5.1 channels sound different?

[dazinith]

I recently hooked up my audigy zs to my yamaha receiver and 5.1 klipsch surround sound.. I have noticed after playing with the calibration application that my channels don't all sound the same, can someone tell me if this is normal?

details:
the test at the end of the calibration plays a song that is supposed to sound like it is rotating around you.. I notice that my rear channels do not have the crisp treble that my front channels do, and that the front center channel is also without the crisp treble of the cymbals.. is this by design, or is this something I should try to adjust on my receiver? my rear channels are closer to a wall, but I don't think that is causing the difference of the sound..

my other question is about the audigy versus the onboard sound on an abit-max3.. I ended up having to connect the 5.1 analog connections to my receiver to get surround sound all the time instead of just in dvd playback.. my motherboard has these same outputs.. the main reason I had got the sound card was for its digital coaxial output.. little did I know that only works for dvd playback at 5.1-7.1, otherwise it just puts out 2.1.. so my question is if in doom3 (which doesn't make use of creative's eax) there would be any differencein quality? because honestly I'm more than a bit dissapointed in the audigy's abilities to hookup to a real receiver, I wouldn't mind just returning it.

thanks in advance for the help!

 

[xonik]

First off, what you are perceiving is not by design.

If sounds like you are having issues with the acoustic dynamics of your room. The first thing I would check is the relative positioning of the speakers with regards to your ears. Everything should be laid out like your equipment manuals specify. Otherwise, there are many speaker placement references on the Internet that a quick search will turn up. You must be picky about maintaining proper distance and orientation. Also, your room's acoustic dynamics could be messing with the treble/bass balance. I'm not going to send you to a contractor to spend $100,000 on acoustic panels, but you should know that many rooms are not well suited to audio listening.

That said, go ahead and mess with the individual treble and bass controls. Unless you are a very rich man, you'll need to make adjustments to compensate for the imperfections of your listening environment.

 

[dazinith]

thanks for the reply.. my main question was should the front l/r and rear l/r sound the same (have the same treble sounds specifically) and what about the center?

the front and rear l/r are all the same type of speaker.. which is why I was thinking it was by design since they all are hooked up the same way.. I don't think it is just room acoustics as putting my ear directly in front of the front vs rear shows a definate difference.. I just want to know for sure prior to adjusting them..

thanks again!

 

[xonik]

I don't think it is just room acoustics as putting my ear directly in front of the front vs rear shows a definate difference..

Oh really? Well, that's what individual volume and treble controls are for...

 

[PoW]

I think i know what you are talking about, im sure you have already tried this but if you haven't try turning up the rear channels from the klipsch control box.

Another wierd problem ive run into is with my big desk chair my ears are blocked from a direct path to the rear speakers. Which as a result muffles the high end. Try a different chair if this is your situation and see if that helps.