"OFFICIAL" Pioneer MCACC thread - Page 115

Everything is hooked up through HDMI directv is perfect now. When I auto setup I hear the rear sounds also I figured out the computer it was chosing default sound modes so I selected all formats and in aliens bluray and it changed to DTS but it sounds low in the rears I ran auto setup five times. Changed the crossover to 80hz and changed all speakers to small because every time it changes them to large. I have monitor 60s for front a cs2 and monitor 40s for rears energy ESWv 10 for sub. Thanks for all the help guys

No problem. glad to hear you got it all worked out. Enjoy!

You say that you do get 5.1 from your speakers when watching Direct TV? If this is true, then you need to check your audio output in the BluRay player and set it to 5.1. Sounds to me that you have it set for Stereo.

I went into the setting of the bluray and clicked all formats seems to be working now but the volume seems low.Should I raise the volume through the receiver? IDK what to do this is my first pioneer

Unless your topping out, just give it more volume, that's what it's for!

Could you have possibly activated the DRC when resetting your blue ray player. Some come with default on or turned back on when reset.

I'm sure its been discussed already.

Can the Mic cable be extended to about 35ft? I have separate closet for all my components and the current 16ft cable cant reach.

thanks.
Edited by kg49301 - 10/9/12 at 11:05am

^^^

you should be fine...

Just make sure it's a decent (well-shielded) cable and don't run it next to speaker or power lines if you can help it.

Hi

I have a vsx-94txh connected to klipsch reference speakers. rf-62's, etc.

when i run mcacc, it always sets all speakers to -10. there's an obvious difference in volume when i go to manual speaker setup

has anyone run into this issue? any way to keep it from choosing -10 for all?

Thanks

Ok guys, never really been to sure in which order I should EQ my system, my pioneer LX 83 is back from being repaired tomorrow, so Ill need to reinstall and EQ my system. Now I have the pioneers EQ system and I have a velodyne SPL 1200R attached to a Velodyne SMS-1 room EQ (which gives me the similar EQ as the velodyne DD range) so the question is which order am I best running the EQ systems.

^^
What I do is run MCACC 1st to let it calibrate sub distance, level & then run Velodyne EQ. Which is best to do 1st, standing wave filters & phase control may be harder to logically decide, but IMO, even those should be done 1st, let the Pioneer system do what it can, then trim out the response curve with your SMS-1

I wonder if anyone knows how to tweak the filters and could give a short discussion on the rational used in tweaking the filters.

The PEQ filters? They are available in one of the menus for manual setup after running MCACC in my SC-27. I do not remember exactly where now, but I tweaked mine. The manual discusses it (check manual MCACC for your model). I am also not sure if all models allow tweaking; seems like it was only the upper models (?)

You can adjust the level, the center frequency, and Q (quality factor) to adjust the bandwidth of the filters. Higher Q means a narrower filter band, useful in bringing down a narrow peak, while a lower Q is more useful for adjusting a band of frequencies or closely-spaced group of peaks. Obviously you need some sort of measurement system to see before and after responses.

EQ in general cannot do a lot with a null in the bass region; those are caused by waves canceling at various room dimensions and respond poorly to EQ. Even if you manage to pull them up at the listening position, you may be overdriving your speakers or sub.

HTH - Don

I followed everything on the frontpage regarding MCACC for my SC-1222-k, but I have a few questions now that I rethought some things. My first question is if I change my crossover from 100hz to 80hz will have to rerun MCACC, the manual does not say anything about this? Also my surrounds(I am running a 5.1 setup) are slightly behind the listening position but are also on the side on the wall, so would I choose the surround side position or say that they are behind the listening position. It might be that this does not apply to me because it might be for 7.1 setups I guess.

answer to 1st is no

answer to 2nd is not as clearcut - they are definitely surrounds not rears so make sure you plug them in the correct jacks and make sure the Surround Backs (rears) are No in the setup menu. The menu choice for the side surrounds asking if they are side or rear is not clearcut (to me, anyway ) as it's the 1st time I've seen that in a Pioneer setup menu & I go back years in experience with Pioneer setups. I think your choice is a matter of degrees...are they slightly rearward of 90 deg (side) or are they close to the back wall or corner of the room. I would choose "Side" for the 1st and "Rear" for the 2nd. Some people may have their speakers in more of the old quadraphonic era positions not the 90-110 deg now in common use; for that rearward position, Pioneer may be manipulating the signal delay somewhat to compensate. I'm not sure it'll matter much in the real world. But if yours are only slightly rearward, still within Dolby/DTS guidelines (90-110 deg from listening position) then I would pick "Side".

Thanks for answereing my question, the Pioneer techs were not very helpful when I asked them. So I guess I can change to 80hz and see how it sounds without doing the MCACC again, cool. Yes, my surrounds are connected to the surround connections, not the SB connections. My surrounds are to the back and sides, but they are not near a corner or near a back wall as there is probably ten feet or more before the back wall. So I guess I will choose the side selection.

You don't have to, but I would just to satisfy my anal retentiveness.

As to the second question, I am not 100% sure as I don't have direct experience with that avr, but if it is like mine, you have to use the surr L/R when 5.1, and can connect the surr back L/R only when you have at least 7.1 setup. If you try and connect the rears to the surr back instead of the surr you just won't get any sound out of them.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the incredibly entry level question, but I'm totally lost right now. I've tried to follow the directions/set-up guide on the first page, but no matter what I do, I cannot get my speakers to sound as they should. I know that's very vague, but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I have the following components:

Receiver: Pioneer VSX-1021-K
Floorstanding Speakers: Polk Monitor 60
Center Channel Speaker: Polk CS2

For the life of me, I cannot figure out the correct settings on the Pioneer to get audio from movies/tv/music to flow correctly. Right now I have it using the Advanced Surround Sound setting Extended Stereo, as that's the only was I can get the center channel to put out any sound.

In Auto/ALC/Direct & Advanced mode, I have sound coming from the left and right channels, but nothing from the center. I can use the Standard mode settings to get sound from the center, but nothing from right and left, and then finally when I'm in Advanced Surround Extended Stereo, I get sound from L/C/R, but dialogue and action spans across all channels.

I followed the directions on the front page exactly as they were given, with the exception of setting my speakers to Small. I'm guessing since I don't have a subwoofer, I couldn't set my left and right channels to small, only the center.

No matter what source I use, be it TV sound, music or a movie, I just don't get a full, rich audio track. It just seems like the different tracks are competing with each other to play.

I would love to get these speakers configured correctly to play together, but I'm honestly out of ideas.

Any help for an idiot?

Thanks

If you use the Pro Logic Movie or Music modes, you should get sound out of the center channel while watching tv or listening to music.

Thanks for the details about AVR & speakers. How many speakers do you have? You dont mention a subwoofer. Are you running a "3.0" configuration (L+R+Center)?

Could you provide details about your sources, and how they are connected to the AVR? HDMI, digital coax or optical, or analog left/right (red/white RCA)?

Dan.

I have 3 total speakers, so yes a 3.0 system. The left and right Polk Monitor 60's and the center Polk CS2.

I have my cable box connected to my TV via HDMI, and then looping back to the receiver via an optical audio cable. I also have an Xbox 360 connected directly to the receiver via HDMI, and then I usually stream most of my music via AirPlay.

Thanks

You should have all inputs going to the receiver, and only one output from the receiver to the TV.

Likely the reason your not getting sound from your center is because of the way you have things connected. By connecting your tv (via optical) from tv to avr, you are only sending a stereo (2-channel) audio signal to the avr, and therefore the reason why just the front L/R when on Auto Surround. Move your optical to connect cable box to the avr which will allow multi channel signal to be transmitted from the cable box to the avr.

Unless there are going to be times where you don't want to use your avr to playback the audio while using the cable box (i.e., use tv speakers), you can do away with connecting the cable box to the tv with the hdmi, and just connect the cable box to the avr (both audio and video).

There is no need for the optical cable to be used at all because HDMI carries audio and video. I would suggest you connect the cable box and Xbox to the AVR via HDMI and then one HDMI output to the TV. On the VSX-1021K select the Direct mode to eliminate any unwanted processing. If you have MCACC, run the calibration program and let the AVR detect your speakers and configuration. MCACC should detect that you have no sub and select your fronts as Large and subwoofer as NO.

I've tried to run the DVR directly through the Pioneer, but I kept running into a problem with the picture being sent by the receiver. When I have the DVR connect directly to the TV and looping back to the receiver, it would remember all my formatting settings (1080p, Stretched for lower resolution), but when I ran it through the Pioneer, I would be forced to reset the picture settings every time.

I spoke with Comcast about the problem, and as usual they were incredibly useless, so I just decided to hook it up the way I have now.

Outside of that, I also really don't get the full sound field while using my Xbox, either playing 5.1/7.1 games or streaming 5.1 movies, it always seems to have the same issues that the cable box sound does.

After looking at the front of the receiver while audio is playing, I only see the Left and Right boxes for the sound field, I never see the center, even though the MCACC recognizes it during setup and sound is being played through it.

Your TV is only sending stereo sound back. If you can't get HDMI working properly, use the digital audio output on the cable box (optical or coax). You'll have to change the receiver's input mapping, but at least you'll have surround.

I don't think you're understanding. Nothing is "looping back to the receiver" with the way we told you how to connect everything.

Also, you must set the audio settings on the DVR to Dolby 5.1. Keep in mind, lots of TV programming is not broadcast in 5.1, it's just 2 channel stereo.

Yeah, that is one of the limitations of using the avr as a hub. If that feature is that important to you, then as I have already suggested above, disconnect the optical from the tv and connect it to the cable box so that now it is being used to send the audio from the cable box to the avr. As someone already mentioned, you will have to disable your tv speakers and make sure the cable box audio settings are set to digital and not on hdmi. With that setup, you should be receiving up to 5.1 signal from cable box to avr. Of course you need to be on a channel that broadcasts mufti-channel (i.e., ESPN HD, etc.).

Thanks for all the input. I tried connecting the HDMI cable directly to the AVR, and now I get the full field of audio. I'm gonna keep playing around with it, and hopefully I can get it perfect.

Thanks so much for your help