Vsx-94txh

[mcb]

I am a newbie and hope someone can enlighten me. I have had an Elite VSX-94TXH for a few years now. I have done the auto speaker set-up and pretty much just watched my movies and enjoyed what I heard. I am now concerned I am not using the full power of this unit. I started looking at the manual and am totally confused by what I've read. How do you know what settings you should use for different venues? Is there some type of suggestion sheet to say try this for action movies or try this for tv? Does the unit have an automatic setting that will read some info to know what setting it should be?
The remote just blows my mind with all the buttons. I think I really went too far overboard when I bought this.
Pioneer techs haven't been much help.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

This is the key to me - so far, you've enjoyed it. That is the most important thing to remember. The different available sound modes exist to help people enjoy their systems. I'd encourage you to try them out to see if you like one over the others, but you might not notice a lot of difference. Some of the sound modes are to convert the source audio so that it plays through more speakers (e.g. stereo sound to play through five speakers, or 5.1 audio to play through seven speakers).

I have a VSX-23, and I've found that I like the THX modes. That's just my personal preference, but it's what I like.

If you meant something different by "settings," please just let us know. I always have the MCACC settings on, and I have Phase Control always on. If you sit in different locations throughout your room, you would benefit from running MCACC at each of those locations and storing the settings under a different configuration...and then switch the appropriate configuration when you move seats. I don't mean moving from one cushion on a coach to a different one, but rather moving from a couch in the center of your room to a chair off to the side or a bar stool in the back corner.

 

[mcb]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'm just overwhelmed with all the settings, buttons. etc. I just feel like if you have all the different settings, you should be changing them with each different viewing. They have those buttons for a reason, right?

 

[slipperybidness]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'm just overwhelmed with all the settings, buttons. etc. I just feel like if you have all the different settings, you should be changing them with each different viewing. They have those buttons for a reason, right?

Some people like the different modes and some don't. A lot of how it sounds will also depend on how good/bad your room is.

I have the VSX-82TXS, I can tell you that there are very few of the modes that I use. I use Direct for all my stereo music listening and gaming. For movies, I typically use Direct but also engage the MCACC.

For TV, I usually just use the "Auto Surround" as it just defaults to the native signal source. Sometimes for movies on TV, I will engage "Action" or one of the other DSP modes. This would be for TV movies that are in stereo, so I can at least get some pseudo-surround going.

Bottom line is to get yourself a reference Blu-Ray. Either a film that is known for good surround, or a HT demo disc will do. Then sit down and start pushing buttons. Rewind and try a different setting. To some people, this is a chore. For some of us it is fun.

Be warned, this will drive your spouse crazy, so send her away for the day.