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Center channel questions

I currently listen to my TV sources using a normal two channel stereo. Its very high end but my wife and I often cant understand dialog and other times the sound track background noises and music overwhelm the dialog. Is this because we are missing the center channel information?

I understand the the center channel is dedicated mostly to voices so the addition of a center channel might clarify our problem.

If i am correct I would be looking for a center channel decoder. (I don't want to buy a 5.1 channel system, just a mono amp being driven by a center channel decoder if such a thing exists. Please comment and or make suggestions.
keis

Showing 1 response by reubent

reubent
6,935 posts
 
keis,

How are you getting the TV output to your system? What is the setup? Is it possible that you just have a setup problem. I know I had issues years ago when I tried to connect my cable box into my system via digital output. The cable box was set to Dolby Digital and I had to change it to PCM so it down-mixed the multi-channel audio down to 2 channels.

If your setup is good and you want a solution, perhaps a higher end under TV audio system like an upper-end ZVOX would work for you. It probably would be a self contained system, not using your existing L&R main speakers. But it would probably provide better dialog.

A more expensive choice would be to replace your current 2-channel pre-amp with a high-end multi-channel HT pre-amp and buy a center channel speaker and amp to power it. In the setup you would only set up the 3 speakers and set the rears/surrounds and sub to "none". However, this may diminish the sound quality of the 2-channel portion of your system unless you buy a super-high end multi-channel pre-amp.

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