help for a newbie

[bigQfan]

greetings all. glad i found this forum. it seems the friendliest of the audio forums that i have found.

i have recently dipped my toe into the world of "hi-rez" music. i bought a system that my budget would allow, nothing spectacular, but its a start. i have a
Denon AVR1507 receiver and Pioneer Elite DV-45A.

my problem is, i am not sure how to set up my receiver for true 5.1 sound. I was listening to REM's Automatic for the People in Surround, and noticed that on some tracks, the backing vocals are compleely missing. Same holds true on a Flaming Lips disc, some of the guitar tracks are gone. I know that all my speakers are working, as i hear sound out of all of them, but where did these tracks go?!?

Anybody that would help me tweak it up would be very much appreciated. i have many other questions, but i will start my journey with this one.

also, here is a link to the owners manual

http://usa.denon.com/AVR-1507-OM-E.pdf

thanks a heap everybody

 

[darien87]

Hey dude,

I didn't have time to really read your owner's manual, but I have the Denon 2805. So you're positive all 5 of your speakers are hooked up correctly? When you generate a test tone from your receiver all 5 of them work?

If so, then the next thing I would check is to see what surround field you have the receiver set on. On the 2805, you can set it so that the receiver automatically switches to the correct setting. For example if I'm playing a CD, the receiver senses the 2-channel signal and automatically sets itself to stereo. If I put in a DVD, it senses the 5.1 channel signal and switches to Dolby Digital. I would assume your receiver can do the same thing. Perhaps you have it set to manual and/or you have it set on a stereo setting. Therefore, even though the reciever is getting a 5.1 signal, it's only outputting 2-Channel stereo.

Give that a try.

 

[bigQfan]

yes, all 5 speakers fire up using the test tone.

 

[MDS]

i have recently dipped my toe into the world of "hi-rez" music.

By hi-res do you mean SACD and/or DVD-A? If so, are you using the 5.1 analog outs from the dvd player to the ext-in of the receiver and choosing ext-in as the source?