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Best speakers for home theater/voice clarity?

I presently have a Von Schweikert VR4/Gen II- the bass is superb, but the voice intelligebility is very poor. I even bought a pair of ribbon supertweeters from VS, to no avail. I am considering the B&W 802D, the Martinlogan SummitX, and the Magnepan 3.6 or 20.1. Also the Salk HT3 if I ever get a chance to hear them.

My room is 14x18'. For home theater, the most important feature is voice clarity, 2nd is bass depth and clarity, and 3rd is dynamics.

Any comments on the above, or other suggestions would be very much appreciated.
tvjunkie20
tvjunkie20 OP
4 posts
 
My pre/pro is the EAD theatermaster and my amps are Krell KMA100 monoblocks. My source is either a Directv DVR or Sony PS3.

btw, I am running in phantom mode.
csmgolf
479 posts
 
I am not familiar with either the PS3 or the Direct DVR. Do they have digital outputs? If so, are you using the digital or a set of analog outputs? If you are using digital outputs, are they configured to have the digital outputs in 2.0? Are you getting mostly music from your VR 4's when watching movies? If vocals are fine in stereo, I would expect them to also be fine when used for theater.
rakuennow
81 posts
 
I compared a Denon and Pioneer Elite receiver at the $1000 price-point 2 years ago and found that the Denon lacked intelligibility. In my opinion, this has as much to do with the amp, or the room, than anything.
bryoncunningham
888 posts
 
Like several other posters have suggested, I suspect there is a setup problem. You mentioned that you are running in phantom mode. That could be the problem. Do you have poor dialogue intelligibility in (unprocessed) stereo? Do you have it from all sources equally, or are some sources worse than others?

If the answer to these last two questions is yes, then the next place I would look is at the room. Bad room acoustics can easily lead to poor dialogue intelligibility.
somec59
244 posts
 
Dhalquist DQ-10's are 3x3 feet wide and have horns and great for the center channel/voices
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