Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 465

OH BOB - I'm so disappointed that the FAN NOISE is not a PROBLEM

BTW - I know you said you might return the 40GB version for the 80GB
version. But unless you need PS2 Compatibility - you might never use
the extra 40GB. And hopefully you got the 40GB for the Special price
of $299. It is hard to beat - that is why I bought my 2nd PS3 to replace
my Pioneer Blu-Ray player in the big theater.

mlbrand,

Your are right, the ARC is a great tool for sub setup and adjustments. I spent quit a bit of time (and effort) this week moving my servo subwoofer in my room to select the best location. I tested 4 locations and now I think I have the best one. With ARC the bass is so tight and crisp that it makes it easier than before to adjust polarity/phase for example. Last night, while playing some music I started just for fun, to adjust polarity/phase by ear. I will do it properly tonight with a RS SPL meter and test tones to see how close I was.

Actually what I'd be going after in the 80GB version is SACD playback.

Considering you also get the new, vibrating game controller and a bundled game as well for the extra $100, it seems a no-brainer. But only if this new 80GB version runs as quietly as the current 40GB version.

The PS2 compatibility, the flash memory card slots, and the extra 2 USB ports are of no value to me, although it certainly doesn't hurt to have them.
--Bob

Leave THX Re-equalization Turned Off for Blu-Ray

I just had a brief exchange with FilmMixer, and his recommendation -- and now mine as well -- is that you leave THX Re-equalization turned off in the Anthem for Blu-Ray playback.

THX Re-equalization can be turned on/off independently of whether you are using the rest of the THX post-processing offered in the Anthems. Press the THX button once, use the up or down arrows to toggle THX on or off. Then immediately press the THX button again, and use the up or down arrows to toggle whether the Re-equalization portion of the THX post processing is turned on or off.

The re-equalization setting is separately remembered both for when the rest of THX post processing is turned on or turned off, for each source input, and for each type of input audio from that source input. If you are using only HDMI 6-channel LPCM for input audio from your Blu-Ray player (as you should be with the Anthem), that means you will need to make this setting just twice -- once for THX itself ON and once for THX itself OFF. You will need to be playing Blu-Ray content when you make the setting so that it is applied to the correct input source and audio type.

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Apparently it is not so much that Blu-Ray tracks have already been specifically THX re-equalized for home theater use more often than standard DVD tracks. Rather it is that the mixing techniques used for Blu-Ray tracks, and the quality of the original content, are such that additional re-equalization is not needed.

At the moment, I prefer my Blu-Ray playback to be done with the rest of the THX post processing in the Anthem turned on. So it is JUST the Re-equalization portion of THX that I'm turning off. See section 4.8.6 of the Anthem manual for a description of the things THX post processing does for a 5.1 setup, and the extra things it does for a 7.1 setup.
--Bob

I thought SCAD was a DIRTY WORD you were using

A note on the IR2BT remote control converter for use with the PS3:

First of all, for Blu-Ray playback it works great. I recommend it. I'm using it with a Harmony 880 remote. There *ARE* a couple of button key mappings you need to change in the Harmony's "device" page for the IR2BT and in each "activity" page you set up using that device. These correct for some incorrect default mappings that Logitech provides for the IR2BT device in their database. The details are in the YouTube tutorial that IR2BT has put up.

[The errors are due to the way Logitech automatically populates its default button mappings based on the spelling of each button. NOTE: The IR2BT YouTube tutorial only mentions making these 2 button mapping changes for the "device" page. In fact you also need to make them for each "activity" you set up that uses the IR2BT device.]

These changes are easy to make when you add the device and its activities to your Harmony configuration. Other than these few button mapping changes, it is essentially plug & play -- unless you want to fiddle with the default button mappings to match your personal preferences.

The power on/off sequence works without a hitch.

-----------------------------------

However, that doesn't mean you can use the Harmony / IR2BT combo to replace the PS3 game controller -- even if you aren't playing a game. The one, significant issue I've found is trying to use the web browsing function of the PS3 -- which includes access to its on-line manual as well as to the PS3 store, etc.

The problem is that the IR2BT codes include the 4 direction buttons from the direction pad of the game controller, but do not include codes representing the left joystick directions. IR2BT tells me they couldn't think of a good way to include the joystick directional controls because those are actually a set of codes for each direction depending on how far you have pushed the joystick.

When browsing the internet, each press of the direction pad buttons skips the cursor to the next link or data entry field in the chosen direction on the current web page. In contrast, the left joystick moves the cursor smoothly in the chosen direction -- which is what you would more normally want to do when browsing. Depending on the number of links on whatever page you are viewing, using the direction pad button codes to skip from link to link may give you adequate ability to move around pages. For instance, viewing a typical newspaper page like the New York Times is pretty easy to do this way. But for some pages, there just aren't enough links scattered around to make that work well. Unfortunately, that's true for the Sony Playstation home page for example.

[In my "Watch Blu-Ray" activity, I also added hard button mappings for L1, L2, L3, R1, R2, R3, Select and Start, which are also used during browsing. L1/R1 are load web page back and forward -- I mapped them to Channel Down and Up on the Harmony. (There is no button mapping available for the Reload current page function -- you'll need to do that in the Option menu brought up with the Triangle button.) L2/R2 are change page view window left and right for when you've got multiple web pages open at once. I mapped them to the Down and Up arrows underneath the Harmony's direction pad. L3 switches to the view that shows all the open page windows at once. I mapped that to Guide. R3 is a current page view "zoom" toggle. I mapped that to Previous. The Start button brings up the on-screen keypad for typing in a URL, and accepts that text entry when you are ready. I mapped that the Enter button on the lower right of the Harmony. I've got the Clear button on the lower left mapped to the Square, as that is used as the backspace key during such text entry. Finally the Select button is used to bring up the Bookmarks list and to record a new Bookmark. So I mapped that to Record on the Harmony. None of these conflict with the stuff you would normally be using for Blu-Ray playback.

These are added to my standard key mappings for normal Blu-Ray playback: OK is the X button. Exit is the Circle button. (These are the 2 corrections you need to make to the default Logitech button mappings.) And Info is the Display button -- useful for bringing up playback status and bit rate info while watching a movie. Apparently the IR2BT codes for the Harmony 880 let you do a press-and-hold function for the PS button even when it is mapped to an LCD screen button instead of a hard button. IR2BT doesn't think this should work. Either Logitech has change the code they send for this, or this is something peculiar to the 880. In any event, I don't need to tie up a hard button for PS. So I've got PS up there in the LCD screen for the few times I might want to use it, which frees up the Exit button for the better use as Circle -- the standard button used on the PS3 for backing out of an operation or window.]

But there's really no way to correct for the lack of the left joystick, cursor direction controls. So if you are going to do browsing functions on many web pages, you'll want to have the regular PS3 game controller handy. And of course that's also true if you want to play a game.

But for everything else, including everything you might want to do during Blu-Ray playback, the IR2BT gives you complete control of your PS3 using your programmable IR remote control (such as the Harmony). It is definitely a winner.
--Bob

I am NOT sure why you think there is a PROBLEM.

Before the IR2BT came along - I used the SONY Bluetooth
remote for 2 years. The SONY remote has no Joy Stick.
I NEVER ever needed the joystick for anything that was
NOT a GAME. I accessed the Sony Store and Surfed the
web for 2 years without any joystick.

Try moving the cursor on the default Sony home page that comes up when you start the browser. You can't do it with the Sony BD remote or the IR2BT. That's because the buttons on it are not coded as links.

You need a joystick to move the cursor to a button.

--------------------------------

Open up the on-line PS3 manual and go to the page for Settings, BD settings. Try to move around on this long page. You can't because there are no links in it. The only links are the topic list on the left and the data entry field at the top of the page. And the BD remote direction buttons only move between links.

You need a joystick to move the cursor around within the text of the page, for example to change the focus of the "zoom" function.
--Bob

I'll give your examples some try. But they do seem to
be Corner Cases.

I am thrilled to tell everybody that the ARC experience is really a joy. Its the one thing that will make almost all of your Multimedia disc sound great. Yesterday, I concentrated on 2 channel music and I confidentlly say that they sounded much better than before. From the measurements gathered via ARC, I saw a 4dB hump at 500 hertz and after calculation my system is flat from 22 to 10,000 hz +/-2 dB IN ROOM RESPONSE. Now that's something to feel good about. Midrange especially vocal recordings made the biggest improvement. It is as if the voice floats in air and just sounds very musical without any electronics in between the performance and reproduction.

I have had the pleasure of listening to mega systems (upper 6 figure systems) but the combination of good acoustics and electronics PLUS the ARC makes me feel that my system can compete with TOYS from the Big Boys.

How do you correct the polarity/phase with the spl meter? What test tones do you use? And do you adjust the phase in the D2 menu until the spl meter reads the highest value?

Thanks

John

Hi Bob,

I may be mis-reading your post. Are you saying the Anthem remembers whether or not you've enabled re-eq on a per input basis? In my experience, I have to turn re-eq off each time I play a DVD using TXH cinema mode.

My understanding is that THX requires manufacturers to enable all THX enhancements when THX is engaged and Anthem then gives us the opportunity to turn only re-eq off as we desire.

Can you clarify? Thanks.

Without any other tools, I think the best one can do is to use bandwidth-limited pink noise and set both polarity and phase by magnitude on the SPLM.

mr_fitz,

To adjust for polarity/phase you must go into the D2 menu and look for the peak sound pressure as displayed by the SPL meter. For a source I use Rives Audio Test CD2 which provides test tones ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (31 different tracks).

First, you want to adjust polarity (coarse adjustment) by playing a tone and taking a reading with the SPL meter. Usually sub located in the front of the room will be set to normal and back room sub location will require to switch the polarity (inverted). Once this is done, you use the same process and do the fine adjustment using the phase control. Watching the SPL meter you adjust the phase from 0 to 180 degree until you reach the peak and your done.

Note: Watch out that you select the proper bass management to do the adjustment. For example, if you select the input source for the D2 as being CD and if this input is associated with the music bass management menu, going to the movie bass management won't work.

It seems to remember THX Equalization = OFF for me with V1.31c. I'll have to keep an eye on this and see if it isn't always remembering the last choice made for that per device and per style of audio input.
--Bob

Calibration DVDs typically include a phase adjustment test tone which sends pink noise (lower frequency range noise) simultaneously to the sub and a main speaker -- typically the LF speaker. You can adjust phase by ear by listening for the combo of Phase and Polarity settings that produce the most sound in the higher frequency range of the pink noise (i.e., near the cross-over, which is where the cancellation occurs if phase is set wrong). The worst phase setting will make the pink noise sound more like it only has lower frequencies in it. The difference is usually fairly subtle but if you listen carefully and iterate back and forth in the phase settings you will hear it. An SPL meter will indicate proper phase as having slightly higher volume because those higher frequencies in the pink noise aren't being cancelled.

Polarity inverts the phase across the entire frequency range going to the subwoofer. Phase itself operates in a manner that is more localized to the frequencies either side of the subwoofer cross over frequency. Thus inverting Polarity and swinging Phase around 180 degrees are not really the same thing, although the difference will likely be subtle (since the cancellation you are trying to eliminate also happens near the cross over). Typically you would set Polarity to normal for a sub in the front of the room and to inverted for a sub in the back of the room (i.e., just think of which way the speaker cone of the sub is moving compared to the speaker cones of the main speakers).

That means you may want to try separately measuring for best Phase with both Polarities to see which works better. A graphic frequency measuring tool, paired with a frequencey sweep test tone that goes to both the sub and LF, will help you see the variation across the range of frequencies. However, you can't use ARC for that since it doesn't send out that type of test tone, and only listens to one speaker at a time.

Note that you must get the distances and volume levels set up properly for your speaker configuration BEFORE you attempt to adjust subwoofer Polarity and Phase. It is also wise to re-check subwoofer phase if you change the crossovers (as for example by uploading ARC results), since the phase control's operation is centered on the cross over.

You can make changes to subwoofer Polarity and Phase *WITHOUT* having to re-measure or re-upload ARC results. Again, that's because ARC does what it does by listening to only one speaker at a time. So it doesn't hear correct vs. incorrect subwoofer phasing. ARC simply assumes you will set that up correctly, and the ARC results will sound better when you do so.
--Bob

Preliminary results of placing my new, 40GB, PS3 in the cabinet are promising. No fan issues at all yet for Blu-Ray playback. It is essentially quieter than my Comcast/Motorola HD-DVR except that you will sometimes hear seek noise when it is moving the read arm to select a disc menu or such (this doesn't happen during movie playback).

This PS3 is set up in a wooden console cabinet which is closed in the front by a curtained glass door and completely open in the rear. There is no extra cooling installed. The PS3 has a full 4 inches to each side wall and also to the underside of the shelf above it. There are no other heat sources in that space and the wooden walls and shelves insulate that space from adjacent spaces.

I can poke my remote sensing thermometer around the back to take measurements. The side walls are heating up about 2-5 degrees above ambient and the ceiling over the PS3 about 10 degrees above ambient. So it appears that the heat is dissipating adequately out the back without the PS3 fan kicking up to higher speed.
--Bob

What if you have different crossover points as most of us experienced with ARC targets?

The Phase control in the D2 is centered around the SUBWOOFER's cross over.

In any event, you can set up Polarity and Phase before running ARC, if you like, and then double check it after uploading the ARC results. Or you can leave subwoofer Polarity and Phase testing until after you run ARC and upload its results. The ARC measurements and calculations themselves are independent of subwoofer Polarity and Phase (which means even if their current settings are wrong ARC will still do correctly all that it does), and odds are that even if ARC changes your cross overs, the same Polarity and Phase that worked best prior to ARC will still work best.
--Bob

Sorry for the off topic post, but how is the Denon 3800 when hooked up to the D2. I had one on order but cancelled it to wait for the new Pioneer coming out. Now my sales guy said he has another Denon if I want it. Should I go for the Denon, or wait for the Pioneer?

My TWO Cent opinion is only select the Denon if
you need to brag at Cocktail Parties that you bought
the MOST expensive Blu-Ray Player, that is NOT AS
GOOD as a $299 PS3 - Blu-Ray player.

Amen to that! I have been using the PS3 for almost 18 months now, and its still the best bang for the buck Blu-ray player period.

Wait and see what the NEW Pioneer is like.

The new Pioneer is nOT shipping with DTS MA or DTS HD (decoding/LPCM). The Pioneer rep / Pioneer press release has confirmed this. The Denon does do bitstream DTS MA and LPCM 7.1. I own the Denon...it is a competent piece but expensive. Video is superlative and it is whisper quiet..

I've noticed a distinct difference in music CD playback between digital over RCA and digital over HDMI from a relatively good DVD player (Arcam DV79) to a D2.

Music over HDMI is crystal clear with a wide sound stage and black background. However something sounds off - best I can describe is I'm missing some lower midrange and that the music sounds a little too "digital".

Music over RCA sounds more correct to me but is muddy-sounding as compared to music over HDMI on this player. In summary, I would say RCA sounds more natural while the HDMI is more clear and open. I find myself going back and forth....

One factor here is the Arcam DV79 came out early in HDMI's life span, and perhaps the DV79's HDMI implementation has some flaws. The RCA and HDMI cables are of good quality and from the same mfg.

The Denon does DTS-MA via LPCM though. Will the Pioneer do 7.1 LPCM? Just weighing my options.

Not when shipped but at some point down the road (we hope)!

When you say digital over RCA, I assume you mean digital coaxial into the D2 and not digital-to-analog in your Arcam out via 2-channel analog RCA to the D2. So you're essentially comparing one digital stream to another digital stream from the same source into your D2 which is then subject only to the D2's DACs.

My query was to compare analog direct into the D2 vs both analog DSP (in the D2) and direct digital (to the D2) from the same source (in my case, a CD player). The results with my Ayre C-5xe based on my preferences (i.e. my ears) confirm that analog direct is the superior choice for music. I've taken the previous advice in this thread and levelled the playing field for analog/digital comparative purposes and continuously came to the same conclusion as Tom suggested...the DAC's in my Ayre are superior to the DAC's in the D2.

My solution is therefore to purchase a high quality 2-channel preamp for music only and connect the C-5xe directly to the preamp. The preamp must also have a bypass to channel the mains from my D2 out to the premap and onto my power amps for movies. I've found the perfect solution...

Yeah, I was comparing 2 digital streams (coax vs HDMI) from the same source - still an interesting observation IMO. Does make me wonder if 2-channel coax and HDMI digital streams (CD playback) are processed the same in the D2. Of course the differences could be on the source side. I've pondered getting an Oppo just to resolve that question....

I think I'm missing something - why are you adding the 2-ch pre-amp and not just using D2's analog direct?

I need some advice from you guys using the PS3. My D1 is due back tomorrow from being upgraded to a D1-HD (D2) and I plan on using the PS3 for Blu-Ray DVD's until Oppo comes out with their Blu-Ray Player. I currently have a Panasonic RP91 connected via component & Toslink that I have used for several years for SD-DVD's. My question is would I be better off removing the panasonic and using the PS3 for SD-DVD play or would the scaler in the D2 work better with the panasonic set to 480i output?

Thanks Rob