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AVR-E300 - no bass in stereo mode

4469 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by StevenHam, Mar 12, 2014

andreej

Discussion Starter · Feb 28, 2014

New house and the upper level has in-ceiling speakers. When we first moved in I hooked up a 20 year old Aiwa all in one stereo to it and it really sounded fantastic, fed by an mp3 player. I have a Denon 3313ci setup in the home theater downstairs so I chose another Denon for commonality upstairs (the avr-e300). We really didn't need an AVR, just wanted something with airplay capability and pandora and such. Seems like that doesn't exist in a 2 channel receiver unless you spend a lot of money. Anyway, got the new receiver set up today and the sound is very dissapointing. Bottom line is there is no bass to speak of, at least not compared to what came out of the 20 yr old $100 Aiwa system. I have the output lines hooked up to the front left and right and from there it feeds a spliter thing where the speaker wires for the other rooms hook up. Each room has it's own volume control. This is just as it was hooked up with the Aiwa. In the receiver I have all the speakers turned off except front left and right and have them set as "large". I have tone control turned on and bass all the way up (+6) and treble around +1db. Anything else I should be doing??

Am I expecting too much thinking I can get good sounding stereo music from an AVR without a Subwoofer??

Thanks!

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M Code

· #2 · Feb 28, 2014

Go into the E-300 menu system..

Go to the loudspeaker page, select front L/R and select Small...

Now try it...

Just my $0.05...

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jontyrees

· #3 · Mar 1, 2014

Quote:
Originally Posted by M Code /t/1520318/avr-e300-no-bass-in-stereo-mode#post_24422627

Go into the E-300 menu system..

Go to the loudspeaker page, select front L/R and select Small...

Now try it...

Just my $0.05...

I don't think that's the issue - he has no subwoofer. For some reason the old Aiwa was sending better bass through the same speakers. I swear, manufacturers just assume you have a sub, and cut so much cost out of the amp section of these AVRs, they can't drive anything but bookshelf speakers crossed over at 80hz

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jdsmoothie

· #4 · Mar 1, 2014

Just to confirm ... in addition to the FL/FR speakers connected to their respective speaker posts on the E300, you also have a speaker selector connected to the same FL/FR speaker posts as well? If yes, that is cutting the power to all of your speakers. Rather you would be better served connecting the speaker selector to the Surround L/R speaker posts and using the Multi CH Stereo surround mode.

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M Code

· #5 · Mar 1, 2014

Quote:
Originally Posted by jontyrees /t/1520318/avr-e300-no-bass-in-stereo-mode#post_24423290

I don't think that's the issue - he has no subwoofer. For some reason the old Aiwa was sending better bass through the same speakers. I swear, manufacturers just assume you have a sub, and cut so much cost out of the amp section of these AVRs, they can't drive anything but bookshelf speakers crossed over at 80hz

If he has no subwoofer, then he should set it to Large..

When in the Large setting, no low or high pass X-filters are applied to the front L/R speakers..

Just my $0.05... 👍😉

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andreej

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 1, 2014

Thanks for the suggestions. I did try hooking up just the one pair of speakers with nothing else (no speaker selector at all) to the Front L/R with same result. I've played with every setting I can find and went through the manual front to back with no dramatic improvement. Would a 2ch receiver at the same price point possibly offer better stereo sound??

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jdsmoothie

· #7 · Mar 1, 2014

Did you run Audyssey on the FL/FR speakers?

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JHAz

· #8 · Mar 1, 2014

The aiwa might well have had a baked-in loudness compensation curve or just a big mid ass hump in the speakers fr to cover up absent lower bass. Run Audyssey. so you can turn on deq which will do a similar thing. If your ears are just used to a mid bass hump, though, you may have to use the receiver's EQ to see if you can recreate it. If that is what you really want.

Ps using an ipad that first turned audyssey into "sudsy sexy" gotta love auto spell checkers

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StevenHam

· #9 · Mar 12, 2014

"Home theater" type receivers are just not made for music. I don't care what brand or model. The manufacturers assume you'll be using a sub and therefore cut as many corners as possible in the amp section. In fact no modern receiver or amp can compare to the vintage stereo amps and receivers. I use only 69-78 vintage (with a few exceptions) for my music. I don't even bother playing music through my home theater set up. Power ratings are also wishful thinking at best on modern equipment. I know you want the streaming capabilities so your options are limited. You may have to put a sub or subs somewhere to get the bass. Yes a 20 year old crappy AIWA has more bass than most modern 5.1 and up receivers.

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