MadMadHoosier
Auditioning
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2024
- Messages
- 4
- Real Name
- Steve
We built our retirement home in 2008 and did a lot of smart home and distributed A/V throughout. The company that did the install folded after the owner died, and (with my electronics background) I've been supporting the systems myself since. When it comes to detailed A/V, I know enough to be dangerous!
We have always had a problem understanding voices in our great room. And it's not a volume issue, it's that the speech is not very intelligible at any given volume. And it seems worse since switching from cable/dish to streaming content. A few years ago I hired a local "expert" who suggested changing our (ceiling mounted) front speakers to some that tilted towards our recliners. It "might" have helped a little, but with the recliners 18' from the front, it is still not enough. I've heard/understand speech is carried on the front/center channel of home theater systems. My wife keeps looking at the back channel speakers, above and behind our heads, and wants the speech audio to come out of those. I've told her that is not how they work, and she just says - why not?
Our great room audio is driven by a B&K AVR507 s2 to 7 wired speakers in the ceiling. 8" speakers for the front and center channels, and 3" speakers for the side and back channels. The amp driving the sub-woofer in the attic died many years ago, and we have not bothered to replace it.
When listening by myself, I can cheat and have Roku directed to my hearing aids. But that does not help my wife - even with her superhuman hearing. Or me when watching Tivo or other sources.
Edited to add: It is more of a problem with movies, and seldom with newscasts.
Anyway, looking for ideas to improve understanding the speech when watching TV together. We care less about the surround sound features, and more about understanding what people are saying. For the moment we have resorted to turning closed captioning on - all the time.
Thanks for any and all replies, Steve.
We have always had a problem understanding voices in our great room. And it's not a volume issue, it's that the speech is not very intelligible at any given volume. And it seems worse since switching from cable/dish to streaming content. A few years ago I hired a local "expert" who suggested changing our (ceiling mounted) front speakers to some that tilted towards our recliners. It "might" have helped a little, but with the recliners 18' from the front, it is still not enough. I've heard/understand speech is carried on the front/center channel of home theater systems. My wife keeps looking at the back channel speakers, above and behind our heads, and wants the speech audio to come out of those. I've told her that is not how they work, and she just says - why not?
Our great room audio is driven by a B&K AVR507 s2 to 7 wired speakers in the ceiling. 8" speakers for the front and center channels, and 3" speakers for the side and back channels. The amp driving the sub-woofer in the attic died many years ago, and we have not bothered to replace it.
When listening by myself, I can cheat and have Roku directed to my hearing aids. But that does not help my wife - even with her superhuman hearing. Or me when watching Tivo or other sources.
Edited to add: It is more of a problem with movies, and seldom with newscasts.
Anyway, looking for ideas to improve understanding the speech when watching TV together. We care less about the surround sound features, and more about understanding what people are saying. For the moment we have resorted to turning closed captioning on - all the time.
Thanks for any and all replies, Steve.
Last edited: