Using my Pioneer receiver with a 3.1 setup I also bump the center channel level by 2-3 db to make the dialog more clear after the receiver has done its calibration. You might try bumping the level on the center channel speaker a bit and see if that helps.
Dish sound is muddy
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What size speakers do you have?
I think mine might be too jig for the room. They sound great when cranked, it's at casual volumes they get muddy, but so did the bookshelf speakers I tried.
I found the dynamic volume setting on my receiver and turned it on, huge improvement. I also bumped the center channel a few db.
Great, glad you found the problem. I have always thought that the as-calibrated center channel level was low, and have always bumped it few db on every receiver I have owned, even back when I had to set it manually with a sound level meter.
I have an old set of NHT's. SuperOne bookshelf for the center on a shelf above the TV and SuperTwo towers for the left and right speakers. They are not terribly efficient speakers, they are rated at 86 or 87db efficiency, most newer speakers are rated at 90+db so I do have to turn up the volume a bit on them but they very accurate and sound really good. Don't think I would replace them unless I had to, for the quality of sound they were an unbelievable deal.
I have an old set of NHT's. SuperOne bookshelf for the center on a shelf above the TV and SuperTwo towers for the left and right speakers. They are not terribly efficient speakers, they are rated at 86 or 87db efficiency, most newer speakers are rated at 90+db so I do have to turn up the volume a bit on them but they very accurate and sound really good. Don't think I would replace them unless I had to, for the quality of sound they were an unbelievable deal.
Big fan of the older NHT's. I have an AC3 Center and a pair of 3.3's left and right, and a pair of 1.5's in the rear. Also a bit inefficient but driven by a an EAD Powermaster 2000 they sound pretty good. A bit of overkill for watching the news (I use a soundbar for casual viewing), but great for movies.
I am no where near being an audiophile. I am about half deaf.
I have an inexpensive Samsung 3.1 sound bar with wireless sub, all connected by HDMI.
I have to turn up the volume to have a shot at understanding dialogue.
Explosions and gunshots shake the house.
I will look at settings on the Hopper 3 but can't find any settings on the soundbar to tune the center speaker.
I have an inexpensive Samsung 3.1 sound bar with wireless sub, all connected by HDMI.
I have to turn up the volume to have a shot at understanding dialogue.
Explosions and gunshots shake the house.
I will look at settings on the Hopper 3 but can't find any settings on the soundbar to tune the center speaker.
I don't believe that sound bars allow the flexibility of adjusting the levels of the different channels like an audio receiver does. I do have an LG sound bar in the master bedroom and I don't think it has any adjustments to the levels of the various speakers. It does offer various sound modes though, you may want to experiment with those as one of them may provide an elevated center level (or EQ curve) that would help intelligibility of dialog.
Yeah, smaller speakers don't have much bass, the LG sound bar that we have in the bedroom has a small subwoofer (actually just a woofer, it isn't that big) that plugs into it and it actually doesn't sound bad. I have two powered subwoofers in the main system in the living room with the pioneer receiver, one is a 10 inch and the other is a 15 inch sub, lots of bass there.
I noticed last Friday 11/8/19 that the volume has dramatically increased when watching content from my H3.
I used to have the sound bar volume set at 38-40. Now it is louder and clearer set at 25 than it used to be at 40.
Was there a recent H3 update that may have made this change?
Did someone at Dish read this thread and fix the problem at their end?
I used to have the sound bar volume set at 38-40. Now it is louder and clearer set at 25 than it used to be at 40.
Was there a recent H3 update that may have made this change?
Did someone at Dish read this thread and fix the problem at their end?
An update, the dynamic volume setting helps a lot but produces volume irregularities in some TV shows like Forged in Fire where the voices drop out when machines are running in the background. It's really a studio sound mixing problem + compressed audio but we can now watch TV without subtitles.
My friend with his DirecTV Genie got himself this audio processor that inserts into the HDMI signal path which emphasizes the actors speaking on screen. He's older than me and he has trouble understanding what people are saying on his shows. I might blame his Bose Sound Bar, but I don't have the same problem as he does. It does a lot more than just turn up the center channel, it does some frequency matching from the left and right front channels as well.
I will say it clears up any "muddy" or "muffled" speech, but that may not be exactly what you're talking about.
I will say it clears up any "muddy" or "muffled" speech, but that may not be exactly what you're talking about.
Audyssey Labs has a good article explaining the problem which is that movie sound is mixed for listening to at high volumes in a theater but most people listen at moderate levels at home which explains why the sound clears up when I crank the volume but we can't watch TV with volume that loud. I don't know why TV shows would be mixed for theater listening but they are worse than the movies. That doesn't explain why sound is worse on Dish than streaming or disc, or why old recordings sound better, the explanation can really only be that Dish is seriously compressing the audio to save bandwidth. They probably have no choice but that's not my problem.
Sorry, I lost track of this thread. Thank you, I have been aware of those settings since they first showed up on the DISH STBs and have them set as you suggest. It was the first thing I checked with the Tech that did the Dual H3 install standing there so he could experience the difference. When it happened with him standing there, he said he didn't know what to say, but that he'd report it.
There is a distinct volume difference especially when you switch to Netflix, Youtube, VOD, SD channels and other devices that we have attached to our AVRs or Soundbars connected via HDMI, Optical or Analog. If you forget to turn down the volume before, you get blasted. If you have had the sound turned down, you have to turn it up to hear comfortably. HD channels are and have been lower in volume on both our H3's, our H2's, 722's, etc . . . This is not the first time I have mentioned this in the forums or to a DISH Rep or Tech. We have noticed this for years.
After this thread started I went into my AVR, looked at the settings for the center channel and in changing them noticed a distinct difference in clarity as was originally pointed out. I found that these setting that "clear up" the center channel are exclusive to the input that the H3 is connected to and needs to be changed on any other input the H3 is moved to.
I have neighbors that I just moved over to DISH from DTV and in addition to getting use to the "culture change" they are also noticing that they are having to adjust the volume more. They have an H3 and a Joey.
