Denon 3312ci/NAD 375BEE/DL III - Together

I recently purchased Denon 3312ci and set up home theater on my living room. (I have B&W CM5 as front, HTM2 as center and DM 601 S3 as surrounds, and Polk DSW 440 for sub). I connected all speakers to Denon and did Audyssey setup according a thread in this forum. I connected all sources (PS3/DVR/PC) to Denon and output to TV. The movie sounds enjoyable but it seems to miss some of the details. The music sounds not very good (much less details) compared to before (I played music from CD/Streaming through PS3). I tried different audio setting, Audyssey, Flat, Manual, Direct. Note: my previous setup was that I connected sources (HDMIs) to my TV and have optical out from TV to DL III and then to NAD.

I guessed, this must be suprior in 2 channels amplifier in NAD so I connected front speakers back to NAD and connected NAD to Denon (Denon's pre-out to NAD's main-in, disconnect pre-out jumper on NAD). I did audyssey again (several times), it sounds even worse.

Is there something wrong with my setup? Or, is this why the sale person recommended me to get NAD + DL III instead of Denon when I told him I would mainly use it for listen to music?

Any advise on the best setup so that I can enjoy the sound I like as well as home theater?

I didn't use DL III since I have Denon set up. (I also just read through the FAQ.)

To me, movie sounds OK and enjoyable but music is a little muddy with lost some detail (especially, for acoustic guitar or vocal). I also noticed that in movie, like windows shattering sound, is not as detail as when I have 2-ch stereo.

Not that I got a bad sound, music is still enjoyable, but it wasn't as good as before. May be my preference??

Yes, I did.

When I used Flat, I can hear more detail but ... I lost the deep/dynamic of the music. But, I did it without pre-out to NAD though (just speakers connected to Denon). Is that matter?

thank you for giving me those info.

I will try to calibrate again (never give up ), and try several configurations to see if I can get what I prefer.

Not sure if this will be useful.

I noticed that my problem was not the detail but rather bass is muddy and loud. This prevents me from increasing the master volume to higher.

Increasing crossover frequency of front speakers to recommended 80Hz (it was 60Hz). It helps a little but still muddy from sub.

So, I changed sub frequency to 80 Hz (down from 120Hz). This helps a lot. (I think this against the recommendation to reduce it, but somewhat reduce the muddy sound).

Then I have -
Music: Audyssey Flat - 10db - Day is now much better for my preference.

I feel that NAD is better driving my speaker at low frequency (probably because of its PD power supply and higher damping ratio??).

I just curious. Wouldn't I have excessive bass if I set front to 80 hz and LPF for LFE to 120hz since it overlap? ... I read the FAQ, but it talked about when LFE channel is present, what about when there is no LFE as in the music?
Edited by thone - 7/3/12 at 3:20pm

With music - 2 ch, there is not LFE. So, it has to come from the main, doesn't it? -- I am just curious.