Setup help. Noob!!!

zalym

I have a Pioneer VSX1120, a CS2 Series II for center, and 2 Monitor60 Series II front speakers. I have connected the front speakers to the front (top) and the surround back(bottom) as said in the receiver manual. In the receiver, I have set the speakers as Front Bi Amp. I have also removed the metal plate (connecting the two sets of outputs) in the Monitor 60 series II speaker as said in the pioneer manual. All speakers are connected via 12AWG wire and open banana plugs. Here are the issues I am facing:

I need to turn up the volume almost till -30db before it is audible. I find that odd.
I did auto MCACC, and I noticed the above. Without MCACC, I am able to get to reach an audible level at about -40db.
To really find out my the speakers power, I cranked it up to -10db but I was not impressed with the output. It sounded faint for that level.
This is a receiver question - Most of the time my audio defaults to Stereo. Any idea why?

I am worried if its my inexperience or whether its a faulty product. Hope its the former, and hope for some help from you guys. Thanks.

Profound apologies if I am repeating the question. I bought my system last week, and was planning to setup over the weekend. I set it up as mentioned in the manual but I am not happy with the output. I tried to go through the forums to see if I did something wrong, but I could not find anything, hence this post at this hour.

lazrdds7

it will default to stereo if the audio source is not ecoded with surround info.because the MCACC is equalizing the surround info in terms of volume it seems to turn down the volume on the front to match the other surround and center speaker so the perceived over all volume seems to be lower at the same reference volume setting.i have noticed the same on my sc09tx.

zalym

lazrdds7 wrote: »

it will default to stereo if the audio source is not ecoded with surround info.because the MCACC is equalizing the surround info in terms of volume it seems to turn down the volume on the front to match the other surround and center speaker so the perceived over all volume seems to be lower at the same reference volume setting.i have noticed the same on my sc09tx.

Thanks for the quick reply mate. So how do I get around this?
Also, is my biamp setting correct? Do I need to remove the metal plate in between the two inputs?

I thought the center has more volume because it delivers the bulk of your dialogue etc...

tonyb

Welcome to the club. Lets try this. I assume you have only 3 speakers, correct ? A center and 2 fronts. Forget the bi-amp thing from the receiver first off. Put the metal jumpers back on the speakers and just connect to the receiver with one set of cables. You have to tell the receiver in the setup menu what speakers you have, and which ones you don't. Then run the auto calibration with the mic at ear level in your listening position. You can always go back into the menu and tweek any of the settings. Now, what you didn't say is what other gear,such as CDP,DVD,BDP, you have connected and how is it connected,by coaxle,optical,hdmi. Your receiver has more than enough power for those speakers.

zalym

Yes 3 speakers. I haven't connected my surround Monitor50s yet since I live in a condo, and I wanted to take it slowly. My other gear is PS3 and Rogers HD box. All gear is connected via HDMI (1.4). TV is Sony 32 LCD.

I did what you did, and I can get something audible at -60db itself. thats good. thanks mate. Maybe I can tweak a bit more. I was looking at the channel setup, and it shows different values for the left(-6DB), right(-4.5DB) and center(-6.5DB). I am assuming the above is based on the calibration test. Maybe my speakers are not in the same line?

Another thing I noticed is that, without MCACC it still sounds better at the same volume. Maybe for my room, the MCACC is not able to get the optimized solution. Any thoughts?
Thanks again bud. I feel better now.

So what was I doing wrong before?

newrival

For one, depending on the source, my speakers don't get to a decent listening level until I get to about -27db.

The thing to remember about digital volume controls is that the control is exponential, meaning it is a j-curve. every 10db is perceived as twice as loud. so from -70, or whatever the lowest is, to negative -40 is hardly any change at all. the deltaVp (perceived volume) from -40 to -30 is twice that of the deltaVp from -50 to -40. Similarly, the deltaVp from -30 to -20 twice that of -40 to -30 and 4x as much as -50 to -40.


on the MCACC issue. I dont like it. Others do. Mess around with it for a bit, but ultimately, if you feel it sounds better with it off, then it does. You're the one that is living with it, so whatever sounds best to you is what you should do.

tonyb

zalym wrote: »

Yes 3 speakers. I haven't connected my surround Monitor50s yet since I live in a condo, and I wanted to take it slowly. My other gear is PS3 and Rogers HD box. All gear is connected via HDMI (1.4). TV is Sony 32 LCD.

I did what you did, and I can get something audible at -60db itself. thats good. thanks mate. Maybe I can tweak a bit more. I was looking at the channel setup, and it shows different values for the left(-6DB), right(-4.5DB) and center(-6.5DB). I am assuming the above is based on the calibration test. Maybe my speakers are not in the same line?

Another thing I noticed is that, without MCACC it still sounds better at the same volume. Maybe for my room, the MCACC is not able to get the optimized solution. Any thoughts?
Thanks again bud. I feel better now.

So what was I doing wrong before?

Try changing the speaker level values all to 0.0db and see where that puts you.

zalym

Its better. Thanks a lot.

I was concerned if I would damage my speakers by running it so high.