Speaker testing question

[Kyle Braunlich]

I want to be able to quickly test my speakers individually. Specifically I want to hear my center channel alone and see how well it outputs without the distraction of the fronts. To do this thought I find I need to unplug the speakers from the receiver each time and make the receiver think there are no fronts. If I just unplug the speaker wire from the speaker itself the receiver shuts off to protect itself. I have an AVR 1400h Denon receiver. Any help is appreciated.
-Kyle Braunlich

 

[shadyJ]

One thing you can do, if your receiver supports this, is put the receiver into monoaural mode, this should just shove everything into the center channel. Than you can connect whatever speaker you want in the center channel output to hear them individually, and no other channel will get any signal. Something else you can do is just go into your receiver and turn the levels of all of the other speaker channels all the way down, except for the channel speaker that you want to hear.

 

[highfigh]

I want to be able to quickly test my speakers individually. Specifically I want to hear my center channel alone and see how well it outputs without the distraction of the fronts. To do this thought I find I need to unplug the speakers from the receiver each time and make the receiver think there are no fronts. If I just unplug the speaker wire from the speaker itself the receiver shuts off to protect itself. I have an AVR 1400h Denon receiver. Any help is appreciated.
-Kyle Braunlich

Try going into the set up Menu, Audio, Speakers and select ONLY the speaker you want to hear. Or, as Shady mentioned, you can go into the level setting section and lower the level of any speakers you don't want to hear. Make note of the settings before lowering any of them.

 

[markw]

Most systems, when in the two channel (stereo) mode and playing a mono source, will output sound only from the center channel.

 

[Kyle Braunlich]

Try going into the set up Menu, Audio, Speakers and select ONLY the speaker you want to hear. Or, as Shady mentioned, you can go into the level setting section and lower the level of any speakers you don't want to hear. Make note of the settings before lowering any of them.

I can’t turn off the front speakers, I can only set them to small or large.

 

[Sef_Makaro]

I can’t turn off the front speakers, I can only set them to small or large.

If the test tones don’t do what you’re looking for you may just need to disconnect all the speakers except the center. It looks like that AVR accepts banana plugs, you could install some on your speaker wires on the AVR side so you can quickly disconnect them. Label them and they’d be just as easy to reconnect, you just wouldn’t be able to do it from the couch.

 

[Kyle Braunlich]

If the test tones don’t do what you’re looking for you may just need to disconnect all the speakers except the center. It looks like that AVR accepts banana plugs, you could install some on your speaker wires on the AVR side so you can quickly disconnect them. Label them and they’d be just as easy to reconnect, you just wouldn’t be able to do it from the couch.

If I do that, will the receiver recognize that the fronts aren’t there? I unplugged the fronts wires from the speakers themselves but not the receiver, and the receiver shut off for protection because it was still sending front information down the wires. If their unplugged from the receiver, will this protection be gone and the sound will be only from the center? Thanks for your repluse.

 

[highfigh]

I can’t turn off the front speakers, I can only set them to small or large.

RTM- That means 'Read the Manual- pg 180 and 181 has the instructions for level setting and Denon's index is very good.You can't turn them off completely, but you can increase/decrease the level of each 12dB. That should be enough to let you hear each without the others interfering.

file:///C:/Users/USER/Downloads/AVRX1400H_EU_EN.pdf

Or, connect each speaker to a Zone 2 terminal and try that.

 

[Swerd]

RTM- That means 'Read the Manual- pg 180 and 181 has the instructions for level setting and Denon's index is very good.You can't turn them off completely, but you can increase/decrease the level of each 12dB. That should be enough to let you hear each without the others interfering.

file:///C:/Users/USER/Downloads/AVRX1400H_EU_EN.pdf

I think highfigh is right. If you lower the front left & right speakers to –12 dB, and raise the center speaker to +12 dB, it will be 24 dB louder. That's a large enough difference so you'll essentially hear only the center speaker.

 

[highfigh]

I think highfigh is right. If you lower the front left & right speakers to –12 dB, and raise the center speaker to +12 dB, it will be 24 dB louder. That's a large enough difference so you'll essentially hear only the center speaker.

Unless the volume is set to WOT- the others will still be audible at that point.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

If I do that, will the receiver recognize that the fronts aren’t there? I unplugged the fronts wires from the speakers themselves but not the receiver, and the receiver shut off for protection because it was still sending front information down the wires. If their unplugged from the receiver, will this protection be gone and the sound will be only from the center? Thanks for your repluse.

A receiver will never go into protection just because speakers aren't connected. If you disconnected the speakers from the wire and it went into protect, that means you were letting the + and - of the wires touch.

Put electrical tape over the exposed wires when you disconnect the speakers.

 

[Sef_Makaro]

If I do that, will the receiver recognize that the fronts aren’t there? I unplugged the fronts wires from the speakers themselves but not the receiver, and the receiver shut off for protection because it was still sending front information down the wires. If their unplugged from the receiver, will this protection be gone and the sound will be only from the center? Thanks for your repluse.

The receiver wouldn’t know the speakers aren’t there, it likely went into protection because the ends of the disconnected speaker wires touched. If you disconnect at the receiver there’s nothing to short.

 

[highfigh]

A receiver will never go into protection just because speakers aren't connected. If you disconnected the speakers from the wire and it went into protect, that means you were letting the + and - of the wires touch.

Put electrical tape over the exposed wires when you disconnect the speakers.

They should be disconnected at the AVR end, anyway. If it doesn't want to operate, it may need to be set for NO when asked about that speaker.

There are plenty of ways to trick a receiver into working- if a speaker is connected to the Zone 2 output, that can be set to Mono, so it's a fair comparison

 

[Kyle Braunlich]

Thank you everyone for the help, I will unplug them from the receiver.

 

[m3incorp]

Without knowing what your receiver is capable of, I guess my question, is why aren't the calibration test tones good enough for what you are wanting to do? I don't know about the Denon but in my receiver when I go into speaker configuration, there is a tab to adjust the volume of each individual speaker through the tones emitted. It only does one speaker at a time.....ie all speakers are quiet except the center speaker when you choose it, to either lower or raise volume.

 

[Kyle Braunlich]

Without knowing what your receiver is capable of, I guess my question, is why aren't the calibration test tones good enough for what you are wanting to do? I don't know about the Denon but in my receiver when I go into speaker configuration, there is a tab to adjust the volume of each individual speaker through the tones emitted. It only does one speaker at a time.....ie all speakers are quiet except the center speaker when you choose it, to either lower or raise volume.

I want to hear how the center performs on its own in movies to see if I should upgrade. The pink noise from the receiver is not what I am looking for.

 

[m3incorp]

↑Understood. Wouldn't you want to still have your subwoofer hooked up? I'm guessing you are setting your center to small and crossover somewhere around 80Hz.

I don't see where you have stated what speakers you have in your system. If you list the speakers, I'm sure there will be someone on here that has the same, had the same, or similar and may be able to make a more directed recommendation. If you were to list your speakers and 99.9 of people say they have experienced them and they are garbage, that would be a good indicator....on the other hand if 99.9 say they are great, that is also an indicator. Just playing the center speaker alone really gives you nothing to compare it to.....unless you have multiple center speakers that you will test individually and even then relying on what "your" ears thought they heard from the previous speakers.

Keeping in mind the center is your main "dialog" speaker, this where you want it to definitely excel. I personally would be testing to see how my center compares to my fronts......or vice a versa, if I'm thinking my fronts are the weak link.

Here is an imaginary example: I have Klipsch RP280F fronts and a (name your brand, could be Klipsch) center. The center does not seem to be able to compliment the fronts. I would now test/purchase another center, let's say the Klipsch RP450c and it sounds absolutely amazing with the fronts.

Another way to solve the dilemma is to have the same three speakers (brand and model) as fronts and centers.

It sounds like you are planning to purchase, so may as well decide if it will be just a center or fronts, or possibly both center and fronts.


Oh, I forgot to mention the center "never" performs entirely on its on in movies, so why set that parameter. In movies, again I state the center is typically your main dialog speaker, with the other speakers carrying the rest of the load except when scenes are steered directly to the centers.