Denon AVR-X2000 sound dominated by Centre speaker

zwaigo

zwaigo

zwaigo

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Hi, I have recently connected by Denon AVR-X2000 Amp to a new TV.

I had problems getting it to connect with ARC but that all seems to be working now.
But when I was trying to fine tune the sound yesterday I noticed how much the Centre speaker was dominating the sound.
So much that I couldn't hear the Back L & R at all, Front L & R only barely, but booming out the Centre speaker.
I went into Manual settings and turned down the Centre speaker level all the way to -12, but still it was much louder than all the other speakers. I even turned up all the surround speakers to +12 but still could barely hear them.
So I turned off the Centre speaker in the Amp settings, turned the volume right up to 80/90 and I could finally hear an even sound out of all 4 surround speakers & woofer.

I'm a bit of a newbie - am I missing something here?
Or should I just keep my Centre speaker disconnected and enjoy the 4 surrounds & woofer?

Also the Denon remote has 4 sounds modes - Movie, Music, Game & Pure. But full surround only seems to come out of Movie & Game. What mode would you guys recommend for surround sound watching TV?

To confirm, I have Tanoy speakers Front L&R, Back L&R, Centre and Subwoofer.

Many thanks in advance for your help.
 
what speakers you got? also have you made sure you have set up the correct size ie large or small depending on your speakers, also like above run the Audyssey then tweak it as required.
 
Most tv output (depends upon channel and program)is usually in dd 2.0 if your lucky, your av if in surround mode will pump most of it through the center speaker and use the 4 other speakers as 'infill'
 
There's a few things you need to understand about your system and the way surround modes work in general. This is a bit of a crash course just to get you started...

(1) Read your user manual.

(2) Get the hang of using manual speaker set-up just so you can get a feel for how things work and so that you can hear the test tone through each speaker. Auto set-up with the mic is okay but not fool-proof. A little knowledge goes a long way.

(3) Read your user manual.

(4) Most of what you hear when playing something in surround actually comes from the centre speaker; 70% in fact. If you play a Blu-ray or DVD with proper discrete audio (DD, DTS, True-HD, DTS-MA) then the front L&R only start to do something significant, and that's usually music and effects. The side/rear surrounds are mostly concerned with ambient effects.

(5) Read your user manual.

(6) Dolby ProLogic II and DTS Neo:6 will take a stereo signal and "magic up" some pseudo-surround and centre channel info based on some clever spatial processing. The effect in the rear channels can be a bit hit-and-miss. For this reason I wouldn't recommend using those modes as a way of judging the sound balance. Use the tones, listen to tell if the satellite speakers all sound roughly the same volume. Tweak up the rears by +1dB. Tweak up the centre by +1~+2dB. If you have a smart phone then download a sound meter app and use that to get the speaker balances done.

(7) Read your user manual.

(8) For the most part Blu-rays and DVDs have a discrete multichannel audio ((DD, DTS, True-HD, DTS-MA as appropriate to each format). TV is mostly plain stereo. Streamed content can be anything depending on the format. Your amp will recognise discrete audio automatically and the front panel should display DD, DTS, True-HD, DTS-MA. Anything that doesn't come up with those acronyms is probably a stereo signal. Use Dolby PLII Cinema for TV/film. DPLII Music has a different sound balance that's closer to 7ch stereo. DPLII Game... well, you get the drift.

(9) Read your user manual.

(10) If you have used manual set-up and used a sound meter (or app) to balance the test tones for the satellite speakers then the amp will be set up as it should be. If there's nothing coming from the rears continuously then that's because there's nothing supposed to be there. Nothing is broken. Nothing needs tweaking. It's as it should be. Leave it alone :)

(11) Read your user manual.

(12) DSP simulation modes such as Rock Arena, Jazz Club, Matrix are for the most part a bit gimmicky. They are meant to be alternatives to DPLII / DTS Neo:6 and are there for you to 'ooh and ahh' at. Most of us have a listen for interest's sake and then never bother with them again. The only mode I personally find useful on occasions is 7ch stereo when listening to music at background levels.

Oh, and did I mention about reading your manual? ;)
 
zwaigo said:
I had problems getting it to connect with ARC but that all seems to be working now.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hi-jack, but I've recently got an X2000 too and am also having issues with ARC. Have tried setting TV Audio Input to channel 6, and then tried switching TV sound out (via TV menu) to 'Receiver', but option is greyed out - Samsung TV.

How did you sort yours, can I ask? Thanks.
 
dl8860 said:
Sorry to hi-jack, but I've recently got an X2000 too and am also having issues with ARC. Have tried setting TV Audio Input to channel 6, and then tried switching TV sound out (via TV menu) to 'Receiver', but option is greyed out - Samsung TV.

How did you sort yours, can I ask? Thanks.
Click to expand...


Hi, for me it was as simple as an old / defective HDMI lead. I think only more recent ones support ARC. I messed around trying loads of things and then bought a new HDMI cable and got it working straight away. It worked for me! Good luck. Thanks everyone else for your advice.
 
Its certainly worth spending £15 on SPL meter, and grabbing a tape measure. I ran the Audyssey auto setup a few times with my Denon amp and really didnt like the results it gave me.
 
zwaigo said:
Hi, for me it was as simple as an old / defective HDMI lead. I think only more recent ones support ARC. I messed around trying loads of things and then bought a new HDMI cable and got it working straight away. It worked for me! Good luck. Thanks everyone else for your advice.
Click to expand...

Ah OK, will give that bash, thanks a lot. Let me know if you have any other x2000 related pearls of wisdom, seems like a slightly lesser-owned model to me
 
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