New member of the Denon family

sterling bug
sterling bug Posts: 228
edited September 2004 in Electronics
Wanted to chime in here earlier but haven't had time due to work sucking up most of my time. I upgraded my receiver from the Kenwood VR-309 to the Denon AVR-2805 a couple weeks ago and its a big improvement. The features this thing has is night and day compared to my old one, the manual itself is 88 pages! It comes with a mic. that does auto setup which is cool but is this as accurate as an spl meter? The auto setup had my fronts and center at large which I have since changed back to small. Fronts are R50's, center CSi20, sub psw250, surrounds R15's. Auto setup had the channel levels at FL=3.5db, FR=3.0db, Center=1.5db, sub=-2.5db, SL=3.0db, SR=-0.5db. I've been back and forth between this and my settings on my old receiver which were fronts=0db, center=1.0db, surrounds=0db, sub=-3.00db. I've noticed a volume difference between the two with the Kenwood being comfortable between -25db and -35db and the Denon being between -10db and -20db. I'm really diggin this receiver but I always think everything can sound better which is why I post here because there are a lot of people here more knowledgable than me. I have the DVD player going to the tv via component cable and going to the receiver via fiber optic cable, the speakers to the receiver by monster speaker wire and the sub to the subwoofer pre out on the receiver. Any advice or comments would be helpful.

Ken
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Comments

  • Mike Reeter
    Mike Reeter Posts: 4,315
    edited September 2004
    Good move,I upgraded from a Kenwood to a Denon also.Big difference in all around features and most important to me;sound quality...
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  • sterling bug
    sterling bug Posts: 228
    edited September 2004
    I agree Mike, much better sound than my Kenwood. Right now I'm calibrating my speakers with a SPL meter that I picked up today. First time ever using one of these things.
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  • sterling bug
    sterling bug Posts: 228
    edited September 2004
    here are my settings after my first couple rounds with the spl meter. I used the test tones on the receiver which seemed to give slightly different results than the test tones on my Sound & Vision tune up DVD. I set the master volume to 0.0db on the receiver before starting. Seating is about 10ft. from the front soundstage.
    FR -5.0db
    C -7.0db
    FL -5.0db
    SR -7.0db
    SL -6.0db
    Sub -9.5db
    Do these results sound like I am doing this right? It sounds good but I just want to make sure I'm on the right track and not pushing my speakers too far. I am using the Sound & Vision DVD as a guide.

    Ken
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  • jefft1314
    jefft1314 Posts: 169
    edited September 2004
    You should calibrate your speakers so that the front left is set at 0db then adjust other speakers in accordance with that. For instance if the front left speaker gives you 85 db of sound and your center gives you 82 db of sound pressure you shoudl adjust the center up three. You will use the front left speaker as the benchmark and adjust the other speakers to match the spl achieved from the front left speaker.
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  • Mike Reeter
    Mike Reeter Posts: 4,315
    edited September 2004
    Yes,Jeff is right on the money,most of my settings are in the plus side,but everyones room is different...
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