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How does a Denon AVR mix down to less speakers?

post #1 of 12
3/20/13 at 5:04pm
Thread Starter 
This is a very neophyte question, and if it's been discussed at length please point me to the correct thread. I've tried searching but can't find it. I poured over batpig's site, and if it's there, it didn't register. I am guessing I don't even know the syntax for this.

I have upgraded my AVR-2306 to an AVR-1910 (upgrade in years and features, downgrade in model, but needed HDMI)... and I can't figure out how the AVR knows to mix down to my speaker system. I don't have sattelites, rears, surrounds, just a front left and front right, and a sub (a center channel speaker is heading to the house, not here yet). Some of the content is clearly sounding wrong. My AVR-2306 'somehow' knew how to handle the content, and whatever I listened to was mixed down to the speaker system. It wasn't perfect... but better than it currently is. FWIW I only had a front left and a front right when on that system (which was professionally setup, if that makes a difference). My main interest was music then, but I've since added television, and just recently my first big display (50" panasonic plasma). Since then I've tried adding these other speakers to get that big feeling back, but I can't.

Is there some setup on a Denon, other than configuring your speakers, that tells it how to mix content down from surround sound to a lesser quantity of speakers? Like where to assign the other channel content? What is the correct way to do this? Is this something that needs to be configured, apart from basic speaker definition?

I am sure it seems lame that I don't have side and rear speakers - for me it's just not something I want to see all over my house, and I know my wife doesn't. She's having a hard enough time adjusting to the new TV size. We're older, and somewhat luddites.

Thank you for any assistance.
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post #2 of 12
3/20/13 at 5:07pm
Run the AUTO SETUP (Audyssey).
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post #3 of 12
3/20/13 at 8:50pm
Presumably, Audyssey will make sure the receiver knows how many speakers you have. Otherwise, the receiver knows because you tell it that when you set it up. You would define your system as 2.1, specifying that you have L/R and a SW.

Regardless of whether the setup comes from Audyssey or you do it manually, when you play sources with DD 5.1 and DTS soundtracks, there's metadata with the soundtrack that tells the decoder how to downmix. That's exactly how your other receiver worked. In cases where a source has a multichannel PCM soundtrack, the receiver has software controlling how it does the downmix to fewer speakers. But, that's pretty rare and would only come up in a small number of Blu-rays that don't have lossless TrueHD or DTS-HD tracks where the metadata handles the downmix.

As for your sub, you need to configure your speakers as small and set the bass management crossover to something like 80Hz. That tells the receiver to reroute frequencies below 80Hz to the sub.

Failure to do those basic configuration steps could account for the differences you hear.
Edited by BIslander - 3/20/13 at 8:56pm
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post #4 of 12
3/21/13 at 12:31am
Thread Starter 
Okay, it sounds like I can't get around running the audessy setup. I need to buy one of the microphones for it. I picked up this AVR on craigslist - microphone was not included mad.gif

But from what you are both saying, once the system configures my speakers with Audessy it will automatically mix down to my speaker system - I don't have to further select anything while playing movies.

Thanks!
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post #5 of 12
3/21/13 at 2:47am
No, you don't have to run Audyssey, although it's a good idea because it will adjust the output based on room conditions. You can always do the good old fashioned manual setup. It's not hard.
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post #6 of 12
3/21/13 at 8:20am
Thread Starter 
I bought the mic on ebay; it's heading my way.

I've already run the manual setup, and it's not working correctly. Is it possible my AVR is having a CPU problem? It's a Denon AVR-1910.
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post #7 of 12
3/21/13 at 11:43am
When it comes to downmixing, it doesn't matter whether the system configuration is set manually or by Audyssey. 2.1 is still 2.1 and the downmixing won't change one iota based on how that basic configuration is set. But, EQ and bass management can be affected using Audyssey vs. doing everything manually. So, if that's the problem, then Audyssey may help.
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post #8 of 12
3/21/13 at 5:08pm

Mickey_C,

 

Maybe the problem isn't in the receiver. Are the audio settings correctly configured on your HDMI source/player?

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post #9 of 12
3/23/13 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 
The mic came, and Audyssey ran. It hit a Caution: L/R phase. I checked the back of the left speaker, and it was indeed wired out of phase with the right... oops.

eek.gif

Out of phase speakers do wave cancellation, and that did the trick. Completed the setup - AND WOW IT SOUNDS GREAT. It's really full now, not weird anymore.

Such a simple thing...
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post #10 of 12
3/23/13 at 7:56pm
That's the power of the "mic"! (or is that Pinesol?) biggrin.gif
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post #11 of 12
3/24/13 at 10:23am
Thread Starter 
Watched Gladiator last night - the second Blu Ray release, not the older lousy one - sound was even better than it was on my old 2106, and I had the BLUE HD LIGHT on the AVR! Which made my wife and daughter complain - "What's the big glaring blue LED on that thing, can you shut it off?" I was eating a banana - walked over and put the peel off sticker over the LED. "How's that?" lmao.

I wouldn't think such a simple thing as the mic and the unit running the audyssey setup would make such a huge difference, but it does. When my center channel speaker arrives I will connect it and run the setup again.

I feel empowered!

cool.gif
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post #12 of 12
3/24/13 at 10:37am
Modern electronics can be pretty amazing. Glad you got it working to your satisfaction.
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