Enjoying new sound :-)

For a while now we have been struggling to hear dialogue properly when watching dvds or the tv.

After applying a bit of thought it was quite obvious we have been using the TV speakers since our very old surround sound system had stopped working properly (no signal to subwoofer and damage to a couple of the smaller speakers). The TV speakers are just not clear enough and it gets worse if you turn the volume up.

So while having an afternoon out in Leicester (including nice lunch at Good Earth) we nipped along to Richer Sounds. Have to say the result is a huge improvement. Having a modern AV Receiver means the DVD player and Digital Set Top Box both connect to the AV Receiver and then that connects to the TV and to the speakers. This means we only need to use the on/off switch on the TV, it stays on the same HDMI cable all the time with the volume at zero.

There are a couple of other very nice features of the Yamaha AV Receiver. First the DVD player and Set Top Box box connect to it with both HDMI and Optical Cables which should be best for sound quality. Second it comes with a microphone to automate configuration of the surround sound. Simply place the microphone where your head will be when watching a film, then turn on the AV Receiver and it plays a sequence of sounds to work out the relative volumes for the speakers - very cool.

So back to properly enjoying films with the ability to shake the floor nicely if I want to :-) Yep I love my toys! Plus hopefully when we watch something together we won't need to keep pausing and replaying bits to catch what they have said.