Bi-amping Denon 3801

[Mark M.]

Hello, All,

I'm new to your forums, but have been active in other HT forums for the last few years. I was intrigued by the recent articles about bi-amping using the unused back / multi capabilities of the Denon 3805 and 5803 and have read that others have been able to accomplish this, even with the 3801.

I have a 3801 and I tried (unsuccessfully) to bi-amp my fronts for several days now.

1. I ran RCA's from the front L & R preouts to the CD input (not used as I use my DVD for CD's).
2. In the Setup - Amp Assignment, I set it to Multi.
3. I pressed the Multi button on the front of the AVR and assigned the Multi source as CD.
4. I wired the lower posts of my CDM NT 1's to the "Surr Back / Multi Zone" Speaker terminals with the upper posts wired to the R & L Fronts.

I got nothing out of the Surr Back / Multi Zone terminals. BTW, speakers worked fine when I went back to bi-wiring.

For the sake of completeness, since I'm running a 5.1 set-up, I'm using Surr-A speakers and have set all the surround modes for "A" only.

Any thoughts? I'd love to try this before I start running the wires in the walls (and not have wasted 50' of wire). I feel like I'm missing something but I don't know what.

Thanks,

Mark M.

 

[cam]

Hello, All,

I'm new to your forums, but have been active in other HT forums for the last few years. I was intrigued by the recent articles about bi-amping using the unused back / multi capabilities of the Denon 3805 and 5803 and have read that others have been able to accomplish this, even with the 3801.

I have a 3801 and I tried (unsuccessfully) to bi-amp my fronts for several days now.

1. I ran RCA's from the front L & R preouts to the CD input (not used as I use my DVD for CD's).
2. In the Setup - Amp Assignment, I set it to Multi.
3. I pressed the Multi button on the front of the AVR and assigned the Multi source as CD.
4. I wired the lower posts of my CDM NT 1's to the "Surr Back / Multi Zone" Speaker terminals with the upper posts wired to the R & L Fronts.

I got nothing out of the Surr Back / Multi Zone terminals. BTW, speakers worked fine when I went back to bi-wiring.

For the sake of completeness, since I'm running a 5.1 set-up, I'm using Surr-A speakers and have set all the surround modes for "A" only.

Any thoughts? I'd love to try this before I start running the wires in the walls (and not have wasted 50' of wire). I feel like I'm missing something but I don't know what.

Thanks,

Mark M.

In the 38** series I believe the 3805 is the first to have designed this feature into it. I could be wrong but before you experiment any further, find out before you blow something up.

 

[Mark M.]

Biamping 3801

Cam,

Thanks for your reply. I was able to correspond with a person on the HomeTheaterSpot forum who had done it and was able to make it work. It's really no different with the 3801 than the 3805, expect the 3801 only has one Multi Zone, not two. The other difference is setting the Multi volume and this was where I was stuck.

Apparently on the 3805, the remote has a Multi button which allows the adjustment of the Multi speaker jacks. In order to do this on the 3801, you need to press the Receiver button several times until it scrolls to Multi. The default is no signal (I can't remeber if it was -40 or -60) but once I set it to +2, it worked like a charm.

Again I appreciate your concern and if I hadn't "talked" with someone who had done it, I would have never figured it out (anyone who has seen the Denon user guide will attest that it's pretty awful) and just assumed the 3801 didn't have this capability. I was very careful in this whole process to check connections and keep volumes low. But, after all, this forum is called "Audioholics".

Oh, and BTW, it does sound much better. I'm sure true outboard amps would be better, but that's not in the cards right now and I like the idea of making the most of what I have. I haven't done an extended listening, but at first blush my CDM NT 1's sound fuller overall and in particular there seemd to be more detail in accoustic guitars.

Thanks again for your response. Hopefully this will help others who might want to try this worthwhile audio tweak.

Mark M.