I now have everything completely hooked up and seemingly programmed correctly. Though, I haven’t had a chance to go through the Audessey (Sp?) setup yet. I fine tuned the manual setup using the traditional method w/ a SPL meter. I was really curious to see how the sound quality stacked up to my old Pioneer VSX-D710S since I had some time with the PSB’s hooked up to it. I must say, there’s a noticeable SQ improvement in most situations but, not all. I think it really shows in the extreme details, ie. The highest highs and lowest lows. The extremes are much cleaner now. It also seems that the towers and sub are happier with the 80hz crossover point. PSB 6i sub is more responsive. The 905 really shines at louder volumes where the Pioneer would have started to fade. I’ve yet to take it beyond -15db…for one, I rarely like anything that loud but, I think ears would start bleeding shortly thereafter
I LOVE the layout of the speaker terminals. By far the easiest wiring job I’ve ever done.
It was a good weekend for movies due to the storms so, we watched Finding Nemo… completely different movie. The soundtrack is rather amazing now. There are so many details that we missed before. Like the scene where they are above and below water, the rip current & the scene where the “niece from hell” bangs on the fish tank, suprised me. I thought the house was going to fall down!!! We also watched Transformers, this soundtrack was clearer and better detailed. We followed these up with Michael Clayton and Rendition but, we hadn't seen either of those before.
One issue I’m working on is the video switching delay. It takes a considerable amount of time to switch from say, OTA broadcasts to the HDMI input but, is fine going from HDMI to OTA. This could be a command delay setting with the remote and partially due to the TV but, I think It’s likely the nature of the receiver.
The light shading/contrast detail and PQ of Cable broadcasts is improved by the S-video connection through the 905 over running the cable directly to the TV. Nothing drastic, but noticeable. Wish the cable box had a component out.
I switched my HD antenna from the TV to the receiver and was instantly surprised with the quality of HD Radio and the additional stations. I like the lack of static...so long as the 0's & 1's get there anyways...
Internet Radio is not as easy. Though, I like the fact that you can go right to the receiver via the internet, copy the link from the internet radio station and paste it right into the listing of up to 20 stations. Cool! The problem comes in finding acceptable internet radio streams in the supported formats: PLS, M3U & RSS. It seems most are .FM, .asx or .aspx. Of course, I could be looking in the wrong places but, I searched pretty hard and gave up after finding three that I liked.
I also tried out the USB mass storage capabilities. Thus far, I’m really disappointed with this feature. First, it says “Random playback supports up to 9,999 songs per folder. If a folder contains more than this, songs over 9,999 are not included in random playback.” I have over 14k songs in multiple folders but, neither folder has more than 9,999. It will only display 974 songs! On top of that, you can’t simply scroll through them, you have to toggle down through each song or toggle to the side to page over 10 songs at a time. Lastly, you can’t search for another song while the current song is playing. Again, I could be missing something somewhere, just my experience thus far.
I figured out the problem with the receiver not outputting sound to the TV. It will only output sound to the TV via HDMI if the sound comes to the receiver via a HDMI source.
I noticed no decrease in PQ by running the PS3 via HDMI through the 905 vs. straight to the TV.
I’m definitely going to have to vent the closet. I left the door shut for about an hour to test the Harmony 890 RF remote setup. It also works great now that I have it programmed. The next thing, I hear a scream coming from the closet. So, I open it up to find the fans on the PS3 about to initiate liftoff! It almost sounded like a jet engine from a Lear
While it's hot, it's not much hotter than my old Pioneer. Maybe 10-20 degrees. I completely expected this due to the increase in output and sheer power. In fact, the same thing would've likely happened with the Pioneer but, I wasn't able to shut the closet door due to a hookup issue after mounting TV & while waiting on the 905. I'll try to get a thermometer on it soon.
