manual and look for dialogue enhance. It'll be an option once you add a center.

Defo doesn’t have dialogue enhance, but has a setting for centre image, which changes the output from side to centre.

Also seems to have a dialogue normalisation function, which is always active but without centre I guess I’m not getting the benefit.

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

The one I linked above isn't too large and shouldn't take up more room than a soundbar at £99, although there are smaller options available.

With a centre speaker the AVR will send voice to it rather than mixing it between the two sides, so it should help with your problem and open up more options for setting up your AVR.

That’s great, thanks! I do like the idea of sticking with Dali. I’d never looked into centre speaker, but seems to make a lot of sense if dialogue comes through there nice and clear rather than mixed with the sides.

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

For anyone who cares, I’ve ordered the Dali Spector vokal from Peter Tyson… as richer sounds never did call me back.

Few new banana plugs too and some nice new cable to re-wire it all.

Oh and a wee floating shelf to put the speaker on. Will see what it’s like in the coming days

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

Got it hooked up a week or two ago now, it has made a difference... feel like im not turning the sound up so much. So im not getting that annoying loud music and explosions then quiet talking.

Voice is much clearer, I can feel the position of the voices come from the centre speaker, so it does seem to be filling in a gap or doing better than the bookshelf ones were doing.

Im still trying to wean myself away from subtitles, I have this weird obsession about not missing anything and not quite trusting my ears yet!