I'm looking to upgrade my speakers, particularly the center
speaker. As I've been shopping around, it seems that a lot of people have problems with
the center speaker sounding hollow. It sounds like it lacks bass. Is there a way to tweak
my receiver settings so that my center speaker doesn't have that hollow sound?
...Al Obrero
It's hard to generalize about something like a center
speaker, because there are so may different ones with different sonic characteristics. It
is true, however, that most of them are small, and thus don't produce a lot of bass.
That's why the low-frequency component of the center signal is usually routed to the left
and right front speakers, if they are full-range models, or to the subwoofer output.
There are systems that do use full-range speakers in the
center, and most receivers and decoders can accommodate them. In the setup for such a
configuration, the center speakers would be designated as "large," and they
would receive a full-range signal; the bass would not be routed elsewhere. If the center
was a small model, but the controls inadvertently set to "large," the bass would
not be reproduced anywhere, and the speakers might well sound hollow.
...Ian G. Masters
Since coming to Canada six years ago, I've enjoyed
listening to FM. I left all my a/v equipment behind for incompatibility reasons, and at
about half a century of age, it's hard for me to start from scratch again with a full
system, so I think a good receiver and a CD player would be enough. However I am not so
sure about the future of FM. I would like to know for how long FM will be around and
whether the upgrade is worth it or not.
...Ioan
I'd say go for the upgrade. Although digital radio is a
reality in several Canadian cities, it's been very slow to catch on. Most listeners are
not even aware of its existence, let alone able to receive it -- there are very few radios
available in any case. The intention is to run digital and analog versions of the
stations' signals in parallel for as long as anyone wants them, and possibly forever, so I
wouldn't hesitate to buy an FM receiver today,
The case would be even stronger if you lived in the U.S.
There, a completely different system is in the works (but nowhere near on the air yet). It
would piggyback digital signals on existing FM and AM channels, so they could be listened
to either way. Presumably, the analog versions would continue indefinitely. Or analog
radio could be supplanted entirely by the U.S. satellite radio services.
...Ian G. Masters
My friend sent me four tapes she had copied with an
episode of a specific television show on each of them. When I put any of these tapes in my
VCR, I hear the audio not from this show, but from some other programs. I can see the
episodes just fine, but the audio is from something else! When I tried playing the same
tapes in another friends' VCR, the episodes were just fine: the audio matched. Since I
have two VCRs at home, I switched them and still the audio doesn't match. I don't
understand why.
...Julia Grinberg
Many people don't realize it, but almost all
videocassettes contain two sound tracks, recorded in different fashions, but usually
carrying the same material. The main one is the "hi-fi" track, which is recorded
along with the video and contains high-quality sound, stereo, and often surround-sound
encoding. When this is recorded, a lower-quality mono "linear" track is also
recorded along the edge of the tape. That's so that older machines and some budget models,
which don't have hi-fi capacity, can still play the tapes.
A hi-fi capable machine will check a recording when you
push "play," and if it finds a hi-fi track, will default to it. If it's not
present, it will play the linear track. You can also choose to switch from hi-fi to linear
if you want to.
I suspect that your friend (the one who sent the tapes) has
a malfunctioning machine that is somehow not recording the linear track (usually, it's
automatic). She wouldn't notice because her machine will default to the hi-fi track in
playback, as did your other friend's.
At your end, either you have two VCRs that are not hi-fi
capable -- in which case there's not much you can do until your friend gets her recorder
fixed -- or you have somehow managed to defeat the hi-fi default in both machines. Check
your manual to see if that is even possible, and how to correct it.
...Ian G. Masters
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