Pioneer VSX-1020 dialogue problem...

[augie428]

I'm really scratching my head over this one. My old receiver (Denon AVR-2809CI) seemed to be malfunctioning on me. Dialogue was very soft, back surround speakers became non-responsive. It even shut off on me at one point (LCD screen went blank but unit was still functioning).

I purchased a Pioneer VSX-1020 receiver and hooked it all up per the unit's directions. Now I am still struggling with dialogue being extremely low. Other speakers seem to be outputting correctly, I can just barely hear anything being spoken.

I ran the Full Auto MCACC but it still didn't fix the problem. I am about to pull my hair out with this thing!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm really scratching my head over this one. My old receiver (Denon AVR-2809CI) seemed to be malfunctioning on me. Dialogue was very soft, back surround speakers became non-responsive. It even shut off on me at one point (LCD screen went blank but unit was still functioning).

I purchased a Pioneer VSX-1020 receiver and hooked it all up per the unit's directions. Now I am still struggling with dialogue being extremely low. Other speakers seem to be outputting correctly, I can just barely hear anything being spoken.

I ran the Full Auto MCACC but it still didn't fix the problem. I am about to pull my hair out with this thing!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You don't list a center speaker on your equipment list. Do you have one? If not then make sure in the speaker set up you click no for center speaker. Otherwise the receiver will send the dialog to a non existent center speaker.

 

[augie428]

Sorry, I forgot to update my information. I have a Def Tech CLR3000 as my front center speaker.

Researching a little bit more, could it be an issue with my HDMI cables? I've read that high speed HDMI is suggested to be used. I didn't think there was much of a difference between the cables besides marketing.

Big issue I have is that the receiver seems to be always reverting to "Stereo Mode."

Thanks.

 

[TLS Guy]

Sorry, I forgot to update my information. I have a Def Tech CLR3000 as my front center speaker.

Researching a little bit more, could it be an issue with my HDMI cables? I've read that high speed HDMI is suggested to be used. I didn't think there was much of a difference between the cables besides marketing.

Big issue I have is that the receiver seems to be always reverting to "Stereo Mode."

Thanks.

First check the wiring to that center speaker. Check for any whiskers. In fact I would redo the connections both ends to make sure.

If you still have the problem, as a test, drive the center speaker from the left or right output, and see if the speaker is OK.

If you have done your speaker set up correctly and the center speaker is low volume on another channel, you likely have a blown speaker on the center channel.

It is not the HDMI cable for sure.

 

[snake plissken]

vsx-1020 and hdmi

did you ever get this figured out augie?

i have a similar problem with the pioneer vsx-1020 receiver, but its probably not the exact same root cause.

uverse tv and blu-ray player are hooked up via hdmi. i have to crank the volume to -50 to hear anything! i can listen comfortably listen to tv and blu-ray at around -40 to -30. on my old yamaha this would have been deafening.

i have only had the vsx-1020 for a day or two. i thought maybe it was a wrong setting...but then i moved over to internet radio. at -50 the volume is way loud! this is more what i was expecting. obviously this does not rely on hdmi.

my next test it to run toslink digital audio or coax audio cables and compare.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Return your Pioneer AVR while you still can. Reconnect your "old" but excellent Denon AVR

Rerun MultiEQ for ALL 6 points according this guide:
http://www.audyssey.com/technology/multeq/how-to-multeq.html

Start looking into acoustic room treatments if WAF permits so

 

[Gustavo]

Return your Pioneer AVR while you still can. Reconnect your "old" but excellent Denon AVR

Rerun MultiEQ for ALL 6 points according this guide:
http://www.audyssey.com/technology/multeq/how-to-multeq.html

Start looking into acoustic room treatments if WAF permits so

He said that the Denon had several malfunctions on different occasions. Why is it still excellent?

 

[augie428]

Snake,

Sorry for not replying to you sooner. I ended up resetting the receiver and starting from scratch. Doing this I figured out what may have caused the issue.

The first time (before I ran the Full Auto MCACC) I went into the system and changed the speaker configuration. I didn't realize that when running the MCACC it would recognize that I had a 6.1 setup and not a 7.1 setup. For some reason after I did this and then ran the setup there was a conflict on some level.

When I reset the receiver I ran the Full Auto MCACC again without any tweaking and haven't had any issues since.

Hope this helps.

Thanks again TLS Guy for all your help also.