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Dpp1978 -> RE: Balance Blu-ray sound!!! (31/8/2012 2:17:17 AM)
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The problem here is the soundtrack has too much dynamic range for your set up. This is because films are mixed to be played back in commercial theatres. Commercial theatres are much bigger than, and therefore have very different different acoustic qualities to even your very large home cinema.
The dynamic range of a system is the difference between the smallest and largest values measurable within that system. In photography it is the difference between the lightest and darkest values recordable. In audio it is the difference between the quietest and loudest sounds.
Here the difference between the quiet parts and the loud parts is very great, which leaves you playing with the volume control: which is somewhat less than ideal.
The reason it seems to disproportionately affect Blu-ray might be because the de facto audio standard for DVD is Dolby Digital whereas for Blu-ray you are much more likely to find a DTS (or sometimes a PCM) soundtrack. I suspect your other formats are either analogue, in which case dynamic range will be less than your digital sources, at least for movie content, or also Dolby based.
Dolby has something called "dialnorm" built in.
Dialnorm is short for dialogue normalisation and it is metadata alongside the soundtrack which tells the receiver at what level below peak output the dialogue was recorded. It also has something called DRC control which is Dynamic Range Compression which does exactly what you would expect it to do. For Dolby sources, based upon the dialnorm value it adjusts output so everything within the soundtrack is audible. This can happen either in the player or the receiver. Of course the downside is that you are artificially limiting dynamic range and audiophiles will get quite irate if you so much as whisper those three letters within 100 yards of them.
But it does its job and most people wouldn't care even if they could hear any difference. To my mind the slight loss in fidelity is more than compensated for by actually being able to hear all of the film. I suspect many people have it active in their players for Dolby tracks without even realising it is on.
DTS and PCM have no dialnorm value and no DRC in the players (at least I have never seen it). You are getting all the dynamic range out of the player all the time. So depending on whether the track is Dolby or not you could be getting either a dynamically compressed track, which is more suitable for smaller scale viewing, or the full range track more suitable for commercial venues.
Many receivers do have an option to turn on DRC for all sources, the aforementioned Audyssey system being one version. Other manufacturers will doubtless have their proprietary systems.
If you have it on your receiver try it. It might help.
On the other hand I could have completely missed my guess and this whole post will have been a huge waste of everyone's time.
Adding to what Vader said about sound treatments and at the risk of coming across as a patronising know-it-all, sound proofing is designed to keep the sound in. Sound treatments are designed to control how the sound travels while it is inside the room.
I see from the images you posted that you have what appears to be some kind of panelling on the walls. Hard surfaces like that reflect sound which can exacerbate any other acoustic problems you may be having. I realise I may well be preaching to the choir but if you haven't already it might be worth considering some bass traps and acoustic panelling to make your room sound even better.
Before I sign off I must give kudos to your set up. I especially like the film projectors. Do you get to use them much?
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