Denon AVR-X1200W setup help please

[rbl]

New guy here looking for advice. I built a new home with a 17’ x 27’ dedicated theater, all pre-wired for 7.1 sound, video and lighting. I’m an old geezer and this is my last rodeo so I’d like it to be a pretty good ride. I’m not into Blue Ray and using only Dish satellite, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Seems this is likely more than I can ever watch. My delima now is this equipment sure seems complicated!

I purchased good Klipsch in-wall speakers, and a 12” Klipsch subwoofer. A Sony VPL-HW45ES projector, 135” screen and a Denon AVR-X1200W. I got delayed with the build so I have had the AVR in the box sitting over a year but finally got it installed and all is working – now to make the audio as good as possible.

The AVR is a bit overwhelming for me and I can’t get my head around all of the settings like Dolby, Dolby surround, DTS Neural:X, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, etc. This is mostly Greek to me!

The AVR has Audyssey … should I use it and do the speaker setup with it or by ear?

There are color buttons on the remote that say MOVIE, MUSIC, GAME … when I press one the audio changes a lot and a pop up screen come on that will sat stereo, surround rear, Dolby, multi … All totally confusing. I have the system set to surround rear w/2 back speakers. Do I have to set this other stuff every time I press one of those colored buttons?

The manual for this receiver (pdf) is here: Won't let me post link but easy to find

Please give me ideas about the AVR settings . There are so many that it is overwhelming.
Also, is there a file or something I can download to s thumb drive and play that will work the speakers in a 7.1 mode?
Thanks very much

 

[Drunkpenguin]

I would run audyssey. It will do a ton of the work for you and calibrate all the speaker volumes, etc. From there just pick a sound mode you like and stick with it. Most of the video sources you mentioned will probably be sending in dolby digital or dolby digital plus which is a 5.1 mix. If you want your extra 2 rear speakers on all the time choose dolby surround or dts nueral x and it will upmix to a 7.1 mix.

 

[Leemix]

Set it up with the audyssey setup, this does distances and volume levels also, and if you dont like audyssey you can easily turn it off (and on again). It will set up all your channels and the sound modes thats under the colored buttons are just a quick way to change. Sound mode will change depending on the source format. There should be a nice chart in the manual but its a good idea to try a bit different and see what you like. The colored buttons doesnt affect the setup itself, the yellow one can bypass it until you click it again or feks the green one.

Edit: since you wont use bluray much if at all almost everything you will watch will use dolby surround mode


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[rbl]

Thanks for the replies.
I ran Audyssey again and it set things up but I still have a couple of questions.

It turned on dynamic range and set it at medium. Sounded a little muddy to me and I set it at light which was a bit briter. Is this OK or does it mess up the Audyssey?

It set my fronts at roughly -6 dB and my side surrounds at -5 dB. This seems odd since my fronts are 15' away and the sides are 4' away ... same physical speaker. Does this sound normal?

My center front speaker is the same as my sides. Audyssey set my center speaker to large and the others to small. It also set the crossover on the center at 200 and the others at 100

It said to set my subwoofer at 50% but I did that before and Audyssey setup set it to -12 dB which was the max so I set it at about 30% this time and it again set it at -12 dB which is the maximum reduction. Does this mean that my subwoofer it still to loud?

Is there a DVD disk I can buy that will help me "hear" the audio from different sources like 5.1 and 7.1?

Thanks

 

[Drunkpenguin]

Typically you want to set all your speakers to small and the crossover at 80. Audyssey always gets this wrong for me, but you can change them after and it wont effect the audysey results. This will send all base to the sub which can handle it much better. You can tweak this to your likings but its a good start. As far as the volumes go, the room will also have a huge impact on how loud a speaker will be in a given position. Generally audyssey gets these pretty close to accurate. If you want to know for sure you can get an SPL meter and calibrate them manually.

 

[snakeeyes]

Typically you want to set all your speakers to small and the crossover at 80. Audyssey always gets this wrong for me, but you can change them after and it wont effect the audysey results. This will send all base to the sub which can handle it much better. You can tweak this to your likings but its a good start. As far as the volumes go, the room will also have a huge impact on how loud a speaker will be in a given position. Generally audyssey gets these pretty close to accurate. If you want to know for sure you can get an SPL meter and calibrate them manually.

80hz on mains usually but other speakers may not handle an 80hz crossover depending on driver size and cabinet sizes and performance of each speaker. Typically the main speakers are big enough to crossover at 80hz. Basically you don’t want to crossover at 80 if your speakers can’t cover down to 80hz (actually good to overlap 10hz or a bit more). 80hz is ideal as that is where the subwoofer is not easy to localize. YMMV

 

[Drunkpenguin]

Good point! I think OP has identical speakers all the way around, but he might want to post the models numbers.

 

[rbl]

My speakers are Klipsch R-2502-W in-wall w/dual 5/1/4" and a "' tweeter.

Frequency Response 47Hz-20KHz ± 3dB
Sensitivity 91dB @ 2.83V / 1m
Nominal Impedance 8 ohms compatible
Crossover Frequency 2200Hz
Power Handling 60W RMS / 240W Peak
Recommended Amplifier
Power 110 W

 

[snakeeyes]

My speakers are Klipsch R-2502-W in-wall w/dual 5/1/4" and a "' tweeter.

Frequency Response 47Hz-20KHz ± 3dB
Sensitivity 91dB @ 2.83V / 1m
Nominal Impedance 8 ohms compatible
Crossover Frequency 2200Hz
Power Handling 60W RMS / 240W Peak
Recommended Amplifier
Power 110 W

These look good for 80hz crossover but always good to experiment a notch higher to see if better or worse.

 

[rbl]

OK - thanks.

Why is Audyssey setting my subwoofer to -12 dB no mater how low I have the gain on the back of it turned?

 

[lovinthehd]

OK - thanks.

Why is Audyssey setting my subwoofer to -12 dB no mater how low I have the gain on the back of it turned?

You had it right earlier, your gain on the sub is still too high. A suggestion of 50% is just general, it will vary with avr pre-out level and the specific amp on the sub. On my commercial subs with plate amps I generally only need to go 25-30% for gain (and as long as you don't hit the max -12, say -11 or -10, you're fine).

It isn't Audyssey particularly setting your speakers to large or lower crossovers than 80 (Audyssey recommends when using a sub to start with an 80hz crossover and all speakers set to use bass management, i.e. speakers set to "small" but the avr manufacturers have ignored the recommendation mostly when implementing the setup program). Your avr is using an in-room measurement of 40hz for f3 to determine what is set to large vs small. No harm in changing to small or raising crossover suggested (but don't lower the crossover if using Audyssey filters, you'll have a gap in such case).

Some avrs turn on Dynamic Volume at the end of the Audyssey run, some don't. I'd turn Dynamic Volume to off (more for late nite listening when you're trying not to bother others in the house sort of thing, it is a compression routine). I do use and recommend Dynamic EQ (and read how Reference Level Offset works here https://audyssey.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/212347383-Dynamic-EQ-and-Reference-Level)

 

[rbl]

OK ... sounds more like what I am seeing. I think I will turn the gain on the back of the sub down more and run the Audyssey again and see if it puts it someplace other than at the limit.

Thanks ... will report back tomorrow.

 

[lovinthehd]

OK ... sounds more like what I am seeing. I think I will turn the gain on the back of the sub down more and run the Audyssey again and see if it puts it someplace other than at the limit.

Thanks ... will report back tomorrow.

Does that avr model have you aim at 75dB for the sub and allow simultaneous adjustment of gain until you hit the target range? I can do this with my Denons....

 

[rbl]

Does that avr model have you aim at 75dB for the sub and allow simultaneous adjustment of gain until you hit the target range? I can do this with my Denons....

Not that I can see. Mine is ~ 2 years old and nothing fancy.

 

[lovinthehd]

Not that I can see. Mine is ~ 2 years old and nothing fancy.

You'd see it, it's the first step in the Audyssey setup on the units that do it that way. So you just have the resulting sub level as the only indicator of how to set gain? Too bad...that's a handy feature.

 

[rbl]

OK ... think I may have it.
now. I ran the Audyssey setup again after turning down the sub gain a little more.
I set all of the crossovers to 80 and the sub to LFE and the crossover to 100.

I got these results for the Audyssey levels:
LF -6
C -5
RF -6
RS -8
RBS -5 Back surround
LBS -5 Back surround
LS -8.5
Sub -6

I downloaded a level meter app for the phone with a 4.7 rating (good)

My room ambient was ~ 25

I set the AVR level to -45 (a bit on the loud side for listening but no offensive.

Then I went to manual speaker levels with the pink noise test tone.
Walked thru every speaker and the sub and all are right at 53 dB ±1

I think this tells me that the levels at my seating position are about the same from each speaker - correct? And, this is what we want correct?

Thanks

 

[Leemix]

OK ... think I may have it.
now. I ran the Audyssey setup again after turning down the sub gain a little more.
I set all of the crossovers to 80 and the sub to LFE and the crossover to 100.

I got these results for the Audyssey levels:
LF -6
C -5
RF -6
RS -8
RBS -5 Back surround
LBS -5 Back surround
LS -8.5
Sub -6

I downloaded a level meter app for the phone with a 4.7 rating (good)

My room ambient was ~ 25

I set the AVR level to -45 (a bit on the loud side for listening but no offensive.

Then I went to manual speaker levels with the pink noise test tone.
Walked thru every speaker and the sub and all are right at 53 dB ±1

I think this tells me that the levels at my seating position are about the same from each speaker - correct? And, this is what we want correct?

Thanks

Yes
(Phone decibel apps are very unreliable due to phone mics, especially at lower frequencies, but fine for just double checking)


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[rbl]

Yea !

 

[PENG]

Yea !

Your phone app most likely use "A" weighting, that's why it reads lower than the expected 70-75 dB that Audyssey calibrates to, at your main mic position when playing the AVR's generated tone.

https://denon.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/54/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNTM1NDA1Mzk1L3NpZC9mVW1TeGszd3hRQXNRckpfNmNFaVN6SktCc0lNQXd3Y0xpaVRjZzh0aWxtOVhiVWhZbFVzVEFTWGRncmRkQV9UWmFhODhIQ2R1QWFhcURkX3NBWDdJSzNSVktuazRSR21PdnkxNWoxNXJvSk9sNW9hazJzTjNPbGclMjElMjE=

 

[lovinthehd]

OK ... think I may have it.
now. I ran the Audyssey setup again after turning down the sub gain a little more.
I set all of the crossovers to 80 and the sub to LFE and the crossover to 100.

I got these results for the Audyssey levels:
LF -6
C -5
RF -6
RS -8
RBS -5 Back surround
LBS -5 Back surround
LS -8.5
Sub -6

I downloaded a level meter app for the phone with a 4.7 rating (good)

My room ambient was ~ 25

I set the AVR level to -45 (a bit on the loud side for listening but no offensive.

Then I went to manual speaker levels with the pink noise test tone.
Walked thru every speaker and the sub and all are right at 53 dB ±1

I think this tells me that the levels at my seating position are about the same from each speaker - correct? And, this is what we want correct?

Thanks

What do you mean you set the crossover to both 80 and 100? A crossover is a single number, the crossover between speaker and sub....

Seems a bit odd all the speaker levels were set into negative trim numbers. The noise floor and levels per the meter are low but like Peng says....