Pioneer VSX-1020-K

[merlin1952]

I’m having an issue with the “B” speakers on my Pioneer VSX-1020-K receiver. The right speaker plays noticeably louder than the left. They are Yamaha outdoor speakers that I have owned for three years now. I did try swapping speakers but the trouble stayed with the left side which told me the speaker was okay. I took the speaker wires loose at the receiver and looked at them with an ohm meter on the 200ohm scale. I saw no ground leak on any conductor and one pair tested 6.1 ohms between the two conductors and 5.9 on the other. Finally I swapped the left and right wires at the receiver and the problem moved to the other speaker which tells me that the trouble is in the receiver. However as of right now the “A” channel still sounds normal as near as I can tell by normal listening. Now my question to everyone is could this be some simple, easily repaired problem, or is something significant going bad with my receiver? Thanks

 

[Adam]

Hi. I've never used the "B" speaker setting on my Pioneer, so I'm not sure if this applies...but I'd check if the channel levels for the two speakers are set differently.

 

[merlin1952]

I don’t claim to be an expert on that whole MCACC setup process but as best I can tell all the speaker levels are set the same. I sure miss the old days when I had a bass, treble, and balance control knobs on my receivers. Anyway, as I stated before I’ve had this setup for about three years now and it had always played fine until recently. I did remove the two outside speakers recently to have some painting done but put them back just as they were before. Besides the problem appears to be coming from the receiver based on the testing I have done so far. I tried to make sure that this didn’t happen but “IF” I had played the receiver with the “B” speakers turned on but without any speakers connected could that cause damage to the receiver? Thanks

 

[myke]

Not exactly sure what's going on but you mentioned Mcacc. I have the vsx 21 and I've had that turn my sub off to where I came here posting confusion until I figured out it needed to be on plus. For whatever reason Mcacc thought it should be set to low. (So low it didn't turn on). Might want to delete the settings for that profile.

 

[merlin1952]

I don’t go into the MCACC settings often enough to stay familiar with them. With book in hand I tried to set it up when I first got the receiver and really haven’t been back in there any since until now. I don’t see a problem with any of the settings though admittedly I could be missing something. I may try just deleting everything out and completely starting over with the MCACC over the weekend to see if that helps. I like the surround sound for movies but probably 98% of my listening is music and I always do that in direct or pure direct mode. I would use pure direct mode for all music but the “B” speakers do not function in pure direct. I haven’t used the surround sound in probably six weeks now but the last time I did it seemed to be working fine. Also, the front mains play fine no imbalance with then with only “A” speakers on or with “A” and “B” turned on its only the “B” speakers that have the problem. I appreciate the responses I’ve received and if anyone else has any suggestions I’d be glad to hear them. Thanks,

 

[M Code]

When you switch A & B both ON, the loudspeakers are in series..
You have some technical internal difference in the one louspeaker. It may not be audible when playing by itself in A. But when 1 loudspeaker is in series with another loudspeaker, A is a source impedance to Speaker B. Thats why the higher quality step-up amplifiers and receivers do loudspeaker switching in parallel...

Just my $0.02..

 

[Votrax]

The VSX-1020 re-assigns the surround back amp to front height/wide or B speakers. Did you reset your speaker settings and run MCACC ensuring surround back or front height/wide aren't included during auto calibration?

 

[merlin1952]

M Code, are you suggesting that there could be a problem with the left “A” speaker or wire that could cause the problem with the volume level on the left “B” speaker? When I select only “B” speakers I do still have the same issue.
Votrax, I did a recalibration when I first installed the outside speakers several years ago and have not changed anything since then. I did go back in yesterday and look at the settings and didn’t see anything unusual. Everything had sounded fine until recently.