Why does the sound tend to sound muddy. I have HDMI connections via PS3 and the Panasonic BW500 Bluray, but the sound sounds like it is in another room, with a blanket over the speakers. I have JBL speakers and they have proven to sound clear and crisp in the past with my older receivers (Pioneer) with analog and fibre optic connections. I have been nothing but disappointing with HDMI. I have to turn it up to - 33db which is not right. Tried the menu settings on the AMP to improve, but something aint right? The Samsung Plasma TV speakers sound 1000 times better when I play the Wii, and that is direct to the TV (not via my Yamaha RX-V863. Any suggestions?
Is this your first Yamaha receiver? Maybe your ears don't like Yamaha amps. Everyone's ears are different. Maybe Yam amps and JBL speakers don't like each other. The first thing you should do is run the analog outs from a cd player or stereo from you dvd/blu-ray player to your receiver and hear how a cd sounds. If it sounds good, try differnt connection options like running digital coax or optic from disc player to amp. You should try running the video via either HDMI or component directly to your TV rather than through your receiver. As Jan Vigne pointed out, going through the receiver will down grade the video signal. His solution to keeping the audio and video switching in sync is to get a universal remote with macrofunctions. I believe the thread is in this receiver section. If none of the connection options work and you've had the Yamaha less than 30 days, you should be able to exchange it. Otherwise, you might be looking at replacing the speakers with ones more compatible with Yamaha.
" ... but the sound sounds like it is in another room, with a blanket over the speakers."
Really? Like a blanket over the speakers? If that's actually the case, I would first suspect a blown tweeter or two. Without operational high frequency drivers most two and three way speakers tend to sound like cr@p. So, you need to fist make sure your speakers are putting out all the sound your receiver is putting into them.
The next guess would be incorrect settings on your AV receiver. Reset everything to factory defaults and listen for any differences. Your owner's manaul normally tells you how to accomplish a reset.
From there the problem would typically come down to speaker set up and placement along with your subwoofer system's operation. If you didn't do a proper set up, you can't expect the best sound quality. Check the first two items, tweeter function and receiver reset and then, if the problem persists, check back with your test results.
Blown tweeters would make sense in terms of the "under a blanket" sound, but the timing seems a little strange. Assuming that the speakers were used with the last amp within a couple of days of getting the new one, the tweeters just blow? What would cause that?
Ok, so I did some testing over the weekend and before I post my results, I should mention one detail. I have the Panasonic BMR-BW500 Bluray player/recorder that I use for playing my Blurays. I read some opinion on the setting to use as they can affect the sound sent to the Yamaha before it processes it into TrueHD etc. Now there are various main settings on the BW500. User and secondary. The user guide recommends User bitstream, but someone wrote to keep it on Secondary LPCM. Two thing I noticed and that is DTS-HD sounds better on Seconday, but True-HD is better on Bitstream. However, DTS-HD is far superior than True HD, nad I need to turn it up a further 20db for True HD and it does not sound as crisp. I reset the receiver to original factory setting before the testing, and firstly I played Xmen (standard DVD with DTS on my Pioneer DVD player and it ripped the paint off the wall. No blown tweeters, trust me. The Scorpion King (DTS HD matches the X-men test, but the Rambo4 True HD does not. Maybe it is the way they mixed the sound track, but, I still feel it sounds muddy.
Finally, the speakers are 15 yrs old (JBL), but I have got clarity and sharpness. I would think you need to take into consideration the movie you are playing,but I would expect True HD or DTS HD to be superior, non the less.
Also, I played some Mp3 music to top things off, and some sounded better than others. But that comes down to the quality of the track itself. I think nothing beat the old vynals. Conclusion, the RX-V863 is a terrific AMP, and I didn't mean to confuse anyone with my exaggerated findings about the blanket over the speakers. But there is a noticable difference between DTS HD and True HD. I will invest in some better speaker next year, any thoughts on something good under say $1200 AUD for a pair of front speakers?
I'm glad you resolved the issue or so it seems. However, I'm still concerned about the condition of your speakers. There should not be such variation in sound from recent movies. Something to think about.
So this was not about your receiver and speakers not sounding good together? This was about your BluRay player needing to be properly set up? And that different processing formats sound different? And that your sources really aren't all that great for comparison's sake.
I'll go ahead and ask the question; if you're using formats such as True HD and DTS-HD, do you have a full 5.1 speaker compliment? Have you adjusted levels for all channels to provide balanced output from all speakers as you circle the room? The twenty dB difference you mention - which is not likely to be "20dB" but just a numerical indication of "20 something" on your receiver's display - would not be uncommon if you haven't balanced the system first. Most of the sound from these formats will be directed to the center channel speaker. Do you have a center channel speaker? Have you checked it's operation and balanced it for the rest of the system?