Old home theater (samsung HT-Z221)

[RDBIESH]

I have an old Samsung home theater. (HT-Z221)

The sound of people's voices is less loud then the background music. In order to watch a movie, I have to turn the volume way up to understand what is being said

Any suggestions for how to fix this? Are there some settings that I can adjust?

Thanks for the help 

[Helenna]

Hi, I request you to please follow the below steps once and check.

Turn up the volume.

Increase the volume on the external device and the home theater system.

Verify that the correct source is set on the home theater system and TV.

If you are watching a Blu-ray disc on your Blu-ray home theater system, the source needs to be set to BD/DVD on the home theater system. If the home theater is connected to HDMI 1, confirm the source on the TV is set to HDMI 1.

If you have a game console connected to your home theater system with an HDMI cable, set the source on your home theater system to HDMI.

If the home theater is connected to HDMI 1 on the TV, set the TV to HDMI

1. If you have a DVD player connected to your home theater system using an optical audio cable, your home theater system's source needs to be set to D.

In. Your home theater system may or may not be connected to the TV, but the DVD player is.

If you are using a component cable, your TV's source needs to be set to Component.

Check the speaker connections in the back of the home theater system.

Make sure the speaker wires are firmly connected to the correct outputs on the rear of the home theater system; they should not be loose.

Always match the color band on the speaker cable to the same color sticker on the bottom of the speaker, and to the same color port on the back of the home theater system and wireless module.

Make sure the speaker wires are securely attached to the speakers.

Note: Some home theater system models' speaker wires cannot be removed from the speaker. If you have one of these models, skip this step.

Open the red and black tabs on the back of the speakers. Remove and then reinsert the speaker wires.

Close the black and red tabs on the metal part of the speaker wires, not the part that is coated in plastic.

If you close the tabs on the coated plastic part of the wire, no audio will output from the speaker.

Run a speaker test. Note: If these steps do not match your Home Theater system, check the user manual for your home theater system.

If there are any discs in the home theater system, remove them.

Change the source to BD/DVD and wait for the home menu to appear.

Navigate to Settings > Speaker Settings > Speaker Test > On. Each speaker will emit a tone in the following order: left, center, right, rear right, rear left, and subwoofer.

[GG2]

You can ajust the level of your speakers individually so maybe rise the level of your center channel to where you're comfortable with the dialogue. Note that positioning of that speaker is also important. You can use a decibel meter to balance all the levels of your speakers with the center channel being slightly higher or you can, although not very precise, download a decibel app on your phone. Just make sure you adjust everything from your seating position.

[RDBIESH]

These are my current settings. (I changed the centre as it was -1) are the other settings okay?

[RDBIESH]

Balancing the levels of each speaker seemed to work. Should the rest of the levels be at the same. I currently have the attached with the centre now at plus 3

[GG2]

It all depends of the positioning of the speakers. On most sets ups, you are often sitting closer to the rear speakers than the front ones so if this is the case, the level of the rear speakers should be at a slightly lower level. Its all a question of balancing out the sound to where the levels of each speaker sound the same according to your seating position. All rooms are different but ideally the fronts should be at a slight angle pointing at your seating position, the center at ear level as much as possible and the rears placed a little higher than the seating position, angled and pointing towards you. The sub should to be placed where it sounds the best according to your room and that could be anywhere. On smaller subs, placing it in a corner sometimes helps to get a little more out of it.

It's very common for the center channel to be set slightly higher than the rest for dialogue reasons you mentioned.

[GG2]

To give you an idea how it's different for each, this is my set up on one of my home theater set ups. Note that im using floor standing speakers and dual svs subs.