BA AVR 7120 Setup Issues

[jdono52]

I have only noticed a couple members who have also taken the plunge and purchased the Boston AVR 7120 and was curious if anyone else has had any setup discrepancies with this receiver?

I finally found the time to begin installation of my new components and am having a he!! of a time trying to set these units up properly. This may be in part due to the little information the instruction manual provides. However, any advice would be most appreciated.

Last night I began running wire and placing speakers in the appropriate positions, but the end result was not what I desired. Right now I have only hooked up my two front old school Sony Towers and my Velodyne SPL1200 sub. I used quality 14 guage wire and AR banana plugs at all terminations except the sub, which is LFE connected. In the setup menu, which I was only able to access through my T.V. monitor OSD, I originally had my fronts set to large and the subwoofer to LFE. However, this setup did not allow any low frequencies to pass to the subwoofer and I had to adjust accordingly. Thus, I reset the fronts to small and set them at 80Hz. This made a significant difference in the sound output of the sub, especially when I place it in the corner of my 15x15 room. Unfortunately, with my fronts set to small, they now sound very flat. Is it possible to set my fronts to large and still pass the low frequencies to my subwoofer to allow for a warmer sound?

Furthermore, upon initial installation, I was unable to hear any output to any speaker unless I tweeked the volume to around -15db. From what I understand +20db is full volume and I was concerned that I did not hear a significant volume levels until I set it to 0db for music and around +4db for video output. I would think at these levels I could blow up my girlfriend's skirt and I was dissapointed to see that she was still fully clothed.

I guess my main concern is that I did not see the drastic difference that I expected between my 10 year old Technics receiver that used to only power my two Sony fronts. I am sure that this is a problem with how I am setting up my components, but I can't seem to figure out what I am doing wrong. I still have yet to wire my Phase Tech. Teatro 6.5 surrounds and Polk LSic center, and wanted to make sure I am not just making some newbie mistakes in the setup process.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

J.D.

 

[mnnc]

With vol at -20 you should be rockin pretty good. Manual is a**. Do adjustments while listening to source. Make sure it is not muted and night mode is set to off. Also check dynamic range compression setting. Should be at 0. Set tones to 0/flat for initial setup. Check that you have sub hooked up to correct sub-out on back of recv'r. There are 2 sub outs. Use the one for single sub use if that is your case. Set spkr's to small, sub yes, and appropriate surr choice of either on or off in the spkr setup sub menu. Now run auto set up with mic in a quiet room. This will set size, distance, etc. Will not eq like other recvr's. Now try to jam a bit. Set bass and treb to liking and forget the rest. Let me know what happens because mine sounds absolutely phenominal w/ my vr bostons and b&w's.

 

[jdono52]

Sherwood Newcastle Product Manual?

Mnnc,

I know I have seen a link for the Sherwood Manual somwhere in these forums before, but I cannot find it now. Do you or anyone else have a link to the website where I can access the PDF of Sherwood's manual? From what I understand, this manual is much more informative and may help me with some of the problems I am facing.

Thanks again,

J.D.

 

[Doug917]

http://www.sherwoodusa.com/pdf/R-965(a)20040930.pdf

 

[Doug917]

I also use the Outlaw 990 and it is similar to the platform of the 7120. If you have specific questions, I will try to help you with them.

 

[jdono52]

Problems seem to be accumulating

Thanks for the responses guys.

It seems that my problems are getting worse though. After wiring my surround speakers and testing them this weekend, I found that no output was coming from my right surround channels. This included right surround A and B. I tried numerous options with the configurations, but nothing. Later that day I lost output in my left front tower. Tried the same solutions, still no result. At this point I am pulling my hair out, trying to determine the cause. After speaking with a tech support specialist from B.A., it was suggested that a processing chip may be bad. Especially being that it is the left front channel and the right surround channels that will not produce any output. Needless to say I am a little P.O.'d that this fine piece equipment may potentially require a return. The real kick in the groin, is the fact that I will have spent nearly $120.00 in shipping to have no receiver.

I doubt this is a common occurence, but if anybody has any suggestions I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,

J.D.

 

[Doug917]

Sorry to hear things aren't turning out better for you. The only thing I can think of telling you is to make sure (especially if you are using bare wire connections for the speakers) that none of the speaker wire is touching the back of the unit and shorting things out. Good luck and hang in there.

 

[dan711]

As far as surrounds setup. Make sure you have the speakers connected to the surround A B (5.1) and not Surround Back(6.1 7.1). A friend of a friend purchased one of those units about 2 weeks ago and had a similar problem with very poor sound output. I did not hear it myself. Maybe thats why these B.A. units are selling so cheap. I own the Sherwood/Newcastle R965 which is almost identical I believe to the 7120. It has been the best receiver I have owned.

Dan

 

[Doug917]

I got and hooked my AVR7120 up yesterday and had no issues. These things are a great buy and have excellent sound qualities. Very similar to the 990 (which makes sense as they use the same DACs and are built on the same platform).

 

[simpleHT]

similar problem with very poor sound output. I did not hear it myself. Maybe thats why these B.A. units are selling so cheap. I own the
Dan

That is not true. This unit puts out tremendous power to all channels. I remeber my initial setup did not have good sound on the surround as well until I did something.

jdono, let me check my setup and list out all the options that I set on mine for you as reference. Stay tuned.

 

[simpleHT]

jdono52,

PM sent.