Suppressed Sound with New Denon 3800 and Roku Ultra Setup
mufsoman
Posts: 636
So I have finally completed the basic setup of the new system. I have a Sony 83A80L oled tv, Denon 3800, Parasound HCA2205 amp, Roku Ultra, and Monoprice certified ultra high speed hdmi cables. All 5 speakers are SVS Prime with the front left & right towers being Pinnacles. Atmos speakers are not yet installed and no subs yet. Eventually this will be a 5.4.2 setup.
There is a cat8 ethernet cable from my router to the Roku, hdmi from Roku to Denon 3800, another hdmi from Denon to TV. The hdmi cable between the Denon and TV is plugged into the eARC port at both ends.
I have triple checked all settings for each component to ensure full audio supply/pass through, but somehow the sound seems to be very suppressed. Just doesn't sound full, clear and open as if its being overly filter or overly processed or other. I'm taking into account the fact that I don't have subs yet, so there's a whole lower frequency range that's minimal, but the towers are set to full/large. I can turn the volume up to approx 60 level on the Denon, but yet the volume seems to max out. I should be making my ears hurt at that level.
The Denon is set for "Cinema" sound with DD+ for all channel use. If I switch to Direct or Direct Pure, then the sound is only 2 channel, even though the program I'm streaming is multi-channel.
Should the Roku go to the TV first instead of Denon and let the TV eARC send the audio to the Denon? Would that be cleaner? With my current setup, is the audio going from the Roku to the Denon, then to the TV and back to the Denon through the eARC? If so, seems like an overly complicated and lengthy path....
Any thoughts as to what's going on? Am I missing a setting or just need to change hdmi connections?
Any help would be appreciated. I'm hoping to get this resolved before the big game Sunday!
Thanks everyone!!!
There is a cat8 ethernet cable from my router to the Roku, hdmi from Roku to Denon 3800, another hdmi from Denon to TV. The hdmi cable between the Denon and TV is plugged into the eARC port at both ends.
I have triple checked all settings for each component to ensure full audio supply/pass through, but somehow the sound seems to be very suppressed. Just doesn't sound full, clear and open as if its being overly filter or overly processed or other. I'm taking into account the fact that I don't have subs yet, so there's a whole lower frequency range that's minimal, but the towers are set to full/large. I can turn the volume up to approx 60 level on the Denon, but yet the volume seems to max out. I should be making my ears hurt at that level.
The Denon is set for "Cinema" sound with DD+ for all channel use. If I switch to Direct or Direct Pure, then the sound is only 2 channel, even though the program I'm streaming is multi-channel.
Should the Roku go to the TV first instead of Denon and let the TV eARC send the audio to the Denon? Would that be cleaner? With my current setup, is the audio going from the Roku to the Denon, then to the TV and back to the Denon through the eARC? If so, seems like an overly complicated and lengthy path....
Any thoughts as to what's going on? Am I missing a setting or just need to change hdmi connections?
Any help would be appreciated. I'm hoping to get this resolved before the big game Sunday!
Thanks everyone!!!
Sony 83A80L TV and Roku Ultra
Denon 3800
Parasound HCA-2205A
SVS Prime towers, center channel and bookshelfs (side surrounds)
Atmos: Mirage Nanosats x 4
Turbo MFW-15 x 2
Panasonic DP-UB820
APC H15
Morrow MA4 & AQ Cobra IC's, AQ Midnight speaker cables
Denon 3800
Parasound HCA-2205A
SVS Prime towers, center channel and bookshelfs (side surrounds)
Atmos: Mirage Nanosats x 4
Turbo MFW-15 x 2
Panasonic DP-UB820
APC H15
Morrow MA4 & AQ Cobra IC's, AQ Midnight speaker cables
Comments
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BTW, I have also double checked that all speakers are wired correctly. No swapped polarity.
Any thoughts on what's causing the suppressed sound in my system?Sony 83A80L TV and Roku Ultra
Denon 3800
Parasound HCA-2205A
SVS Prime towers, center channel and bookshelfs (side surrounds)
Atmos: Mirage Nanosats x 4
Turbo MFW-15 x 2
Panasonic DP-UB820
APC H15
Morrow MA4 & AQ Cobra IC's, AQ Midnight speaker cables -
Did you run the speaker calibration/setup using the microphone?
Also, there is apparently a Loudness Management setting that should be turned off. Reading some other threads about that receiver, the users report a volume setting in the 60-80 range for movies. Maybe nothing is wrong.
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Have you tried totally not using the eARC port at all? Just avoid it, and hook everything up and see what happens.
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I only say that because one of my TVs had a bad eARC port that could only be fixed by a firmware update. It was driving me crazy.
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I have a similar setup to yours with an Apple TV running into the Denon 3800, Denon connected to tv via eARC. I use volume around 60 when watching the Apple TV and it sounds good to me. It’s decently loud at 60 but not painfully so. I can definitely go louder if I want.
When I am playing my Xbox, the volume is MUCH louder at 60. Xbox is direct into the tv so the audio gets fed back to the receiver via eARC.
I set it up using the included mic, definitely do that if you did not. I have two Polk Lsim 705 floorstanders and that’s it. Speakers are driven by Parasound Halo Integrated on the bypass input. -
Denon also has an option to use a relative volume scale. That is what I've always used for AVRs. That scale starts at -79bB and goes up to 18dB. Think of 0dB to be a reference volume (think theater loud) which is something like 85dB. Maybe that will change your perception of how high your volume is. You can also choose a start up default volume. I have my receivers set to -45dB to start. Normal listening for me is usually in the -30 to -5 range. You will notice that Dolby sound is a lot lower than when it picks up a PCM stereo signal. I notice this often when switching from a streaming app to a music app like Spotify.
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Great new!
