Compensating for a 'Mismatched' B&W Center Speaker

[Blindamood]

In my B&W 5.1 setup I currently have a CDM CNT center speaker, with CDM 9NTs as the front left and right mains, and 1NTs as surrounds. This is not an ideal setup, as the 9NTs are not perfectly matched to the center (9NT has the FST midrange driver, etc.). It seems that many other B&W owners have similar setups, so I thought I'd share what I finally discovered last evening...

First of all, for DVD movies, this setup performs quite well. With discrete 5.1 sound (either Dolby Digital or DTS), the processor decodes and sends everything to the correct speaker and it sounds wonderful...I have no problem with this.

For TV viewing, however, I had initially set the 'default' processing mode to Dolby Pro Logic II - Cinema. The problem with this mode, however, is that all of the dialog (which makes up about 85% of a typical TV show) is sent only to the center speaker. When I get close to the left, right, and surrounds, all that is sent is a very low 'ambiance' type of sound.

So, last evening, I decided to experiment a bit to see how I could better utilize my 9NTs. I started by selecting 2 Channel Stereo, which actually sounds a lot better, but loses some of the centering effect of the dialog.

Next, I tried the 'Music' mode of Dolby Pro Logic, and started playing with the 3 settings provided for this mode (Panorama, Dimension, and Center Width). (Note the 'Cinema' mode does not offer these settings.) The one that I was most interested in is Center Width. This seems to be the key to what I was looking for, as it spreads the center channel signal out to also include the left and right mains. Following is the description of this setting from my processor's user manual:

CENTER WIDTH: The Center Width option allows you to spread the signal intended for the center speaker to the left and right front speakers, widening the perceived soundfield. There are eight incremental settings from 0 to 7. With the default setting of 0, there is no center width spreading and all of the center channel information is sent to the center speaker. The maximum setting of 7 shifts all of the center channel signal to the left and right speakers, essentially muting the center speaker and maximizing the soundfield width. Other settings provide incremental steps between the two extremes.

Based on this, I played with the settings a bit, and finally settled on '4', which sends a good bit of dialog to the mains, while still maintaining a good center image for dialog. So far, this seems to be the answer I was looking for, as it spreads the work (and sound quality) between all 3 front speakers.

Hopefully this can be of help to others as well. I would also appreciate hearing others' results of similar processing tweaks.

Brad

[dan87951]

I'm going to apologize right off the bat and I hope you don't take this the wrong way but I have a little analogy for you. For you to talk about how your $4400 in ($2600 CDM9NT's $1200 1NT's $600 CDMCNT) B&W speakers don't sound correct on regular broadcast tv is like me taking my new Samsung 1080P DLP tv and hooking up my hifi VCR and complaining about the video quality. Get where I'm coming from? Just a little humor... But on a serious note I watch tv through the factory tv speakers, because well its a crap signal coming in, maybe if I had a dish or digitial cable I would do something different otherwise my system doesn't come on unless I have a DVD rcoken in the player or some CD's banging in the changer...

[Mike Gehring]

Dan's message....

Dan makes a great point. Your source is your key to good audio and video quality. If you have a $10,000 pair of speakers and hook up a sony walk man to them you just waisted $10,000 dollars. The only time my 604's sound "good" watching TV is when I'm watching HI-Def. Other than that they pretty much sound like a pair of Radio Shack speakers.

That's the reason people spend $650.00-$3000.00 on DVD players and CD players.

If the engine in your car sucks, don't expect your gas pedal to make up for it.

[Madmoose]

Thanks for the tip Brad. Wasn't aware of this feature. Seemed to help overall sound quality with the older TV shows on broadcast from my digital cable.

[junior77blue]

Yeah, I've been experimenting with this as well.....but I do not have the option of adjusting the amout of center, its either on or off.

I have the N802 with HTM2 center. So, I'm still in trial phase....but preliminary I think I like the sound better without the center. My N802 are fairly close together in the room, just on opposite sides of my 60" RPTV.

More movies....more time will tell what I finally end up going with. There's always the option of purchasing an NHTM1, if I could ever find one cheap.

[Blindamood]

In response to Dan and Mike...the only TV broadcasts I really watch in my theater setup are from a high-quality source. I just upgraded to the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD high-def box with DVR, which I use to watch only high-definition shows like CSI, Cold Case, etc. In addition, I like many programs on Discovery HD and sports on ESPN HD (primarily NFL). All of these programs are in high-def and have excellent digital sound quality (ocassionaly even in 5.1 surround).

Believe me, I'm not complaining at all about the quality of my setup...I love my B&Ws. Just sharing a way that I have found to get the very best sound experience out of them I can.

[weijst]

Brad, thank you for the tip! I'll be trying it out as soon as I get home...
As for Dan and Mike, I don't understand why they reacted the way they did. The way I see it, Brad is just giving as a tip on how to get more out of your system by using it with 'lower quality signals' too, instead of only using your system with CD's / DVD's.

[dyazdani]

I agree totally. I listen to my DSS in stereo and it sounds fine, but I may now try it out in DPL. My pre/pro doesn't have DPLII so I'll have to see what I can do with it.