Help With Sound Clarity

[Rxilher]

Hello all!

I have Titan 615lx for my LCR speakers. And then DISG Volt 8’s for everything else (surround and Atmos). I have tried everything to increase the clarity of the speakers, especially on vocals, and have just been struggling. It always sounds like speech and things that should be clear or muffled. I was using an Emotiva XMC-2 for sound processing, and now I have switched to an anthem AVM 70 8K. It is still there, and I still cannot get the clarity I’m looking for, and I’m starting to think it is the speakers. It seems to improve with increased volume, but any medium to lower listing volumes. It is heavily muffled. I am using balanced cables from processor to amps. My LCR Amp is an Emotive DR3 gen3 and two Emotiva XPA-2 for surrounds.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Rxilher]

If there is a better place to post please advise. I am open to any guidance or suggestions!

 

[DMill]

If there is a better place to post please advise. I am open to any guidance or suggestions!

Welcome to ASR. I think your post is fine here. What type of room correction are you using if any? That would most likely be the best way to solve your issue. Replacing amps or cables isn’t goin to do anything. I really don’t know anything about your speakers.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Speech clarity is mainly influenced by a) room, b) positioning (speaker, listener), c) speakers and d) setup of room correction system (incl. dynamic loudness) and NOT by amp or dac electronics.

So you can play with the aforementioned, but the easiest solution is probably to engage any "loudness function" (or dynamic eq, or whatever they are called by the manufacturer of your system) you might have and or to boost the "speech" frequencies a bit in your "room correction system".

 

[AnalogSteph]

These seem to be DIY speakers. Stupid question, has measured performance ever been verified? There are some mistakes that are easily made and could really wreak havoc on performance, like accidentally reversing polarity on the midrange. Things like that should show up in measurements clear as day even under less than ideal conditions.

As mentioned, room acoustics would be of interest as well. The DIYSG Titan-615LX is a larger than average speaker and as such would be less compromised under non-ideal condition than some, but everything has its limits if your room sounds like a gym.

 

[TurtlePaul]

You have a set of speakers obscure enough that nobody has measured them to know what is wrong with them.

 

[Rxilher]

Thank you very much everyone thus far. I have an acoustically, transparent screen and screen wall made of speaker material. The speaker sit behind that screen.

At this time I am using the anthem ARC Genesis. Previous to that was Dirac Live on the Emotiva. I realize these are not every day speakers. I have double and triple checked polarities on my speakers. The crossover boards were purchased directly from DIYSG.

I will see if anthem offers anything to correct for speech clarity.

 

[Rxilher]

This is my room. The only sound treatments I have is behind the screen wall. The entire wall is covered in Rockwool insulation. With that being said, I would think sitting in front of a center channel, hoping for vocal clarity would not be absorbently affected by room insulation.

 

[TurtlePaul]

Here is from the designer. Have you done this? I would do this.

“Optional Crossover Modifications (July-2018):
I was testing some adjustments to the crossover recently and noticed some things that can improve the sound.

Removing the 33 Ohm resistor boosts the level of the midrange by a little bit (1-2dB) and this gives a speaker a little more presence and detail through the midrange. this can be achieved by unsoldering and removing the resistor entirely or just by cutting one of the leads where it attached to the board.”

 

[Rxilher]

Hmmmm. No! Very interesting. I will have to check my records and see what revision i used.

Thank you!

 

[TurtlePaul]

Hmmmm. No! Very interesting. I will have to check my records and see what revision i used.

Note there is also a second tweak I would do that tilts down the response of the tweeter. I would do both but the midrange tweak will help voices more and it is easier to remove a resistor than buy new parts.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Hmmmm. No! Very interesting. I will have to check my records and see what revision i used.

Thank you!

Or just boost the midrange electronically in your AVR target curve before taking out the wire cutters. At least for checking.

 

[TurtlePaul]

Or just boost the midrange electronically in your AVR target curve before taking out the wire cutters. At least for checking.

It won’t be exactly the same because boosting the midrange driver vs the highs should also make a directivity change. The original design seems to have a directivity balloon at 3-5 khz.

 

[DMill]

This is my room. The only sound treatments I have is behind the screen wall. The entire wall is covered in Rockwool insulation. With that being said, I would think sitting in front of a center channel, hoping for vocal clarity would not be absorbently affected by room insulation.

Your room is quite nice. I wouldn‘t expect it’s causing an issue. Is this a new issue or something you’ve been dealing with?

 

[Rxilher]

Your room is quite nice. I wouldn‘t expect it’s causing an issue. Is this a new issue or something you’ve been dealing with?

Thank you! This is an issue that has followed me from our old home to our new home. The theater room in the old home was larger and better insulated than this one. I am definitely going to make the adjustment to the crossover on the speakers ASAP and see how it goes.

 

[Rxilher]

It won’t be exactly the same because boosting the midrange driver vs the highs should also make a directivity change. The original design seems to have a directivity balloon at 3-5 khz.

Can you provide me with some links on where you found the discussion related to the harmonics on the speaker? you are definitely better versed than I am and I own/built them .

 

[Rxilher]

Note there is also a second tweak I would do that tilts down the response of the tweeter. I would do both but the midrange tweak will help voices more and it is easier to remove a resistor than buy new parts.

If you could, please share the source your referencing. For some reason, I am not seeing the same information you are. Thank you!

 

[TurtlePaul]

Titan Speaker Kits

Official thread for the Titan-615 and Titan-818 designs [IMG] This design was conceived while I was down at Erich's shop helping him with a some...

www.hificircuit.com

The second post has the “crossover update” section.

 

[Rxilher]

Titan Speaker Kits

Official thread for the Titan-615 and Titan-818 designs [IMG] This design was conceived while I was down at Erich's shop helping him with a some...

www.hificircuit.com

The second post has the “crossover update” section.

Thank you! I will explore and report back.

 

[theswede]

Generally small “errors” in a diy speaker/filter will be corrected by Dirac so not likely these mods are the issue.
if you run Dirac you can post the measurements and your target curve. Maybe it’s simply a very well damped room and you need to tweak the target response. That said its easy to get the filter connections wrong if you are new to building filters.