[Pooner]

I am in the the opposite situation of most people. My receiver (Yamaha DSP-A1) does have bass management on the analog inputs.


I just got a Denon 2900 and after a few days of tinkering I think I have figured out the best way to set it up, but I wanted some feedback from the experts on this forum to make sure some of my assumptions are correct.


Assumption #1 – the Yamaha is going to do bass management on the signals from the 2900 regardless of how I configure it. Therefore I have set the speaker settings to “Large†in the Denon thereby turning Off bass management from it. Is this correct? I did note when I had the Denon set to “Multi-channel†with speakers set to “Small†there was less bass in my music… is this because I was applying bass management twice?


Assumption #2 – I currently just have 2 analog interconnects hooked up and am listening to everything in Stereo mode, but I have ordered 3 new pairs of interconnects which should arrive any day. I am thinking since I have all the speakers set to “Large†I should only connect 5 of the inter-connects and not hook up the Subwoofer connection. The reasoning is that the Yamaha is receiving the Full signal and applying the bass management.


Assumption #3 – The Yamaha does Not have a pure direct mode? Is my receiver converting the signal from the Denon back to digital to apply bass management and then back to analog again through its DACs? Is this bad?

 

[DrSpike69]

You only need to use bass management in one of the units, setting the 2900 to large speakers should turn off bass management from that unit. I would hook up the LFE as there are LFE tracks on multichannel audio. Although a setting on the 2900 for large speakers / sub off should put the lfe track to the rest of the speakers, not sure as I don't have a 2900. I would hook up the LFE and set the speakers to large and the sub to on for the 2900. Unless you don't have a sub.


The less digital/analog conversion the better. I don't know if the Yamaha applies the bass management in the digital domain or not for the analog inputs.

 

[TD2]

Is there a reason why you didn't use either the coax or opt to connect to your receiver?

 

[Pooner]

Thanks Dr. I didnt think about LFE being on some multichannel soundtracks.


I dont use coax or optical because you cant with SACD/DVDA. Also the DACs in the Denon are better than those in my receiver.


I appreciate the replies.

 

[Milt99]

I don't have the 2900, I have the 5900 but here's what I would do.

Wait until you get your new interconnects.

For DVD-A & SACD use the bass management and time delay on the 2900

and configure/calibrate/set the crossover for your speakers as they should be.

Do use the subwoofer out on the 2900.

Remember that the LFE is -10db on DVD-a & SACD so you'll need to boost the level.

I'm not familiar with the Yamaha but you should be able to bypass the analogue BM in it.

Chesky makes a nice configuration disc for dvd-a and SACD that has the correct test tones.

For movies use the digital out on the 2900 and calibrate within the Yamaha.

HTH

 

[catapult]

Quote:

there are LFE tracks on multichannel audio

There are but they are seldom meant to be played in addition to the bass on the main 5, unlike movie disks. It's a mess because there is no standard but quite a number of DVD-A and SACD disks seem to assume you don't have any bass management. They just duplicate the bass from the main 5 into the LFE channel. You will often get the best results setting the player to all speakers large and sub none. Then do your bass management outside the player. The mixing engineers seem to be assuming that "audiophiles" will have 5 full range speakers so all the bass you need is on the main 5. The LFE channel is just added as an afterthought for those with small speakers and no bass management.