Official Denon AVP-A1HD/AVP-A1HDCI and POA-A1HD/POA-A1HDCI owners thread. - Page 257

How Stereo, Direct and Pure Direct will vary depends on the settings you choose in the 2 channel settings menu. There's quite a few options there like defaults for using the sub, EQ, etc. I'd start there.

I'm using McIntosh 501 monoblocks for the mains, and a passivley bi-amped Outlaw amp for the center & rears. I'm going to try a number of combinations - I have a smaller center speaker I can swap in, I'll play around with amp combos, and I'll manually turn up the center volume. Hopefully I can get it right without having to add another Mac amp (so much $$).

i have a question in a small room 19x15 (feet) would i benefit from a second subwoofer?
i'm using dynaudio contour s3.4 for front contour scx for center and contour sr for rear
along with a martin logan descent subwoofer. i have a array of amps conrad johnson for front mcCormack for center and aragon for rear. 95% of my listening is movies and tv.
what would you reccomend?

They are expensive, but damn they are cool. Plus they sound incredible too. Just think zeejay, 5 501s!

They do sound amazing - and I can probably get a used one fairly inexpensvely. Then I'd need to figure out what to do with the rears - I'm thinking that a stereo ICE amp might do a good job. Something that runs cool & hits hard. We'll see...

I use 2 Jl audio fathoms in my room and mine is slightly smaller. I have theatre chairs that accomdate my family of 4 and by having 2 subs calibrated in the right pos everyone will be able to enjoy the same sub effect that the person in the main listening pos does.I've tried it in different seating pos and it works a treat.It also makes your room easy to calibrate by having two subs, especially when dips are involved.

Check that you haven't blown a tweeter first.
An Outlaw would have a tough time keeping up with a pair of 501's. That may not seem like that big of a deal, but with movies I think it's between 60% to 75% of the soundtrack is on the center channel. So you could be over-driving that amp, and often blowing a tweeter is the result.

Two subs are better than one if you're trying to correct room modes, or if your sub doesn't reach high enough SPL levels.
Your speakers go pretty low though, and unless you're dealing with one of the above issues you're probably good with the one.

I'm an "ICE" pimp, so I say get rid of the Macs and go all ICE !!

I love the ICE amps too. So go for it... My favourite is the Wyred4Sound range 500W into 8 ohm and 1000W into 4 ohm. And they match the McIntoshes pretty well in sound..

In terms of your centre.. Interesting.. Check to see if the speaker is closes in at all at the top or bottom - ie recessed into a unit or anythign. With the B&Ws they soon sound very boxy if they have a reflextive survave immediately above or below them. Try pushing forward so they are sticking out a little. Also consider what they are resting on. Try a little rubber or felt to raise the front iff needed to point towards you (even a 1/4 inch can make a difference.

Geoff

Other members have already talked about checking your centre speaker and AVP setup & connections. In the event all is well, the differences may well be based upon the amplifier characteristics. I was very surprised to hear large differences in SQ in my speakers when a different amp was used for the centre, even where in theory, the sound should have at least been in the same ballpark.

Just curious did anyone ended up buying the denon link cable that denon had for sale?

Geez, I hope not!

It seems like there was someone who was planning on it. But we ragged on the thing so much there for awhile that he's probably reluctant to come forward now....

Not that im going to buy one because im not even using denon Link at the moment but I wonder if they ended up reducing the price.

That Denon link cable (the AKDL1) is still shown at close to $300 at amazon, which shows it's still way overpriced, even when discounted...


But I have to admit, some of the fake "reviews" for it at amazon are a real hoot!

I would have loved to have tried it to see whether it was worth the money, but I concluded that it would have been an exercise into the bleeding obvious.

I hope not.

I use a 25' CAT6 cable to place my player closer to my seat, and it only cost me $24.

Works like a champ.

If you're really paranoid, get a CAT7 cable.

OMG OMG

You mean those reviews were fake...
But I've bought 6 of them to get the steak knives Is it toooo late to cancel?
I really wanted to try that quantum mechanical audio improvement tooooo
Maybe I can resell them on this forum at a huuugeee profit


Geoff

Jonfo im not using a denon link cable at all I used to have a 3930 which I used the cable that was supplied with a PS3 player and that was good but I sold the 3930.I was just asking as I was curious to see if anyone has purchased the cable and if see there was any difference.It was just conversation, i mean there are people out there who have spent thousands of dollars just on cables, thats why I asked, you never know someone could have bought it and have heard a difference. I was'nt being paranoid just conversing.

thats all I wanted to know if someone has tried it.

Well i got my ICE. always my opinion has been that amplifiers should sound the same if properly implemented, and mine did when I replaced them over the years.
My current speakers are really power hungry and I thought that my previous amp was good enough. But I got the ICE because I want to go green.
So, we know the AVP in conjunction with audyssey is very dynamic, right? Pairing the AVP with an ICE 1000w @4ohms is incredibly dynamic! The dialogs are much more intelligible (even from a center channel that I always refused to have). I am extremely satisfied now.

When at first I installed the ICE it was noticeably louder, but after I ran Audyssey, it gave all negative values in the level trim as opposed to previous calculations: 0, -1, +1, etc... now these values are -5, -4, -6, etc... so now I end up at the same listening volume settings when play through the AVP. I wonder why audyssey does that...

I think with the new amps that's what it needs to set the trims at so you're at reference level (85db?) at 0db on the volume control. Mine are all around there too.

Frank this is one of those things you don't have to try because simple logic dictates it won't make any difference whatsoever.

1's & 0's is all that's going through it, any cable that gets that info to the decoder/clock intact will work, and that's the extent of it, no cable can make a 1 or a 0 sound better.

...That makes sense.

I also notice more energy from the treble. I looked at the graphs generated by audyssey and comparing them to the graphs produced through my previous class a/a-b amp i noticed that audyssey is trimming less in the treble's region with the ICE - I would have thought that I would be hearing the same amount of high frequencies as I did before-thanks to audysse- but that not the case on of first calibration attempt with the amp.

This is not a criticism at all, just a curiosity stand point of view. I do actually like the 'more' revealing treble.

Certainly CAT 6 is a well sorted design and handles digital audio signals with consummate ease. On the basis that it would not degrade the digital stream it is difficult to see how it could be improved upon. Other digital cables (SPIDF) can vary but they have design limitations for digital audio ( and analog for that matter).

I think your comments also apply to digital video cables, at least in my experience. I have struggled to see differences between cheap no-brand HDMI and DVI-D cables, and relatively expensive and branded silver plated types.

My experience is that distance is the biggest factor with HDMI and usually you can tell if there's a problem very readily - either it doesn't work at all or you get extreme distortion like "sparklies".

Or better yet, just a shielded Cat6, as that's exactly what the Denon cable appears to be.

You find the treble will maintain that level of detail but will become even more "natural" sounding once the amps burn in a bit more.
I think the treble is more distinct because of these amps' dead-quiet noise floor.

I'm curious to learn more about this technology. Can you recommend any good info sources? (My interest was especially piqued orologio described them as "green.")