Denon avr689

DannyD

I just finished hooking up a surround sound system for a friend of mine. It consists fo the polk audio rm85 speaker package with a denon avr689. First off something really weird happened. After conecting all the speakers, I turned the reciever on and a popping sound came from the reciever followed by a tiny bit of smoke coming through the vents on the top of the reciever. Naturally I was freaking. The funny thing is everything seems to be working fine. The speakers sound ok and the reciever itself seems to be functioning fine as well. Does anybody have any thoughts on what the hell happened???
Also, all he had with him were analog rca's (red white and yellow) to hook up his dvd player. I couldn't get the denon to switch to dolby digital for a movie I know is capable of dolby digital. All I could get the receiver to do was dolby prologicII. I am assuming this is because he is not running a digital optical audio cable from the dvd player to the receiver. Am I right or am I doing something else wrong? This denon seems to be alot more complicated than my HK. My HK seems to be way more user friendly. Will it sound much better using digital optical over the analog rca's? any help with this is greatly appreciated.

Dennis Gardner

The digital formats use the digital inputs coax/optical exclusively. On the other issue, smoke from electronics is rarely a good thing.;)

DannyD

It's probably not a good thing but it seems to sound find. What I noticed is the sound seemed to have gotten lower right after it happened. It didn't shut of but it sounded lower. what else is strange is that the master volume needs to be turned up to the + range in order to really start hearing a movie. i never go in the plus range with my system because it would be deafening! Do you think something with respects to the volume blew

DannyD

It's a home theater in a box type package that has considerably less power that what I am used to. It's it normal to have to crank them in the + volume range to really start to here them?

Dennis Gardner

Sounds like something is amiss. Could simply be settings or something much worse. You shouldn't have to go into the + range just to hear it.

broncsrule21@

Sounds like something isn't right there. My last three AVRs have been Denon, and have rarely went into the + vloume range. (only when you want the police to show up) Take it back and exchange it.

Also I will say Denons are probably not the most user friendly to start with, but
they get easier with more use.

DannyD

Were going to exchange it today. Let you know how the new performs when we get it hooked up.:(