A/V reciver questions

rocknrollsoul

Unfortunately not being able to find the answers on the net and not being very experienced with the varieties of AVR's I was hoping perhaps that i might find some insight to a couple of questions here.
The first question I have is concerning the volume control.My first amp was a Yamaha 5650 that I used with a set of sda1's[4ohm], mont.7's for rears and a pair of 10 inch velodynes and would show a -25 as a reasonable volume level [dialog being at a realistic talking level]
With the max being 0 on its 360 degree digital dial. I was concerned about going past this point since this was already past half way.but it seemed fine for use with premium cable movies which i assume have a restricted dynamic level as compared to dvd's and bl.rays.Of which when using the latter i found that because of their large dynamic range i needed to turn it up. So out of fear of spk. damage I would engage the night mode.I was also using the 4ohm selector which i recently found out is not advisable on avr's as its intention is to limit current affecting the amps dynamic range [although music sounded good in movie snd, tracks and it did run exceptionally cool] I didn't take the opportunity to compare with the 8ohm+ side as I came across a pioneer elite vsx39tx at what i considered a extremely reasonable price as a upgrade [taking into account that other than pro logic 2 it had the same features + pre outs with a superior amp section and a 120watt-6 ohm rating.]
As for my question: to get to the same reasonable volume as the Yamaha I need to tun it up to around -2 [nearing 12 o'clock] with next to no output being heard till about -10 [which is around 11o'clock]. It scales up to +12 [5 o'clock] on a normal 7-5 type dial.Is this normal? and if so with next to no snd till -10 how far past the 0 mark would be safely recommendable? I have a old vsx o5 elite [pre dts but has dob,dig] in my bedroom with mont 10's as mains but in comparison it uses the standard type dial and starts to have a snd, level at about 8oclock and usable till the typical 11 or 12 but doesn't show a volume display when in use.I guess it may be prudent to note that i haven't tried either of these with other than a cable box as a source.As with both they're only used with the cab box and likely very occasionally bl.ray/dvd as all the rental shops in my area closed last year. For music use i use a 2chn amp with the sda's
Anyway my apologies for the length of this! Couldn't come up with a wording to better sum it up! Perhaps at this point it would be better to wait a while and ask my other question under a new avr question 2 header [lol] And btw-Thanks for your time

jeremymarcinko

Be that the unit was pre-owned, check the options for a volume trim. There may be a trim level for each input. They are used to adjust for the various output levels of different sources. It is possible that the input your using has been adjusted down, so you have to turn the knob higher to compensate. Also be sure the speaker levels are at 0 to start.

Additionally, If you calibrated the speaker levels, 0db on the volume dial should be relatively 85db on a spl meter using the receivers test tones. You can download a spl app on a smart phone that will get you in the ball park.

Other than that, various receivers output can be greatly different, hence the need to calibrate. My movie watching on my Yamaha is around -15, which is relatively loud. TV needs to be turned up to about-10 since I have not trimmed that input. I have rarely needed to go beyond that. My Marantz av processor from 2000 that I use in a different configuration needs to be about -5 to be as loud, with speaker levels at 0.
So it's possible the avr just isn't as loud at the corresponding volume level, but going past 0 is typically risky as you may be reaching the clipping point.