wheelchair guy needs help with polk srt setup

Gimpygod

I'm flummoxed, flabbergasted and flat out vexed! Here is a really long story made really short: disabled due to muscular dystrophy and can't move at all (this is voice activation software translating my voice into text), managed to land a really sweet set up of Yamaha DSP A-1 (one-time flagship model), Speakers attached to said receiver are Polk signature reference theater speakers with a control center(only 250 ever made), upgraded receiver to the Denon 4308ci.

At least the upgrade was a plan, unfortunately, I have to rely on others to do all physical things for me so I ended up needing to get some "help" to switch out the receivers. Well, the person who is very awesome didn't pay close enough attention to how the Yamaha and Polk was set up or it was set up so weirdly that I don't understand how things were receiving sound. does anybody have any idea on how to hook this legendary speakers set up to the new Denon? If more information is needed I can gladly provide but I don't want people to pass out from boredom on the first read. Thank you immensely in advance.

With great hope,

Gimpygod

Gimpygod

at risk of boring you to tears I'm going to start at the very beginning so you know where I am at and can perhaps lend advice.

Initially the speakers were hooked up to a Yamaha DSPA-1 (rated at 125 W per channel). Here was the apparent initial set up: front left, right and centerspeakers bridging from the receiver to the polk control center and then two sets of speaker cable for each of the front left and right coming back out to the speaker's terminals. Positive and negative for stereo and positive and negative for a sda. Then, here's the weird part, RCA Y splitter coming out of Yamaha preamp left and right front. One the end of the splitter looped right back into Yamaha Main in Left or right respectively and the other end of the splitter going into the control center for the Polk. This is the same on both left and right pre-outs. Then it was subwoofer left and right out of the Polk (control center switched to stereo) out to the corresponding subwoofers. The surround sound speakers simply went from the receiver to the speakers. Surprisingly there was absolutely nothing connected to the low-frequency effect channel! I say surprisingly because my guts could get rumbled during action sequences even though I had the subwoofer turned down 20 dB... without a subwoofer connection!

Everything sounded great despite the main speaker is being about 13 feet apart; the imaging was still spot on. The center speaker never sounded that great but I think this might be a center speaker problem in general. Anyway, it was impossible to duplicate this set up onto the new Denon receiver as it lacked the main in RCA inputs. After tons of research I discovered the splitter was only necessary because you had to jump from preamp to main in for power to be sent to the speaker terminals. Also, I sent away to Polk for the SRT manual because I was at a loss.

I had my friend set up the speakers as per the most basic arrangement: Bridge front left, right and center, subwoofer out to the Polk (switched off of stereo sub input), surrounds directly to the receiver. First, I didn't and don't know what settings to put the control center on for the automated sound equalization process audysseyEQ (the automated setup said the crossover was at 60 Hz which I found puzzling). Put everything to as neutral as I could and ran the setup. The speakers, now 75 inches apart as per instructions, sounded horrible... I'm talking terrible here. Very hollow and lispy, like I had Dixie cups over my ears while listening which was intolerable compared to the extremely precise and soothing sound from before. We switched the subwoofer output to the preamp out configuration and things sounded much better but there was still a nasal quality and the bass is a bit blubbery and slow, not the precise and acrobatic base it was before. Another concerning issue is that the control center refuses to switch between off, normal and wide soundstage, is continually stuck on normal and it seems to randomly flip back and forth between music and video mode (regardless of two channel or multi-channel input).

So here are some questions: where should I have the settings on the control center when running the automatic set up? Is it possible to run signal from the low-frequency effect output and the preamp outputs with splitters allowing low-frequency and regular bass to be handled by the subwoofers? Would this cause a nuclear chain reaction? The instructions show that the control center can be bypassed but power has to be sent to both sets of arrays in the speakers, have you tried this before? Within the receiver there is a selection for LF E + Main, would this be useful?

As you can tell from my plethora of questions I am at best a neophyte (in fact, neophytes worldwide would point and laugh at me and my lack of knowledge) when it comes to these matters even though I love the home theater experience dearly. During the hour or two a movie takes the pain I suffer from everyday is lessened, the hardship of being completely dominated by gravity moves out of my mind. That's why this stuff is so important to me so I thank you in advance for your help and advice while completely understanding if you are unable to offer either.

Lance a.k.a. Gimpygod

agfrost

Welcome to Club Polk, Lance.

I'm sorry that I am unable to offer any advice, as I am strictly a two-channel guy at present, but there are some here that should be able to help you, including an owner or two of SRT systems.

Hope that you get your system to full functionality soon!

Jay

dacoupedeville

Where are you located? I would love to come over and help.

ESavinon

If you need a copy of the SRT manual or any assistance in setup let me know.
Where are you located?

Welcome to the 250 club.

Gimpygod

I really appreciate the offer guys! Unfortunately, I live in a small town in northeastern Colorado about 75 miles northeast of Denver.:eek: Any ideas on what might be up with the sound? Do you have to run through the preamp Out as well?

Ron Temple

Download ESAUVIGNON"s SRT manual. I'm sure it's got hookup instructions. If you're not getting any joy with the suggested hookup, come back and ask. You probably can't PM yet, but I think he's available through email.

dorokusai

Esavinon has alot of direct experience with the SRT system, so he should be able to square you away. In the event you need additional information in regards to the setup, the body of knowledge here is still current and available.

I can assure you, that it won't create a nuclear chain reaction. I'm sure you've been losing sleep about that, and thanks.

No worries, you came to the right place.

ESavinon

Gimpygod wrote: »

I really appreciate the offer guys! Unfortunately, I live in a small town in northeastern Colorado about 75 miles northeast of Denver.:eek: Any ideas on what might be up with the sound? Do you have to run through the preamp Out as well?

That's the general vicinity of where i got my first complete set of SRT.
I drove about 60 hrs to get there from nyc.

Gimpygod

Ron Temple wrote: »

Download ESAUVIGNON"s SRT manual. I'm sure it's got hookup instructions. If you're not getting any joy with the suggested hookup, come back and ask. You probably can't PM yet, but I think he's available through email.

No joy in Mudville as of yet. I tried to two hookups described above. Polk was really cool and Xeroxed a copy for me, however, it would be much easier for me to read online so I don't have to ask someone else to turn the pages. How do I download that?

Gimpygod

ESAVINON wrote: »

That's the general vicinity of where i got my first complete set of SRT.
I drove about 60 hrs to get there from nyc.

No way! I got them at a place called soundtrack, now ultimate electronics. There was some sort of schism between the store and Polk so they were clearing out all inventory. Got them for less than $6,000 brand spanking new (or at least never used). I used all of my meager earnings as a mathematics tutor to get the old set up (Yamaha) and this time I used low stakes online poker earnings as well as help from my mom and dad for the Denon.

Some questions for you.

Have you ever bypassed the control center? Says you can in the instructions.

How do you have your rig setup?

Can you run low-frequency effects as well as the preamp to the subwoofers simultaneously? For example, split out of the low-frequency effect on the receiver directly to Y connectors on the subwoofers also receiving information from the Polk control center

finally, would you prefer I communicate with you via e-mail?

With sincerest thanks,

Lance a.k.a. Gimpygod

Gimpygod

I AM losing sleep! Glad to hear there won't be any fallout issues. Do you know if it's possible to send both sets of information to the subwoofer (pre-out as well as low frequency effect)?

Thank you very much for the response; thought I was going to be all alone trying to figure this out. I love the Internet and technology.

Lance a.k.a. Gimpygod

dorokusai wrote: »

Esavinon has alot of direct experience with the SRT system, so he should be able to square you away. In the event you need additional information in regards to the setup, the body of knowledge here is still current and available.

I can assure you, that it won't create a nuclear chain reaction. I'm sure you've been losing sleep about that, and thanks.

No worries, you came to the right place.

Ron Temple

Lance, I thought esavinon had the manual scanned into soft copy. Sorry for the confusion. I'm out of here for the weekend. I hope the guys get you fixed up.

Phil Dawson

Madmax just moved to Ft. Collins which is right in your neck of the woods. You can find him on the members list and contact him. he is great folks and would be able to help with you problems.
Good Luck, Phil

PS If no one else can help I live in Montana but occasionally get down to the Denver area.

Gimpygod

Phil Dawson wrote: »

Madmax just moved to Ft. Collins which is right in your neck of the woods. You can find him on the members list and contact him. he is great folks and would be able to help with you problems.
Good Luck, Phil

PS If no one else can help I live in Montana but occasionally get down to the Denver area.

Thank you ever so much for the advice! How do you have your speakers running? The thing that kills me is they sounded wonderful even though they were 15 feet apart and 6 inches from side and rear walls. Now they are placed properly and connected to a supposedly superior receiver and sound coming out of them is reminiscent of sound in an aluminum tunnel.

Joe08867

Do you have the front speakers designated as large in the receiver? That may be why they sound so hollow.

Gimpygod

Joe08867 wrote: »

Do you have the front speakers designated as large in the receiver? That may be why they sound so hollow.

Yes I do! So I should switch them to small? There is also a choice for low-frequency effects plus mains, do you know anything about that? I really, really appreciate the advice.

polkie4life

Gimpygod wrote: »

sound coming out of them is reminiscent of sound in an aluminum tunnel.

To me that sounds like only the sda array is running and not the stereo.....

dbldare

Gimpygod,

I found you on the AVS forum site and I realize that it's been a while with this problem. I own a set of SRT's (purchased at SoundTrack/Ultimate Electronics) and I live in Broomfield. I would totally be able to help you out in any way you need with these beasts... PM me here or on the AVS site and let me know if you need anything. I still have my original manual, control center (i do use it), RS dB level meter, and all the speakers.

Mike