[Sembiance]

Hello

I currently am looking for a new AV receiver for a new theatre room I am building!

The primary feature I am looking for is one where I can easily adjust how much 'surround' sound there is. Basically those scenes where stuff is flying all around your head, like the Matrix building shootout, I want to be able to boost the side and rear speaker volumes (or equivalent) up a bit and get some more surround sound.

The reason I feel this way is my current Denon AVR-971 receiver has no options for this at all and it always gave me a very lackluster, very faint surround experience. I've gone through every single possible menu and changed all sorts of confusingly named settings, and just was never able to get a really awesome surround experience. Now that I'm moving, building a new theatre and getting all new equipment including the receiver, now is the time to pick something better!

Other things I'm looking for is pretty standard stuff. 7.1, HDMI input/output including 3D support. Bonus for some future proof stuff like HDMI 2, HDCP 2.2

Does anyone have any suggestions as to which brands might have some features to help me enhance the surround sound experience?

 

[Alan P]

I'm sure a new AVR will be a good thing, just wanted to let you know that you can adjust the speaker trims with your old AVR.

Page 54 of your manual.

 

[MrBobb]

Page 54 of your manual.

Well that wasn't too hard.

OP, are you sure you are playing with discrete surround, DD/DTS, and not one of those funky "fake" surrounds like Pro Logic?

 

[lovinthehd]

Then there's that there is limited content recorded in the surrounds generally. As Alan said, just boost the levels of the channels you want more out of, but it will throw the intended mix off.

As to surround enhancement technology/room eq it would depend on your budget. One of these look nice but are beyond most budgets http://www.avsforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=668530&stc=1&d=1429130579. There are other Dirac based offerings, including one from miniDSP. Then there's Trinnov stand alone units. Audyssey XT32 is probably the best of the majority of the avr brands' offerings aside from the latest Atmos/object based audio coming out. Doesn't sound like any of these may be what you want outside of the level control....

 

[dmb12679]

I think he thinks there is a magical AVR that gets crazy with the surrounds. From what I gathered he wants the surrounds as loud as the fronts, all time.


If you want equal sound try 5/7 channel stereo, you will lose the moving from one speaker to another, but have equal volume. Otherwise just turn up the level of the surrounds per the manual at your desired level, but there will not always be that magical crazy surround out of them. IMO

 

[dmb12679]

You may want wait on a receiver or buy refurbished if you plan on getting 4k, there will be some changes for the better going forward in the future

 

[Alan P]

I think he thinks there is a magical AVR that gets crazy with the surrounds. From what I gathered he wants the surrounds as loud as the fronts, all time.


If you want equal sound try 5/7 channel stereo, you will lose the moving from one speaker to another, but have equal volume. Otherwise just turn up the level of the surrounds per the manual at your desired level, but there will not always be that magical crazy surround out of them. IMO

Just so the OP is aware...5/7 Channel Stereo (aka Party Mode) sends the same signal to all 5/7 speakers, this is not surround sound.

 

[lovinthehd]

Just so the OP is aware...5/7 Channel Stereo (aka Party Mode) sends the same signal to all 5/7 speakers, this is not surround sound.

Well, it is a stereo signal L/R and center getting a blend. One thing on my avrs is this mode will send what seems at least to be the same level signal, too...so my surrounds with higher sensitivity ratings than my mains get louder than my mains in this mode which is kind of annoying. Some folk very much like the all-ch stereo thing from what I've seen, though....

 

[Sembiance]

Thank you all for the replies!

Thanks for the heads up on changing channel volumes on my current AVR. I'm not sure I ever saw that setting! Also, I can't be sure that I wasn't stuck in some sort of fake surround sound mode. Regardless, I'm moving soon and will be building a new theatre with a new AVR. It sounds like any receiver will have the ability to tweak the volume settings of channels if needed. Basically I was just disappointed in my current AVR, but that may have been to many factors that I may have messed up (two low volume on those channels, fake surround mode instead of discrete, maybe room config? Etc)

The new theatre room will be built from scratch as a dedicated theatre room. I have a TON of research to do, determine room size, number of speakers, riser level, seating configuration, screen size, projector, AVR, acoustical treatments, etc. I'll be searching the various threads and forums for answers first, before posting any questions in the appropriate forums.

In summary, I'm not looking for all speakers to be equal as was suggested. I believe I have my answer now that any AVR will support increasing volume per channel if need be.

Now I just need to decide on the AVR based on other factors

Thanks again all for your replies and help, it is greatly appreciated!

 

[jdsmoothie]

^^
Also note that if you run Audyssey on your 791, by enabling Audyssey Dynamic EQ, this feature will help boost the bass and surround audio at lower volume levels (below 80/0db). All the new 2015 models soon to be released should be both HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2.