Official Denon AVP-A1HD/AVP-A1HDCI and POA-A1HD/POA-A1HDCI owners thread. - Page 735

Hi ..... I'd like more details on this please. I suffer the same thing and I've had to increase my Audessy centre channel to compensate.
Not quite sure what you're saying, in a boom mic and camera adapter?
I did use a camera tripod stand and my Denon mic does attach to the top of the stand but how do you isolate the mic from the (room) reflections?

See this post from the AVR-4311CI thread for an example of a boom stand and adapter for the Audyssey microphone (note that the same parts are available from Amazon at a lower price). The advantage of the boom compared to just a normal camera tripod is that it gives you a lot more flexibility to get the microphone placed exactly where you want it.

Good call on the Amazon prices.....Here are the specifics:

On Stage CM01 Video Camera/Digital Recorder Adapter
On Stage Stands 7701B (highest rated) or 7701TB Tripod Boom Microphone Stand

Just placed my order as Amazon Prime member.

I too had been using a camera tripod but it was very difficult to position in the seating positions. Hopefully this will do the trick: I'm so excited!

EDIT: There is A LOT of information about the boom mic and calibration on the official Audyssey thread on AVS. Also, JoFo has a thread in the Martin Logan forum for those of us with dipoles. I am now convinced I have been screwing up my Audyssey calibration all these years.

The AVP was collected this afternoon for the upgrade to be done. My dealer arrived with a large box containing only the upgrade in a small inner box and the full packing for the AVP. We packed it together and sealed everything in for him to dispatch by UPS tomorrow morning. Now, I wait.

Thanks to the last two guys who posted to my query ..... I'll definitely follow up on both these. I want to get the best out of my AVP / Audyssey system.

I have a question. When playing a DTS Master 5.1 with a 7.1 speaker config the unit gives you several choices for the SB speakers:


NON MTRX
MYRX ON
PLIIx Cinema and Music

How do the above codecs create the back surround audio?

What is the best setting?

For ES Matrix, ES Dscrt, DSCRT on and off.

How do these work with 7.1 material?

i assume these are for 7.1 DTS tracks.

The manual does not explain how these codecs work creating SB audio?

Thanks

I was lucky, turned out they had an upgrade kit in stock. Took the unit in today around 9:30 AM, picked it up about 4 PM. Everything seems to be working fine, (at least once I remember to turn on the hard power on/off button, some colorful language prior to that.) Just begun to start poking around at the configuration.

eric

Did something change with reference volume with the upgrade? Pre-upgrade, we tended to listen at about -15db for movies and music, -20 for TV. Post upgrade, had to turn the TV down to -30 db range, music to about -25, no movie yet. This is after doing Aud setup in both cases, with Dynamic volume off.

I thought I had recreated each sources settings correctly from pre-upgrade (I captured all the setup web pages pre-upgrade), and as I said, it's happening across all sources.

Ideas? Thanks!

eric

Hi .... could you clarify this sentence please, 'put the mic on a tripod and see if removing as much reflection from around the mic as possible' - don't understand how you are cutting down on the reflections, as the mic is omni-directional?

You might want to go to the Audyssey thread on AVS and search "boom mic" . There is a lot of good info there. As I understand it,the boom allows you to place the microphone more precisely watching to keep it away from walls, seat backs and so forth.

I got mine today and plan to recalibrate tonight.

My local service center called to tell me my upgrade kit arrived. It only took 3 days from NJ to TX.

I spoke with the tech at the service center, as I was inquiring about doing the upgrade myself. The hardware part seems simple enough, so I asked him about the firmware. He said it was a 3 step process, and their computers have to talk to the Denon servers to download all steps. So, that's a no-go for anyone considering DIY.

Just picked up my upgraded AVP today.
It was ready for pickup late last week, but I had too much work related things I had to take care of.
Don't have time to get it back into my system before the weekend though.

Deck

Sam. When did your shop order the kit? I ordered and paid for mine from the local shop almost 3 weeks ago and they say that they are out of stock at Denon. I'm starting to get a little worried and upset if your shop can get them in 3 days and mine can't get them in 3 weeks.

I ordered and paid for the kit last Friday and they called me first thing this morning, so 3-4 business days. It was not in stock, they had to order from Denon.

Thanks Sam. I'll call the repair shop tomorrow and try to find out what is going on. It will be 3 weeks Saturday since they gladly took my $1000+tax and still no kit. It is not that I'm in any particular hurry but when I hear you were good to go in less than a week I am having huge second thoughts about having them do this upgrade. If they can't get the parts in the next few days I'm going to tell them to refund my money.

Yeah, that is frustrating. You could always ship it to my center in Texas

I'm dropping my AVP off tomorrow. They said the installation and burn-in would take about 3 business days, so I'll update the thread when I get it back with impressions.

Sam,
I live in Oklahoma and to my knowledge there are no repair centers here. Where did you have the service done? Sounds like you are getting quick service. Let us know the turn-around and quality of service.

Thanks!
KrellAV

http://www.darvishsystems.com/

They have been pretty good with proactive phone calls and emails.

Hai,

Seems its nearly impossible to get the upgrade in my country, So ill be driving to germany soon to have the upgrade installed. The good news is the place is very known with avp's/poa's and mods them to higher levels (for a nice 5300 euro's). Even better i can drive in and they will show me around/demo the modded units while they install the upgrade so i can take it home right away.

Hoping we will get better denon support soon in our country , But he we just got a very nice new apple store in amsterdam so i should not complain.

Daniel.

What the heck could they modify that would yield any audible results?

Caveat emptor!

Well this is a review of the tuned unit, only thing i can say is i heard they replace about 600+ little parts. Ill check it out for sure but i am also skeptical esp. since i use audyssey something most tuners turn off.

http://www.areadvd.de/lm/AV_Hardware...emikeavp.shtml

Daniel.

Snake oil.

The higher the price the more you are certain that there will be audible improvement....

And the more you paid the more certain you are of it.

Ha, no kidding!

Let me say that i personally have no doubt in saying that modding can work, I am sure this modder will make the avp sound better and bring some parts of the unit to a even higher level. What upsets me is that most of them don't compare with a eq system involved. Like many here i feel that a eq system does add value even for music. Once you don't compare with eq involved we can't be sure about the end result. I mean we are back to the same 'speaker' tuning tricks by pushing the mids for example or other things that could just was well be delived by a eq .

I would not mind to compare the avp's with and without these changes but then both fully eq'ed with audyssey pro for example if there is a big difference then it might be of value for me but again most modders feel that any eq is silly and destroys all possible good music playback.

Daniel.

Well we agree to disagree, I'm not saying nothing can improve the sound of a unit by modifying it, but in general terms, it's a real stretch to do something you'd actually hear. Maybe if you're dealing with tubes, or changing DAC's but swapping out things like capacitors, or copper for silver etc., just can't change a signal enough to be heard IMO. Unless of course the components were defective to begin with. Hardly the case with anything inside the AVP.
Here's a great read on things like capacitors which does a far better job of explaining it than I can;

http://sound.westhost.com/cables.htm

Where we absolutely do agree, is that room correction is far more relevant in the end result. Not only that but I believe it is more significant than any component change, not just "upgrades". Because how audio behaves in your own room will be the most significant factor in what you hear.

I'm not an electrical engineer so I can't comment on the actual components inside the AVP, but I'd be really curious to know what their design parameters were when they let their engineers loose on building this unit.
Was it; "build the best pre-amp you can to end up at $XXXX retail price point", or "you have $XXX to build the best preamp possible", or "build the best pre-amp possible with no restrictions and we'll price it from there".
I tend to think it was the latter, because it just seems to be built better than units at multiples of its' price point....

Any piece of electronics can be improved -- at a price -- but how much is another question. The AVP sounds very good to my ears and while I have no need to improve upon it small incremental improvements are doubtless possible. For my money the speaker and the room are much weaker links in the chain. In that regard the Deqx speaker calibration and room response system is by far and away the biggest improvement I have ever heard or made in an audio system. It has the additional advantage of allowing you to whip up new speakers almost at will since it allows you to configure steep stereo 3 way digital crossovers in software, and most of them sound awesome -- some made with surprisingly cheap components sound great. Alas, Deqx is really a stereo only solution which excels at music reproduction. I am going to buy the AVP upgrade because it will make the AVP very close to the Deqx for HT. I should add that my testbed system was an Outlaw 990 driving a Paradigm PVA-7 amp and when other audiofans heard it with my store bought Dynaudios or one of my home brew speakers I heard a lot of oohs and ahhhs. They usually couldn't believe mid-fi components could sound so good.

All a long way of saying dollars are best spent taming rooms and speakers.

Got the AVP back into the system Saturday evening, ran a quick 8 point calibration, and enjoyed the sound!
Due to my wife's broken leg, all the furniture has been moved around from their usual places (she use crutches atm), so I will not have a optimal room for a couple of months, but I loved the sound of the upgraded AVP anyway

Deck

^^^

Say again........Whose leg is broken? Normally, it is the female that busts the male's lower body parts when we spend so much money on gear......