What Are You Using For Home Theater?

[sonnyhill]

I am looking into starting to put together a very modest (< $750.00) home theater set up.  I am currently using a Yamaha soundbar with a fairly new 55-inch Sony television.  However, I am still experiencing difficulty in hearing certain dialogue in tv and movies. 

I am thinking of starting with just a receiver and two front speakers (bookshelf) and then adding a center and rears.  Any suggestions with respect to a budget receiver and bookshelf speakers? 

[kinuta]

4 hours ago, sonnyhill said:

I am looking into starting to put together a very modest (< $750.00) home theater set up.  I am currently using a Yamaha soundbar with a fairly new 55-inch Sony television.  However, I am still experiencing difficulty in hearing certain dialogue in tv and movies. 

I am thinking of starting with just a receiver and two front speakers (bookshelf) and then adding a center and rears.  Any suggestions with respect to a budget receiver and bookshelf speakers? 

I've also been having problems with muffled or barely audible dialogue on tv programmes. I explained it as either deterioration of my hearing or inadequacies in my audio playback equipment. I've had my hearing checked and it seems to be quite normal for my age. My amp and speakers perform well on cds and dvds, so I've come to the conclusion that the problem lies in the audio source.

However, if I use headphones,(Sony MDR-V6) the problem is solved and the dialogue is clear and sharp.

Hence I'm back to square one and unable to explain what the cause is.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I read an article earlier in the year about BBC and ITV viewers complaining about the perceived poor audio quality of some programmes. They beefed about not being able to understand what was being said, which might mean this is not an isolated problem.

I don't have a home theatre, I use a regular audio amp (Onkyo) and tower speakers (Kenwood) so am unable to offer any meaningful advice.

Edited December 23, 2017 by kinuta

[mjzee]

5 hours ago, sonnyhill said:

I am looking into starting to put together a very modest (< $750.00) home theater set up.  I am currently using a Yamaha soundbar with a fairly new 55-inch Sony television.  However, I am still experiencing difficulty in hearing certain dialogue in tv and movies. 

I am thinking of starting with just a receiver and two front speakers (bookshelf) and then adding a center and rears.  Any suggestions with respect to a budget receiver and bookshelf speakers? 

Sorry to hear of your travails.  I've always found TV sound to be inadequate.  I recently bought a Yamaha soundbar for our Panasonic plasma TV.  It's the ATS-1070, which Costco had on sale for $119.  Besides the sound, I bought it for its form factor - it's very thin, so it doesn't block the remote receptors on the TV.  The sound is great.  One button on the remote is "clear voice," to emphasize dialog.  You can also switch between "stereo" and "surround" (which is pretty cool coming from a single source).

Soundbar or no soundbar, I strongly suggest you go into the audio settings on your TV.  It's very possible your TV's output is set for a 5.1 or 7.1 system, which will sound terrible with any other audio setup.  Play with all the various options there.  It's also possible that some of those settings conflict with settings on your soundbar - you need to experiment with both in tandem.  It's very possible you don't need to replace your soundbar.

One more thing: if you're having trouble with audio from DVDs, you should also go into the audio settings on your DVD player.  

[sonnyhill]

3 hours ago, mjzee said:

Sorry to hear of your travails.  I've always found TV sound to be inadequate.  I recently bought a Yamaha soundbar for our Panasonic plasma TV.  It's the ATS-1070, which Costco had on sale for $119.  Besides the sound, I bought it for its form factor - it's very thin, so it doesn't block the remote receptors on the TV.  The sound is great.  One button on the remote is "clear voice," to emphasize dialog.  You can also switch between "stereo" and "surround" (which is pretty cool coming from a single source).

Soundbar or no soundbar, I strongly suggest you go into the audio settings on your TV.  It's very possible your TV's output is set for a 5.1 or 7.1 system, which will sound terrible with any other audio setup.  Play with all the various options there.  It's also possible that some of those settings conflict with settings on your soundbar - you need to experiment with both in tandem.  It's very possible you don't need to replace your soundbar.

One more thing: if you're having trouble with audio from DVDs, you should also go into the audio settings on your DVD player.  

I have the same soundbar -- the "clear voice" setting helps somewhat, but it has not solved my problem.  I have looked into my tv's settings and cable box's settings, but still am having issues.  I will look into the tv and cable box settings again. 

However, when I hook up my computer playing Netflix content to my stereo system, I seem to get better audio than I do with the soundbar. -- especially with dialogue that is in the lower registers  I am considering getting a a/v receiver, front speakers (i/r), and a center channel.

[Dave Garrett]

If I were looking for the next step up from a soundbar, as far as speakers go I'd definitely consider the Energy Take Classic 5.1 system. It's long been regarded as one of the best "bang for the buck" budget systems out there, and you should be able to get it new for around $300. 

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Classic-Theater-System-Black/dp/B001202C44

I've been happy with the Onkyo A/V receiver I have, but it's a several-year-old model that was one of their top-of-the-line units at the time. Not too familiar with their current product line, but the TX-NR656 looks like a pretty nice unit in the $350-400 range, and they used to have a lower-priced NR5xx series that might be worth checking out as well. Be forewarned that if the newer units are anything like my Onkyo, they will probably be pretty complicated to set up due to a wide variety of configuration options, but once you've invested the time to do so, you shouldn't have to touch it again unless something else in your system changes significantly.