Please help me -- I'm clueless, and baffled to boot - a deadly combination. I just got a Pioneer VSXD914K receiver to use primarily to play DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD's. The player I bought is a Denon DVD-2200.
I hooked up the player's 5.1 analog outputs to the analog inputs on the receiver. When playing a DVD-Audio or SACD disc, I set the receiver signal select to 5.1 channel mode. However, no signal (or very little signal) is being sent to the subwoofer. When I set signal select to auto or analog, sound is sent to subwoofer.
I have 6 small speakers (Hsu Ventriloquist), so I set all speakers during receiver setup to small. When going through setup procedure, I indicated that I have subwoofer.
When I play DVD-A or SACD, there is clearly either no bass from sub or a lot of missing info. The best example I have of this is playing Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots DVD-A. The regular CD version has excellent, very prominent bass, which sounds great on my system. However, when I put in the DVD-A version and use 5.1 inputs, the bass is very thin, and I can clearly hear where many of my favorite bass lines should be, but aren't.
Assuming you're sure you made the connections to the multi channel (5.1 or 7.1) inputs on the receiver (and not the pre-outs or something) then you need to set the speaker levels of the 2200 so that the 5 speakers are at low db numbers and the sub is set at the highest. Try setting all the speaker levels at -10 db and the sub at 0db (the highest I think) then test and and adjust the speakers again if necessary. The small speaker setting is correct and make sure the special filter is on by default (that is if the 2200 has this filter - the 2900 has and if set to off the speakers get set to large). Also, I don't know about the Pioneer receiver, but my Marantz also has speaker level settings for the (5.1 or 7.1) multi channel inputs - if so adjust these also.
Now you say you set the receiver to the 5.1 channel mode - is there another mode that says something like multichannel in?
I can't think of anything else right now - but someone else may chime in to assist.
When you listen to 5.1 input, you need to use the bass management on the DVD player because the bass management on the receiver is automatically bypassed. Sorry for the many posts. May be it's bedtime for me now.
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Get out your owner's manual and go through the set up procedure on the player, that's the most likely place to miss a switch or level set.
Anonymous
Posted on
Had the same problems and had to set my speakers to lg in my dvd player.
Thanks all for your help. I set the Denon speaker settings to small all around, subwoofer "yes," and put the "special filter" on (otherwise, it forces all speaker sizes to large). Now, I am getting good bass out of the sub. So, to that extent, it worked -- thanks!!!
However, it still sounds like there's a hole somewhere in the low midrange/upper bass frequencies. There's definitely bass parts missing when I play DVD-A that I know are present on the regular CD versions of the same recordings.
Can anyone recommend a good DVD-A test disc? How about a good SACD test disc?
Also, not to be too much of a whiner, but I got the whole DVD-A/multichannel setup because I've heard how amazing hi-res sound is. So far, I'm not blown away. My system is as follows:
Denon DVD-2200 DVD-A/SACD player Pioneer VSXD914K receiver Hsu Ventriloquist speakers Hsu VTF-2 sub
Don't get me wrong, the system sounds great, but as stated, I'm not blown away. I'm playing the DVD-A and SACD material through the 5.1 analog outputs on the Denon to the 5.1 analog inputs on the receiver, and then out it goes to the speakers. So, assuming I get this missing low mid/high bass problem sorted out, can I just assume this is what it is, at least with the equipment I have?
It is important to match player's bass management crossover with speakers' frequency range. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a setup item on the Denon?
Another thing is that CDs sound (IMO) is somewhat aggressive, and that SACD can sound a little "tame" from the beginning.
I'm not familiar with the Denon DVD-2200 so I also have the same question about that "special filter". It may have something to do with your sound-missing problem.
Also, when using the low filter from the bass management (either on the receiver or DVD player), you should use the LFE input on the subwoofer, which would bypass the subwoofer's built-in crossover. If your subwoofer doesn't have an LFE input, you will need to set the cutoff frequency for the crossover to the max (highest) setting.
