The new gear smell has worn off!
Well after having the Denon AVR-4311ci for a while now (and using it a LOT) I feel like sharing some impressions and my experience.
My initial thought after installing the 4311 and running Audyssey was "wow, that sounds different!". New gear that sounds different is good right? The bass problems in my room were all but gone so my impressions were good. Details in upright bass were revealed that I haven't heard on my system before, as well as subtle surround effects seemed to be much more coherent. Thing were looking (sounding) peachy for the new 4311.
Then we watched "2012".
WTF!?!
I see the Earth ripping apart, I hear glass, wood, asphalt, steel, and other effects all around me. The surround presentation was as good as any I've heard, but where is my LFE?
Mind you, the subs in my room are no slouches when it come to the really low-down visceral stuff. But there wasn't any!?! That seemed like a huge missed opportunity on the sound engineers part. After all, we waited to see this at home because any movie that is about the Earth coming apart is going to have awesome bass in it and few commercial theaters can match mine for slam.
The movie comes to its under whelming end and out comes the RS SPL meter and test discs.
I set-up the SPL meter on the boom stand and start the built-in tones on the 4311. Wait a minute, why are the speakers set to -70 db and not close to -75db? And then I get to the subs. Audyssey set them as a system 11 db lower than the rest of the speakers!
That explains a whole bunch of things I was/was not hearing.
I promptly level match ALL of my speakers to -75db and move on to the x-overs.
What a mess. Audyssey had set the L/C/R to "Full-Range". This is a good assessment of the RTi-12s as they can play down in the 30's. The center doesn't come close to that. The remaining speakers were all set at 40hz. Really Audyssey, a dipole surround that plays flat to 40Hz?
Setting a global x-over of 80Hz (THX recomended) resulted in considerable doubling (boomy, over-emphasized) bass near the x-over point. So we move to a global setting of 60Hz. Money. I run various sweeps to ensure the level stays nearly flat through the freq. range and move on to some listening tests. This is more like it. Bass is back! Using Audyssey Flat obtained the best response with the sweeps.
Oh, how I missed you bass. Don't ever leave me again! Ahem, moving on.
"2012" goes back in the PS3. WOW! Night and day difference between the first run through and this one. The surrounds still sound as coherent as before, the dialog is crystal, and dammit if the LFE didn't try to redecorate my room.
Moral of the story comes in two parts here.
The first is double check what Audyssey does to your set-up. Not just the speaker configuration (large/small) or the x-over point, but the levels as well. I knew better, not sure why I didn't do this upon initial set-up.
And the second is the 4311 is a great piece of gear. My system now sounds better than it ever has. I've read a lot of complaints of "brightness" with Audyssey engaged with this receiver and I'm almost certain the complaints come from those who didn't re-check what was done. Mine's perfect now.
Happy cruise missile.
