The Official VSX-1018AH-K Owners, Reviews, and Comments Thread! - Page 101

AHHHH! I'm going nuts!!!

So I read the manual front to back last night! I want to play with the CUSTOM MCACC settings using different memory slots (M1, M2, M3 etc...)

I ran Auto MCACC and saved to M1 (memory 1). I then copied M1 to M2, M3, and M4.

What I am hoping to accomplish is different speaker settings for each MCACC preset. For example, M1 (memory 1) would have the default settings that Auto MCACC sets up for me where it left All speakers LARGE.

M2 (memory 2) I would also like to use the default settings from Auto MCACC; EXCEPT I would like to set all speakers to SMALL.


M3 (memory 3) I would like to use the default settings from Auto MCACC; EXCEPT I would like all speakers set to SMALL BUT I need my subwoofer "SW" setting set to "PLUS" instead of "YES". (I want to change the subwoofer setting here because I don't get Dolby etc... on my TV broadcasts, but would still like sound to come out of Subwoofer when watching movies on HBO or Pay-Per-View)


I was all excited and spent about 30 minutes running Auto MCACC, copying the memory from M1 to M2 and M3. I then hit the MCACC button on receiver and switched to M3 (memory 3) and then went to settings and changed the subwoofer "SW" setting to "PLUS" - BUT when I went back to M2 (Memory 2) to watch a Movie from my DVD player --- my subwoofer didn't sound like it was performing properly. I went to check the M2 (Memory 2) speaker settings and found that the subwoofer setting "SW" was changed to "PLUS".

So are the SPEAKER SETTINGS a global setting? Meaning that you can't change the speaker settings for individual MCACC memory slots? If you change them on M1, they automatically apply that setting to memory slots M2, M3 etc... ???

If thats the case I am a little disappointed BUT am still very pleased with the receiver!


SOMEONE HELP ME OUT! Thanks!

First off, thanks everyone! I was able to get BB to match Wally marts online price & got it for $439!!
Only I can't get it to work!!
It replaces an Onkyo 708 series, which worked fine, so I believe the connections are all good. I slaved away at it for 6 hrs last night and was able to get the component to work with the DVR. The hdmi signals just don't want to cooperate. I'm using an SP5000 Infocus projector, Panny BD30, HTPC, & DirecTV HR71 DVR. I even took it back to BB & exchanged it for another unit & the problem is the same. The audio plays for about 90 sec.s then drops out. No video at all. I was only able to get the OSD by using the component connection.
Please, am I missing something on the input source programming? It's like the HDMI output will not handshake with the projector. Does anyone have it working with the Infocus SP5000?
Is it an input source setting??? Please help, the wife is about to kill me.
TIA!

Read the fine print at the bottom of the page that describes "speaker setup". It tells you that when setting speakers to small, the subwoofer cannot be set to "plus", just "yes". The mains must be set to large if you want to use the "plus" setting. Also, as you have concluded the speaker size cannot be saved to one memory preset and then changed for another, it's a global setting. This is also stated in the manual.

I don't have a DVD calibration disk. Whats the conclusion on the scaler built in?? Should I have my Oppo 980h interlace it or let the DCDI in the AVR do it?? I really can't see any difference but would like to go with whats better.

anyone know how to enable the LFE when streaming music on the 360 or PS3?

My problem - I have connected cable and a Roku box to the 1018 via component cables and output it to a Samsung 650 series TV via HDMI out. No problem great picture.
I ran a HDMI cable from a PS3 to HDMI Input 1 on the receiver. The control panel shows an HDMI connection but no output to TV. I have assigned HDMI 1 to the DVD input. I turned HDMI control to off.

I have checked all cables. I tried to input cable via HDMI 1 - again no output to TV. All the read out says is "Not Support"

What stupid thing am I doing that is preventing any HDMI input from being outputted?

Thanks

I've had my 1018 for a little over a month now and am running into a weird issue. When watching a blu ray movie (Sony S350 via HDMI to receiver which then passes to my Westinghouse 47") It plays for a few minutes, then the receiver cuts off. If I turn it back on, it shows up on the TV again as if it were never off, but after a few more minutes it turns off again. Has anyone seen this before?

Hi, new member here! I had a similar problem. I have 4 subwoofers in what I call a 7.4 system and the bass was weak. I had the same settings as you mentioned above. What I did was set the speaker settings as small on my Onkyo receiver. The difference was very noticeable.

I just ordered the VCX-1018 and I can hardly wait. I needed the HDMI connections.

Second post on this forum but not new to it. I'm happy to hear that the receiver is a good buy.

I'm planning to connect a few components to it and I would like to know if anyone has a similar setup and can provide their impressions.

I have all Audiosource speakers:
in-wall (R-C-L) three way with 8" woofers
in-ceiling (RS-LS-RRS-RLS) two way with 8" woofers
two 10" in-wall subs with a separate amp
two powered subs one 10" Onkyo 230W and a 12" Premier Accoustics 650W.

Sony VPL-AW15 Bravia Projector 720P
Toshiba Regza 47" LCD
Xbox 360
Sony PS3
Direct TV HD DVR
IPOD

Currently running an old Onkyo 7.1 receiver.

At first I was a little skeptical about the Audiosource brand when I purchased them. I have to say that they sound sweet. I've had several BOSE speakers and I can say that they sound just as good.

I hope that the new Pioneer VSX-1018 is a match made in heaven.

Thanks for pointing this out to me...

In that case I would like my M2 memory setting to have speaker settings to LARGE wiith subwoofer set to PLUS.

But I want my M1 memory setting to have speaker settings to SMALL with subwoofer setting to "YES".

That way I can use M2 for watching TV with subwoofer, and then use M1 to watch movies with normal speaker settings!!!


IS THIS POSSIBLE??? Because it seems to me whenever I change a speaker setting, it affects ALL memory positions... So if I change M2 to have LARGE speakers and set subwoofer to "PLUS" then when I switch back to M1, the speakers are set to LARGE and subwoofer is set to "plus" and I don't want that

Is there a way to do what I want or am I doomed to watch TV in STEREO only...

Sounds like a speaker wire could be shorting it out and turning the reciever off. Make sure no wires are touching the back plate. See if that is the problem.

You're doomed. I'm not bothered by it but do agree it's a function that would be useful.

can anyone convince me to spend why I should spend $60 dollars more for the 1018AH instead of purchasing a denon avr 888?

I am giving this thread a chance before I ask the denon thread.

I want to buy the pioneer but I need some convincing.

The PIO has; on-board decoding for DDTrue-HD and dts-HD MA, pre-outs, 10 more WPC, 1 more HDMI input, USB input for ipod, has 6 assignable settings for MCACC, etc...

How is the speaker(size) setting related to your watching TV in Stereo?

Don't take this the wrong way, but others here aren't salesmen.

I don't know the Denon but you should be able to stack rank the feature differences. Do you need 3 HDMI inputs? Would you like TrueHD and DTS-MA?

Honestly I wouldn't even consider the 888 as those 3 things are critical for me. But your priorities may be different.

I would at least try the Pioneer first as it is more futureproof. The Denon, as already mentioned, doesn't have internal decoding, and 1 less HDMI. If you think you will always have a player capable of decoding the HD audio formats internally and passing it as LPCM (the AVR888 has HDMI repeating), and you don't think you'll ever need a 3rd HDMI, then consider the Denon. Otherwise, I would try the Pioneer first.

Why Pioneer and MCACC over Audyssy equipped receivers like Onkyo and Denon? Here's why:

On the Audyssey equipped system, you can run an Audyssey EQ setup to provide room & speaker calibration using Audyssey filters which provide much higher resolution than a simple EQ. Of course, there are plenty of complaints on the Audyssey thread and elsewhere from people stating that Audyssey isn't getting things right... too much bass, or too little, or too much high-end roll-off, etc. Well, fortunately, to make adjustments for that, you can switch to manual, and tweak your settings with 5 or 7 bands of EQ, sometimes 9 bands as with a 1909, so you can imagine I was pretty excited about the possibilities. I like to tune the EQ when listening to different content/sources, so this would be the best combination of auto room correction combined with my manual EQ tweaks. Heaven right? Unfortunately, NO!! The devil is in the details, and you can verify what I'm about to say from the Denon 1909 manual among others (even in the Audyssey & Denon 1909 threads, and the Audyssey FAQ.) If I was to do what I just told you, and tweak the EQ setting to my tastes or depending on the content, I would LOSE all Audyssey filters, calibrations, and correction, along with losing Audyssey Dynamic EQ and Audyssey Dynamic Volume capabilities when using a manually tweaked EQ. All you are left with is a basic graphic EQ which provides no room correction and will not address issues in the time domain. Why is that you ask? Because you must switch from Audyssey mode to Manual mode to make ANY EQ adjustment. Suddenly, hundreds of time domain Audyssey correction filters lost! And as if that wasn't bad enough, you cannot configure more than one custom EQ preset, so if you want to change it, you have to go into setup, and change it manually for each and every channel/speaker. Again, you will lose all Audyssey capabilities and will not have Audyssey Dynamic EQ and Audyssey Dynamic Volume capabilities by making any changes to the EQ. OK, so you decide you will leave Audyssey EQ set rather than making your preferred EQ tweak, because you want the Audyssey room & speaker calibration, Dynamic EQ, and Dynamic Volume capabilities, and you decide you will just use bass/treble controls to adjust the tone to your preference. Another big problem here. Not only does this limit your tweaking to a couple broad frequency ranges, but if you are using Audyssey Dynamic EQ, you can NOT adjust the tone controls either! You will run into the same limitations on other receivers with Audyssey outside of high end stuff using the expensive Audyssey Pro kit and license, which still doesn't make it quick and easy to tweak your EQ curves. Audyssey doesn't want you to be able to tweak the EQ/tone to the content, your hearing, or your tastes.

Compare that to the Pioneer 1018, or the VSX-01TXH. The Pioneer lets you run MCACC on your room environment as a starting point, and then make tweaks to the MCACC settings using 9 bands of EQ, and save this to a an MCACC preset. Not just 1, but 6 MCACC/EQ presets that you can preconfigure! And you can switch between the 6 presets quickly during playback as desired. Unlike Audyssey equipped systems, you still retain your full MCACC calibration & room correction in the time domain. You do not lose functionality of the DRC (Dynamic Range Compression), mightnight, dialogue enhancement, Auto Level Control, THX Loudness Plus, or what have you. Of course, you still have phase control, standing wave control, bass management, etc as well. And from what I understand, the tone controls are still available, although manually tweaking the EQ is much more precise anyway. So if you like to control or tweak your sound, even if just a little bit, in addition to the automatic room & speaker calibration, environmental acoustic correction in the time domain, and without losing other functionality on your receiver, you are much better off with Pioneer and MCACC. Pioneer VSX-1018 and all of the current Elite models are the only ones that handle this the way the tweakers prefer and lets you have the "final" word on how it sounds after all the auto room EQ & calibration has run. Now, finally a match made in heaven.

Now I can just kick back and relax to some great calibrated & tweaked audio just to my liking

Figured out my previous issue (so far anyway). Now something new. I have a new Xbox 360 w/HDMI (had a prior version using VGA). When watching Transformers on the HD DVD player periodically the screen will go black for a few seconds and says HDCP connection lost, then it comes back. Tried a different HDMI cable and a different port and it still happens. Has anyone seen this before?

Because the speaker size settings is where you turn the "SW" to "PLUS".

Plus forces bass signal to SUBWOOFER even if there is NO LFE signal from the audio source.

The sub is NOT used in stereo and if I am watching TV (like HBO or Pay-Per-View) I want to hear the action scenes rumble just like a DVD

thanks sierra. I think that was the answer I was looking for. I didnt have it on plus and I was wondering the sub wasnt workin. Seems good now.

Had to give up. After 12 hrs of debugging & 2 exchanges at BB, I went with the Yamaha RX-V663. Guess what? It worked on the first try! No probs at all, unlike the PIO.
But now I'm stuck trying to get my HDMI switch to play ball. The Yamaha only has 2 HDMIs, which makes it tricky with the HT-PC interface, DirecTV DVR, & the panny BD30..
Anyways, I'm off to the yamaha forum. You guys have fun with it. I spent the last 6 months drooling over it, only to be severely disappointed when the HDMI would not work with my projector.

In all fairness I will be using a ps3. So I am not as worried about the audio since if I understand correctly the ps3 decodes audio also. There is something to say about avoiding future obsolesence. Would this unit do any better of a job with upcomverting video to 1080p?

Thanks for the inciteful answers.

Well, finally got my 1018 all hooked up. So far so good, I ran the Auto MCACC and it set my speakers to Fronts: Large and everything else to small and level at 80. I went in and manually changed the fronts to small.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of bass, I saw something in the manual about adjusting the LFE ATT so I put it at -5. Would that help? I wasn't able to turn it up cause everyone is sleep to see. I have both knobs turned half way up on the sub itself, should I turn them up higher?

Other than that everything else seems to be working just great!

I would re-run the MCACC calibration with your mains set to SMALL. When you run the Auto MCACC, just select CUSTOM, then "Keep SP".

General consensus is, you should set the knob on your sub to around 30-40%. The MCACC seems to set the sub really low for most people. It set mine to -8.5dB, so I just manually changed it to 0dB after.

I would still try the Pioneer first, and if you're not happy with it, go with the Denon. I believe the 1018AH has a Faroudja upscaler,so I think it will be pretty good... I can't compare it to the Denon. I still haven't tried upscaling with my 1018AH yet for that matter.

You can adjust your speaker settings and turn the "SW" (subwoofer) setting from "YES" to "PLUS". Changing it to PLUS forces signal to your Sub. Before you do that though --- try hitting the receiver button on the remote, and then hitting the "standard" button to get to "dolby music". This will force the receiver to use 5.1 speakers... It won't be as good as true 5.1 but it will sound better than stereo. To get back to auto stream detect -- hit receiver button and then "AUTO" (which is the button on the far left of the same row as the "standard" button)

If your unhappy with that then I would change "SW" speaker setting to PLUS.

Just know that "plus" isn't exactly the BEST option for the subwoofer... because when you go back to watching REAL 5.1 stream audio from DVD source or DVR source it didn't seem to sound right to me, I decided to live with SW set to "YES" with speakers set to small. What I do now instead is hit the receiver button on remote, then hit the STANDARD button to manually force the receiver to use 5.1 speakers. This does send signal out sub but isn't true 5.1. Then if you want to go back to auto detect stream mode, hit receiver button on remote and then hit the "auto" button (far left button on same row as the "STANDARD" button on the remote).

Not sure what "both knobs on your sub" are??? Assume gain and crossover.

SETTINGS:

Knobs on your sub:
you want the gain knob about 1/3 to 1/2 up during Auto MCACC setup. If you have a crossover knob on your subwoofer I would set it to 80hz although some people say 160hz.

Settings on the pioneer:

After running AUTO MCACC, adjust ALL speakers to "small" and the crossover setting set to 80hz. Make sure your SW setting is set to "yes". You shouldn't have to mess with any other settings to get good sound and bass.

Play a DVD or BluRay source at a volume of about -20db to -5db on the Pioneer. -5db will probably be too loud but will tell you if your sub is working

IF AFTER you play the source and want MORE output out of your sub, "I saw something in the manual about adjusting the LFE ATT so I put it at -5." Try bumping it up 1db at a time (towards 0). If you get to 0 and you STILL need more output ---- adjust the gain knob on your sub, turning it up to a maximum of about 3/4.


NOTE: there will be NO subwoofer output by default if your watching a source and the receiver says "STEREO". Check my posts above for a band-aid workaround for this...

Next time it shuts off (or preferably BEFORE it shuts off). Put your hand on top of receiver and see if it is uncomfortably warm.

Where did you put the receiver? The manual calls for 2 feet clearance on top (60cm i think?). and 6-8" on left/right side.

I noticed when I put it on my stereo shelf I only had about 8" and it was getting HOT. I got a 120mm fan and a potentiometer at electronics store. Wired it together and set the fan to spin as fast as it would while still being "quiet" (using the potentiometer). Now my receiver runs cool


Not sure if that is your problem but worth a check...

I actually run a cooling fan as well on the AV rack, but with it off, I've found the pio to be extremely cool, and I only have a couple of inches on top clear. I guess it's possible if you're running at a loud volume, but I haven't heard of the pio's running hot yet.

Definitely this is worth trying though. Also, next time it happens, take a desk fan and have it blow right on the receiver. If it stays on, you know heat is the problem...