Yamaha RX-A3000 Low Surround Back Channel Output

C

Cascade253

Audiophyte
Looking for some advice from the experts here. I have a RX-A3000 for my home theater setup and just finished filling out my speakers for a 7.1 setup with the following:
Front L/R: Klipsch RP-260F
Center: RP-450C
Surround L/R: RP-502S
Surround Back L/R: RP-500SA
The issue that I'm running into is significantly lower output on the surround back speaker channels. For testing, I have the receiver set to 7ch stereo and the following levels/distances from YPAO:
SL: 0dB, 9ft
SR: -2dB, 5.6ft
SBL: +0.5dB, 9.8ft
SBR: -0.5db, 9.4ft
All speakers are set to small with a 80Hz crossover. Power amp is set to 7ch normal and bi-amp is turned off.
Audibly, I can hear output from the SB speakers but at a very reduced level and if I lightly touch the rubber surrounds on the speaker itself there is a large difference in how much the woofers are being driven when compared to the surround side speakers. I did swap the speaker wire inputs on the receiver for the SR and SBR which then caused my SR speakers to be at a reduced level while the SBR were now good, so it's not a speaker issue. I don't think I'm trying to ask too much out of the receiver with this setup, but would appreciate any input. Do I just have two bad channels? Let me know if there's any other config/settings that I should add.
 
CajunLB

CajunLB

Senior Audioholic
It sounds like they are playing fine but your personal experience is what matters so I think simply raising your sb spl by a db or 2. I don’t have a manual on me but should be able to google or read the manual.
Hopefully this simple fix will put your levels to where they sound like you want them to be .
Welcome to Audioholics.
 
C

Cascade253

Audiophyte
I can certainly try doing that and see what happens, it just seems very strange to me that with it set to 7ch stereo that there is such a large difference between the side channels and rear. It was my thought that when set to 7ch stereo all the speakers would be at the same level, minus any spl adjustments.
 
C

Cascade253

Audiophyte
I don't have a calibrated meter but with a phone app and using the test tones functionality of the receiver, all the speakers seem to be 56-58dB. Just by ear they seem to be about the same loudness as well. When playing music if I add 6 dB to the SBL/R then it sounds like the levels are even, but with the test tones it is considerably louder. Not sure what to make of that.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I don't have a calibrated meter but with a phone app and using the test tones functionality of the receiver, all the speakers seem to be 56-58dB. Just by ear they seem to be about the same loudness as well. When playing music if I add 6 dB to the SBL/R then it sounds like the levels are even, but with the test tones it is considerably louder. Not sure what to make of that.
Could be somewhat the orientation/directionality of the speaker itself? Is it really critical in actual use, there's not a lot of content there to begin with. Does it sound wrong in actual surround use?
 
CajunLB

CajunLB

Senior Audioholic
Could be somewhat the orientation/directionality of the speaker itself? Is it really critical in actual use, there's not a lot of content there to begin with. Does it sound wrong in actual surround use?
That’s what I’m thinking also. Unless your gonna be using it primarily in all channel stereo.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
That’s what I’m thinking also. Unless your gonna be using it primarily in all channel stereo.
Can't imagine using an annoying mode like all ch stereo myself but....if the spl meter showed relatively even response I'm not sure there's much to look into outside of a particular impression (and without a lot to go on from our end).
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
You should be able to go into the modes own menu and adjust the front to back mix to improve the mix too . Do you have a decoder on like dts or a music mode on .
 
C

Cascade253

Audiophyte
I found what it was! The only thing on receiver display is "CinemaDSP" in looking in the manual this sets a default value of only 35% for the SBL/R speakers when in 7ch stereo mode (pg 112 for anyone else looking). Increased it up to 100% to match the others and now all speakers are at the same output. Thanks Mark for suggesting looking into any decoders or modes that are active. Doesn't seem like CinemaDSP can be turned off unless its switched to a different decoder like PL or Neo but those don't work with 7ch stereo.
I only use the 7ch stereo for listening to music, my home office is in the same room so it's nice to have the room filled rather than directed around the main listening spots.
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
I found what it was! The only thing on receiver display is "CinemaDSP" in looking in the manual this sets a default value of only 35% for the SBL/R speakers when in 7ch stereo mode (pg 112 for anyone else looking). Increased it up to 100% to match the others and now all speakers are at the same output. Thanks Mark for suggesting looking into any decoders or modes that are active. Doesn't seem like CinemaDSP can be turned off unless its switched to a different decoder like PL or Neo but those don't work with 7ch stereo.
I only use the 7ch stereo for listening to music, my home office is in the same room so it's nice to have the room filled rather than directed around the main listening spots.
Your welcome sometimes understanding Yamaha’s wording is like trying to read a foreign language lol . Now you can pull up the parameters for that too bring it up on your screen and arrow up it should give you front to back left to right ect and a few other settings depending on the decoder your running it all threw .
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yeah speaking Yamaha-ese compared to Denon/Onkyo is a different world....wouldn't have thought a particular sound mode would do limiting like that....
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
Yeah speaking Yamaha-ese compared to Denon/Onkyo is a different world....wouldn't have thought a particular sound mode would do limiting like that....
Iam not sure the wattage on that one I’d imagine it’s to not over drive the AVR that’s a lot of channels at once full power. There’s a mode called party mode that runs all channels but like anything else Yamaha writes who knows what it does I’ve never tried it on any of mine .
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Iam not sure the wattage on that one I’d imagine it’s to not over drive the AVR that’s a lot of channels at once full power. There’s a mode called party mode that runs all channels but like anything else Yamaha writes who knows what it does I’ve never tried it on any of mine .
The Yamahas just seem to have more combos of sound modes/settings than most and the language doesn't relate sometimes to other avrs. Not that that's particularly unusual among various branded/copyrighted terms among the avrs....
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
The Yamahas just seem to have more combos of sound modes/settings than most and the language doesn't relate sometimes to other avrs. Not that that's particularly unusual among various branded/copyrighted terms among the avrs....
Depending on the decoder selected can have different inner sound modes even with 2 channel sources and you can tweak different things . There definitions never match any other brand and Iam convinced they would rather you pull your hair out than have common modes that we can all relate to . But they do put a lot of stuff in them to play with in sub menus.ya just got to try and figure out what they do .
 
C

Cascade253

Audiophyte
Iam not sure the wattage on that one I’d imagine it’s to not over drive the AVR that’s a lot of channels at once full power. There’s a mode called party mode that runs all channels but like anything else Yamaha writes who knows what it does I’ve never tried it on any of mine .
Looking at the specs it's 140W per channel. Party mode from what I understand is if you have multiple zones setup, ie different rooms with speakers controlled my the avr, then it will turn on all the zones and play the same thing.
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
Looking at the specs it's 140W per channel. Party mode from what I understand is if you have multiple zones setup, ie different rooms with speakers controlled my the avr, then it will turn on all the zones and play the same thing.
I’ve never tried it I always thought it was a decent party when 9 channel stereo was engaged in the same room . I believe the next model up they increased the wattage to 165 as I’ve got a RX-A 3020 it’s been a very good piece for me it was repaired at about 6 years but is still going strong still today . But I use outboard amps to drive all the main bed layers and the internal amps for heights . .
 
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