The "Official" Denon AVR-2808CI Owners Thread - Page 52

Just ordered the 2808CI for $659.99, no tax, free shipping. Can't wait to join you guys in audio greatness.

Speaking of which ... whatever happened with your 2707? Did the repair center resolve the problem you were having?

One of the reasons it's not a good idea to post the price you paid is that you find out you paid about $130 more than you should have .. I noticed a forum sponsor ad yesterday at the top of this thread showed it was being sold for $529 no tax/no shipping by an authorized Denon vendor.

Whoops. Thanks for the heads up. I love this board. You guys make me spend money, find ways to save me money, then spend the money on something else expensive.

Hey All! i did a quick search and didn't find a direct answer to my Q. Hopefully someone out there has a similar setup to mine and can help me out.

I am building out a patio and am adding a pair of Polk atrium 60's and planning on hooking them up to the 2nd zone of my 988 through a Phoenix Gold Impedance matching volume control (which confuses me too but that's a different thread).

In my main setup I am using two velo subs wired via speaker level to two Polk RTi8's as my mains so I am not using the sub output.

My question is if I add a sub to the patio (running a projector for outdoor movie night) could I assign the sub out to zone 2 via coaxial composite cable?

I would obviously use a powered sub and would rather do it the Coaxial way (wiring & convenience) versus running speaker wire to the Sub's speaker level input.

If you need any more info on my system let me know.

Thanks in advance.

nope, the sub output is not re-assignable

Although the sub is not reassignable .. there is a possible solution. Forget about Zone 2 altogether. Zone 2 is only designed for 2.0 sound. To get 2.1 you could hook up your two Polk atrium 60's to the Front L/R "B" series jacks. Hook up your patio sub to the Pre-out "SW" jack. When you want to play a BD/DVD on movie night, select the "B" series Front L/R speakers, set the sub to "YES" and play your movie. Your surrounds would still be playing in the main room and you wouldn't be able to play anything else in the main room of course, but this should work for you.

Most excellent jdsmoothie! I dont know how often we are going to use the PROJ (its starting to get cold and my patio is not done yet) so this works out!

I will use the 2nd zone for now for music, n stuff. Then when we do movie night i can switch out the wires (am using banana plugs) from zone 2 to B and drag the sub out to the patio!

my life is now made easier since I only have to prewire for coax to the sub as opposed to running speaker wire to the sub/speakers!

Thanks!!!

jdsmothie

Thanks for you response! I know that I can do that manually by pressing Direct/Stereo button on the main panel but what if I don't want to do so manually on each TV channel ? I would like to be able to set it globally once and for all as I really hate this matrix DD PLX into 7.1 channels even though the default (input) is 5.1 or even stereo. It is really annoying to hear these faint sounds coming from back speakers that are really artificial.

Does anyone know of the global settings and how I set them up ?

Regards,
Nikonowski

Just pulled the trigger on the 2808CI from Amazon - only $558 as it is being phased out. For over $600 off MSRP I could not wait any longer on a new receiver. Will be here next week!

Another noob here. Been lurking for quite awhile and researching MANY HT receiver threads for my new set up and have settled on this one because it does most things well and doesn't do anything really bad. Plus the price right now on-line is killer. But after reading this entire thread I have a few questions.

#1 Some people have said they don't feel the stereo sound is very good. Since most rave about the surround sound from this receiver, I find it hard to believe it doesn't do well in stereo mode.Over half of my usage will be for stereo music so this is important to me. Any comments about that?

#2 I need the ability to play music from an ipod or cd player thru the right and left speakers AND a pair of outside speakers w/o using another amp. I will only have a 5.1 setup for surround. From what I've read this is possible. Please confirm.

#3 If #2 above is possible can I adjust the level for each set of speakers? Example; Inside right and left are much bigger and more efficient speakers so for those speakers and the outside speakers to play at the same listening level I would need to lower the volume to the inside speakers while keeping the outside ones at the higher level. Is that possible thru the receiver or would I need a speaker switch with volume control?

A huge thank you goes out to all of you for guiding me through this HT maze with your very detailed postings.

Change on each channel? Huh? The surround parameter is set for each input source so if you set Direct or Pure Direct it will be in effect for whatever your TV input source is regardless of the channel. The default setting (Audio Setup-Auto Surround Mode - ON)is for the Denon to remember your last setting so you just have to set it once and it's good to go until you change it or do a master reset. The other way to set it is to use one of the Quick Select Functions (3) that will also store your settings in memory.

Hmm. When I switch to direct stereo mode and pure direct I only get sound from my subwoofer...When I watch some commercials it only get sound from my subwoofer...Makes it hard to listen to music in two channel mode I'm thinking. So I have to listen to music in surround modes



Hmm watching ugly betty in HD right now and when commercials come on I only hear the subwoofer, but when ugly betty comes back on sounds return to normal.

Must be a setting somewhere, no?

Really? Don't recall this, but then, to each their own. Not an issue though for the majority I'm sure.


Sorry. Don't believe it is possible although just going by what the manual says as I only have a single zone 5.1 setup myself. In order to use the Pre-out to zone 2, you'll need another amp.


It is possible (with an another amp) through the remote. If you've got the 2808 a second remote is provided for controlling Zones 2 and 3. If you've got the 988, I'm guessing that can be done on the main remote.

Possibly although could also be a defective unit. Has this always been the case or just recently? Although you can turn the "sub" on/off in Direct mode, the default is 2.1 and not 0.1. I'd either try a Master Reset or try Search this Thread ("direct sub only")to get more information as I recall it being discussed earlier in the year but don't recall the result.

This is one of several posts indicating that I could use the right & left speakers AND the outside speakers w/o another amp as long as I was using only 5.1. Is this not correct info?

Sorry. I was focused on the Pre-outs. Yes, you can use the SBL and SBR outputs for Zone 2, with independent volume as I mentioned in response to your #3. And it does appear (from the menu anyway) that you can play the same source on both the Main and Zone 2 speakers.

This is great news. Thanks for clarifying.

I had put in an order for a onkyo tx-sr805 but due to audio delay problems i canceled my order and put in an order for the avr-2808CI bought it for 598.97 cant wait till it arrives....

Were'd you find that?!?!?

I

This morning before I went to work I discovered It was a setting. Embarasssing but the unit was set for main speaker set B, instead of Main Speaker set A.

So that kind of explains everything.
I wasn't getting any sound from my from L&R mains at all. So that would explain only the subwoofer working in 2 channel direct/stereo modes.

However, in multichannel modes I was getting center channel, subwoofer, and surrounds. Becuase my mains image well i paid no attention to whether they were working or not. I did notice the front soundstage was a bit weak last night. Anyway, I'm happy now.

The price? Its everywhere now.

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AVR-2808...2455624&sr=8-1

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=88234

Go to sleep for a little while and BAM! Your outta the loop!

Too funny. Gotta love those easy fixes although don't think that one has come up in the past year. Thanks for letting us know though as it helps others. Too often someone receives a solution or two and then you never hear back from them as to how the problem was finally resolved.

I'm thinking about bi-amping. I really enjoyed it when I first started getting into records (LPs, that is), but my last amp couldn't do it.

Now that I've got the 2808CI, I'm going to give it a shot.

Here's the question:
I set the Amp Assign to "Front A Bi-Amp" which sets the amp to output the back surrounds to Front A. Great. Got it.

But, I also will want to record LPs to my computer using analog outs.

So I see this in the manual, under setting up recording to external device: Sources selected with the REC OUT mode are output to Zone 2 as well.

Does that sentence stop me from doing what I want, given that Zone 2 will also be bi-pumping the Front A? Or does one really have nothing to do with another? And how will any of this affect the 2808CI feature that allows REC OUT of one source while the amp outputs another to the loudspeakers, if at all?

Before I go in and wire everything, can anyone provide some guidance as to whether I can do what I want with bi-amping and REC OUT?

And "Dude, bi-amping is worthless" is not an acceptable response

Thanks, all!

Not necessarily. In your current setup, the answer would be yes because there are only 7 channels available and you are using all 7 of them in your current setup. What might work, if I read the manual correctly, is that you could connect your analog cable to the Zone 2 pre-out and to an external amp and record out setting RECOUT to Zone 2.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I think REC OUT source can only be set to an input source, not to a Zone. But no extra amp anyway.

I'm no techno-guy, but are the analog outs in need of amplification when passing to a line in? Might the amplifier be bypassed totally when using analog outs (and so it doesn't matter what the amps are up to)?

Or maybe, under the Bi-Amp AMP ASSIGN setting, the Denon is programmed to properly handle the outputs by bypassing the Zone 2 Source setting. Like, if Bi Amp is on, then Zone 2 kind of doesn't enter the equation? Since the Zone 2 amp is for bi-amp, then Zone 2 can't be used and so nothing is output over Zone 2 so REC OUT is passed instead? Or something like that?

I'm grasping at straws here. I sure don't want to rewire just to experiemnt...but I'll probably have to. I'd like to find out in any case.

Ok so i am very confused. I was able to grab a demo from Frys for the 988 for $325 and I see that I can also get 889 for $485.

988 is demo and 889 is brand new

I see that the 889 is the newer model having the new audyssey and other things. Between the 2 which one is better. Obvious 988 is cheaper but as far as features and other things which one is better and what are the differences between the two? Which one should I keep?

Which one is better depends on your requirements. I would suggest you go to the Denon USA website and compare the two side by side to determine. The 988 is a beefier unit with higher quality components. The 988 has pre-outs the 889 doesn't. The 988 has a Zone 2, the 889 doesn't. The 889 has 4 HDMI inputs whereas the 988 only has 2. The only major thing the 889 has going for it is that it has the new Audyssey Dynamic Volume upgrade, which by itself is huge, although again depends on whether you can do without some of the features the 988 has that the 889 does not.

I've never used the RECOUT setup so I was trying to understand what the manual was saying (UGH!). Actually sitting in front of the AVR and going through the motions with the manual p. 49, looks like you just need to select the LP input as your RECOUT source. Connect your analog cable to either the DVR or VCR analog OUT and then to your computer. You should then be able to record your LPs although guess you're going to have to try it out to be sure.