Page 1 of Dolby Pro-Logic on Yamaha Receiver

When listening to Dolby Surround meterial, either from DVD, Video or TV broadcasts, the centre channel hardly packs any bass, thus music etc doesn`t sound very good at all.

It`s OK with Dolby Digital meterial because the centre channel is used mainly for dialogue.

My receiver is a Yamaha RXV396. Can anyone help me on this please?

Adam

I usually have the same problem. I find the sound from the centre speaker is bad when using Prologic mode on my amp (Yamaha DSP-A5).

I have set up the amp so that bass for the centre speaker goes to my sub, but it still sounds crap in Prologic mode. No problems with Dolby Digital.

Maybe it`s just a poor Prologic decoder in Yamaha kit?

Fergus

I use the ProLogic Enhanced DSP on the A5 : sounds fine and dandy to me.

Centre and rear set to SMALL
Front set to LARGE
Bass out set to BOTH

What speakers are you using ?

I`ve tried everything, but nothing seems to work!

Dolby Digital sounds fine too, but Pro-Logic sounds crap!

Gale Centre 10
Aiwa SX-NAV75 Main Speakers

I know these arne`t the best speakers, but they sound good when listening to Dolby Digital meterial.

This item was edited on Thursday, 18th April 2002, 18:56

I`m using all Monitor Audio Silver stuff, including 9i fronts and 12c centre. They all use the same drivers & tweeters so they SHOULD sound the same. One time I got fed up and plugged one of my front speakers into the centre outputs and that sounded quite bad (in the same way as the 12c does)

I was thinking of upgrading my amp anyway so I guess I will find out one way or another...

Fergus

So i`m not the only person with this problem! I think i`ll e-mail Yamaha asking them about this issue.

Recently got the Yamaha RXV396 and think it sounds great. Can`t remember exact models of speakers (I`m at work at the moment), but centre is Eltax, fronts are Gale Gold Monitors and surrounds are Ariston.

Seems fine on all inputs, whether DD or Pro Logic.

BTW I don`t have a sub, as the one I used to own started to trigger migraine attacks, a condition I hadn`t previously suffered from for over ten years (I don`t just mean bad headaches, I mean real migraines, where you`re stuck in bed for two days, loss of vision, much puking, and it feels as though an elephant is stamping on your head, whilst something else equally brutal is trying to rip your head apart). Has anybody else had the same problem, or is it just me??

Happy weekend!!

Si

The centre channel should not `pack any bass` since it`s used to mainly carry the dialogue track and should sound clear and not muddy. If the DVD, Video or TV broadcasts soundtrack is correctly encoded for `Dolby Surround` having the receiver in Prologic mode should create a good soundfield, but this also depends on how the soundtrack has been encoded.

I have a RXV-596 Yamaha receiver and each channel is set to `small` with the subwoofer setting to `sw` (not `both` or `main`) this will direct all lower frequencies to the subwoofer (where they belong) and beef-up the sound considerably.

Do not, I repeat, do not set your surround speakers to `both` or `main` since any standard surround speakers cannot fully reproduce the lower frequencies which need to be carried by the subwoofer and, at best, they`ll sound strained and at worst you`ll damage them unless they have a low frequency cut-off circuit.

Something that will help the sound of your system overall is to correctly balance the volume of your speakers & subwoofer using an inexpensive SPL meter from your local Radioshack. Email me if you need to know how to carry this out, the improvement it`ll make to the sound can be readily heard.

This item was edited on Friday, 26th April 2002, 09:06