*OFFICIAL* Denon AVR 391 / 591 / 1611 Owner's Thread - Page 88

thanks jdsmoothie. i'm assuming with other receivers you can have an independent source upstairs and down? will i be using an audio cable to plug the external amp into the avr? so the music will only be on upstairs if i choose the "multi ch stereo" correct?

how is this set up anyways? are the boston speakers it comes with pretty decent? i'm sure it's a big step up from my sony htib.

The 4 digit "sister" model to the 591, the 1611 is a true 7.1/5.1+Zone 2 AVR so it would allow for an independent "analog only" source to be played to the upstairs speakers (without the use of an external amp). Yes, you will be using an RCA red/white cable to connect to the external amp. The "Multi Ch Stereo" mode would be the best mode to use, otherwise the upstairs speakers would be considered as either "Front height" or "rear surround" speakers to the main zone so they would only get background audio in other audio modes.

As far as the BA speakers ... no personal experience with them but AFAIK, they are fine as entry level speakers go.

so does the 1611 allow you to watch a movie downstairs and play music upstairs? sorry this receiver stuff is new to me as the sony htib is pretty much all preset with sony stuff.

do you know the best place to get a small 2ch amp?

i'm sure your set up is way beyond this, so what kind of set up do you have?

Yes, the 1611 would allow for this as well as be a much cleaner setup then trying to use an external amp with the 591. Any 2CH amp will do ... you can likely find a used one on your local Craigslist, eBay, or classifieds.

yeah. i got the 591 since it came like a htib with decent speakers rather then ones made by the receiver company and i didn't want to spend too much. is this receiver good enough if i wanted to upgrade to better speakers later?

btw...should i be following all those steps you have at the audyssey setup link?

Yes, the 591 includes the same version of Audyssey MultEQ as the higher level models up to the 2311/891 and can easily take upgraded 8Ω speakers when the time comes. The only reason to upgrade to a higher level AVR would be to add additional inputs or features that you may need that the 591 does not offer. Yes, follow the steps in the Audyssey Setup Guide.

On a side note .. if you can place the 591 in another room, you may want to consider adding the 1611 rather than spending money on an external amp.

that's good to know. seems like i got a good receiver. are most speakers 8-ohms? does a higher ohm mean it's louder?

yeah, i was thinking that too for the price of a 2ch amp.

Hmmmm...possibly. But why would this only be an issue when I run it through the 591? Works fine when it's directly plugged into the TV.

thanks for clearing that up!

hey jdsmoothie...do i need to follow all those steps for the audyssey setup? if it different from just setting up the speakers and doing it automatically through the avr?

OK, I just hooked up my new 591 and rearranged my cables so now only on Hdmi cable is going to tv. I turned off the Samsungs TV All-net option so the receiver won't default to "TV" input.
First impressions is that I'm not sure how I want to run this. I would prefer to only have the receiver on when I want to use the speakers. The Pass-through works but I have noticed that the Pass-through does not remain if I come back later and just turn on the TV. I need to turn the receiver back on and rest the input. I don't know if there is something else I could do to resolve this. I have a Harmony 1 remote but want to have my young son use the regular remote and be able to watch tv in the morning without getting me up to adjust inputs. Any thoughts? thanks

Right, 4-ohm speakers have a low resistance. Compared, that is, to speakers with a higher resistance, like 6-ohm or 8-ohm speakers.

The only steps that aren't automatic are the adjustments on the back of the sub made prior to running AUTO SETUP.

The setting (p. 48) defaults to LAST .. make sure you set it to the specific HDMI jack used for the cable/sat box.

Actually you have it backwards. Higher numbers mean higher resistance.
A simple power formula is "current squared divided by resistance" so the
higher the resistance the lower the current and the smaller the power supply for a given level.

so once i have adjusted the sub, everything else will be automatic? then i'll just have to tweak the levels if they need to be? just curious because my last sony had auto calibrate (i know it's not the same) but the levels were set really low when i did it so had to manually adjust them.

No .... you originally set the sub volume/gain knob to 12 o'clock (middle volume). After running the 1st mic position, if the sub level gets set to -12db then you've got to lower the sub knob back to about 10 o'clock which should produce a sub level closer to 0db. Once that is done, then you can run all 6 positions to completion. After listening to the setup for a week or two (to adjust to the Audyssey standards) you may "prefer" to adjust one or more of the speaker channel volume levels (using remote control) which can be done without impacting the Audyssey filtering.

didn't realize there were 6 positions...one for each speaker i assume? sorry, i haven't gotten my receiver and speakers yet from fedex so i'm just preparing myself mentally for the set up. what's the max height the 5.1 speaker should be? does it depend on room size?

i've been reading other people having problems with the hdmi cable and cable box. is this a known issue that cannot be fixed? i plan on running a bluray and cable box into the avr and then a single hdmi to the tv...will this not work?

So after having given up for a night and having my PC plugged in directly to the TV, I tried to add the AVR back into the mix last night. Kept getting HDCP errors over and over when trying to play HBO. Very frustrating evening. I gave up and tried to just connect straight back into the TV, without the AVR, and the HDCP errors continued. So I ended up worse off than I started the night.
I guess I'm gonna skip the HDMI for my HTPC, as I plugged in the VGA cable and it worked fine. Guess I could still use the AVR for sound by using Toslink.

*sigh*

The 6 mic positions have nothing to do with the number of speakers in your setup, rather that's the maximum number of positions that MultEQ uses in doing it's filtering process. Not sure what you mean by "max height"? Speakers can be any shape or size, rather what's more important is they be at least 6Ω or 8Ω and have a sensitivity of at least 85db or higher otherwise they will be harder to drive if only 4Ω or < 85db sensitivity. Generally you will want larger sized speakers for a larger room and/or more volume distribution.

The issue with cable boxes and HDMI has been around since HDMI was first introduced and impacts all brands of AVRs, although generally can be resolved with going directly to the TV with optical to the AVR.

oh, i see. thanks for clearing that up. does the whole process take long? the system comes with satellite speakers that are 6 ohms. rooms is not too big so i think i should be good there.

this issue hasn't happened with other avr's i have had but then again those were htib systems and not a 'real' avr like this denon. so do some set up's work and others don't? or should i just plug the tv in and opt to avr?

^^
The AUTO SETUP process should only take about 15-20 minutes, although you want to do it when it's quiet and not at night time as the test tones are quite loud. Also, make the HDMI connection to the AVR first and if a handshake issue exists then you can connect it directly to the TV.

thanks.

you would think avrs would have any kind of 'handshake' issue and it's too bad there is. i'll check it out and let you know. thanks for the help!

It's not the AVR with the issue .. rather it's the cable boxes as in many cases they were never designed to be run through an HDMI repeater (ie. AVR) rather only directly to the TV.

ahh...makes sense. you would think the cable companies now a days would change that since so many people have sound systems and rarely run sound through the tv's.

does using an optical cable hinder the sound at all rather then using a hdmi cable?

Nope.

Thanks for the reply but I don't think I was clear enough. Here is the what I mean..

What I would like to happen with the By Pass mode is this. When my son tries to watch TV in the morning he would just have to turn on the TV but not the receiver.
Here is the way its working now. While the receiver is on my remote will automatically adjust volume on the receiver which is cool. If I turn off the receiver to just watch TV the screen will go blank for about 10 seconds and then return to the feed of Direct TV and the remote is now controlling audio off TV, also good.

Problem is that I turn off the TV and return later to just watch TV nothing is there. When I turn on the TV thinking it will working the way it was last time there is nothing coming through the input now without turning back on the receiver and selecting the input again. Is that just the way it works?

My settings as follows:
Receiver
HDMI Audio "Amp"
HDMI Control "ON"
Standby sourse "Last
PowerOFF Control "Off" ( Had set to ALL with same result)

TV Samsung LN55C630 is HCC control is "On"

Sorry if this is long winded. Thanks

The setting (p. 48) defaults to LAST .. make sure you set it to the specific HDMI jack used for the cable/sat box.

Read the first message in this thread. Then follow the links. All of these issues are explained there very nicely.