Subwoofer Query
My comments were mostly pertaining to 2CH sources played back in PLIIX Music/Movie mode. In that case the sub crossover is based on whatever the main speakers are set to. Thus if the mains are set to 60Hz and the rears to 100Hz than the bass crossed over from 60-100Hz of the rears wont be recombined into the sub. Is this a big deal? Not really since its a 2CH source and the bass is derived from the main channels anyways.
For discrete 5.1 sources, I am fairly sure it will recombine correctly to the sub but I didn't get a chance to test it. Audio Precision is sending me their new 8CH HDMI Audio Analyzer which will make this type of testing a breeze to do and I will be looking at it in more detail in the future.
I do however suggest keeping xovers between channel groups no more than 20-30Hz difference. I found this works best in PLIIx mode which I use almost extensively for 2CH sources.
Hi Gene. Many thanks for such an informative review. Based on this I upgraded to the identical DSP-Z7 here in Scotland. (Identical except price at over $3,000....)
Couple of queries I hope you could help me on:
- on the subwoofer set up I have a wife-friendly B&W Mini Theatre 30 system with the M-1 surrounds dominated by the PV 1 sub. The Yamaha manual says in the set up process to turn sub crossover to max and the volume to under 1/2 before set up. Dumb question - after calibrating I presume you turn the crossover and volume back down to desired levels? The UK manual doesn't actually say...
- on my set up even though the 5 M-1 speakers are identical the Z7 calibrated the fronts as large with a crossover of 60hz, the centre large with a crossover of 80hz and the rears as small with a crossover of 100hz... I reset these post event to all small with 100hz crossover and the equaliser as Flat as your recommendation. The set up also switched the bass output to front only. Very weird. When I changed this back to sub only, flat equaliser and all small speakers with 100hz I recalibrated and unticked the "size" option in the auto set up. When run through auto set up again it went back to these odd results including the bass to front only even though I had switched the speaker size option off. Question is when I reset the speakers back to a more sensible level as small and 100hz do all the equalising set up permutations it takes so long to calculate become invalid???
- my last query is on the banding problem you mentioned in the video processing section. It is really obvious to me when the unit processes poorer quality SD pictures. I upgraded to the latest firmware, 1.05 and the problem is still there. Is there a later firmware upgrade to fix this that you mention a March release on? You mentioned your Wii set up video settings which work a treat, do you have any other generic recommended settings for HD/Blu Ray, PS3, and SD cable tv?
Thanks
Finlay