I finally got the right cables for my home theater system and 5.1 surround is LOUD! Much louder than the stereo setting I had before. The sound is awsome but the bad thing is dialog in movies is super quiet and actions scenes are super loud. I'm always adjusting the volume. I tried adjusting the sound on my receiver but it won't let me. It just says Dolby Digital on the front of it. It's an Onkyo TX-SR500. The problem is I have neighbors above me. No one to the sides though. But I'm worried my new audio experience might be going up and into their place.

My ceiling is made out of those white tiles that are easy to remove. Can I get sound deadener to put over the tiles above my TV area? Would that help at all? What would I need to use? Thanks for any help.

Mopower, you need one of these gadgets from Radio Shack:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

I've got the cheaper analog one:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

You use the speaker level testing in your receiver and test your speaker volume based on the SPL meter one by one. This should equalize the loudness of the speakers, for the most part.

You're still going to get some variation in noise level based on the source, but this should help eliminate most of the turn-it-up-and-down syndrome.

You should have a white noise generator function (I forget what it's called...under speaker test or something?) that lets you change the volume level of each speaker independently.

greenmonkey, although your advice is helpful for setting up a proper surround sound, I don't think that is what mopower was asking for help on.

Mo - what you want to do is equal volume levels (reduce dynamic range) so that explosions are not loud enough to bother your neighbors, but you still want to be able to hear the dialogue. I have a similar problem, only mine involves sleeping children (and sometimes wife) and not neighbors.

I found that "night mode" help a little, it reduced how loud the booms where, but I am not sure if your onkyo has a night mode, I also found that night mode was not enough to keep from waking up the kids on say T2

The best solution I have seen so far is from Denon - I know the AVR 3806 has it, not sure about the rest

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/623.asp

look at page 35 of the owners manual (page 40 of the PDF)

http://www.usa.denon.com/AVR3806DFU.pdf

They call it "Dynamic Range Compression" or D.Comp, but it only works in DD or DTS modes, that is why they still include a night mode for other formats.

They also have a feature that will limit sub activity for night time listening, but you can always turn the sub level down to do that manually.

I have seen 3rd party devices that will do the same, can't find the links right off, but they were expensive. I have a pre amp - separate amps for each speaker setup, so I figured I could buy the Denon unit with the feature I wanted and sell off my preamp and just use it as a preamp. I never got around to actually doing it though, so I am not sure how well it really works. Maybe someone here that owns one can test it out and report back.

There should be a "setup" or "sound" button on your remote. With that you should be able to increase the level for the center channel and/or decrease the levels of the other channels. I'm almost certain all DD receivers have this capability. You may need to search your instruction manual for it.

I found the night mode for my receiver and I think it helped a little. But the manual says that it depends on the Dolby Digital track on the movie. Sometimes night mode will not have any effect it says. I'll play with the volume levels for the speakers. I don't have my sub hooked up. Otherwise my neighbors would be complaining for sure. Thanks for the help. I found some vinyl sound deadener. But it's like $200 for a roll and weighs 2lbs per square foot!

Yes, sometimes it's called the night mode. On my Denon, it's the dynamic range compression that was posted earlier. My Denon has multiple ranges; off, low, med, high. Don't know if other receivers have these as well. It also works only on Dolby Digital and not on DTS, on mine at least. All else fails, you can turn on the subtitles.

Night mode helps. It basically compresses the dynamic range of the Dolby Digital signal so that there is less difference between quiet/loud.

But as far as having to turn the volume up/down constantly, proper calibration of the speakers helps make the dialogue audible without blowing your ears out when the explosions start.

You're still going to get variance - even calibrated and with night mode on - but it'll be less extreme.

Another way to help is to have efficient, clear speakers. When they are easily driven and are not muddy, the softer sounds are easier to create and therefore easier to hear. This probably does mean spending a bit more, but not a lot more. This is also true of the sub. A good sub can play very low and not disturb neighbors, even allowing you to feel the bass a bit at low volume.

Something I do with my Onkyo receiver is to set the adjustable Mute function to a -10db level instead of full sound off. That way I can hit mute quick when an explosion or something like that is coming and it drops to a decent level. If that model has this option, try it out. (for full mute, I prefer pause anyway)

That's a great idea, I'll have to check my TX-SR601 for it. We have to be particularly careful with the HT not to wake up our 11mo old with it.

Ah, babies. I have had those. The great thing about kids is that they sleep to what they are used to. Live by a train track? No problem, can't go to sleep without the rumble after 2 weeks. We have parrots, a couple of them can scream at decibel levels airplanes would be proud of. All the kids slept through any noise those birds could dish out.

So, that means you need to play the HT more, get the kid used to it. Tell your wife/SO that it's necessary.

I disagree - I have the digital DB meter and mine WERE perfectly calibrated.

I found that if I boosted the center channel and dropped all the rest a little, it made for a better mix of dialogue and explosions. Perfect calibration actually made the problem worse as it made dialogue softer.


I have B&W matrix series speakers driven by Rotel amps - again I disagree - having "better" speakers DOES NOT make the dynamic range problem go away



THE ONLY thing that will make this problem go away is to remove the dynamic range (something that night mode helps with) that the DVD creators programmed into the sound track.

DVD's are doing what mopower decribes ON PURPOSE Dynamic range where dialogue is normal room levels and explosions 'shake the house' are an intended side effect of home theater and most DVD sound tracks that are encoded correctly. This is what I paid money for in home theater

There are just times I like to switch it off as to not wake the wife / kids etc etc.

My solution was to run a second connection from my DVD player into my TV and just use the TV sound when watching late at night. I didn't want to waste the money on buying dynamic range control devices for each channel, it would have been more than $400 and I would rather put that money into something else like a new reciever with HDMI.


The other option is to add the sound insulation, but I have no clue how well that works in home theater applications.

To be honest most of the time she will sleep through a lot of noise. But it's better not to chance it, especially in the first hour or so she's asleep (prime movie/game time).