Rookie AV Receiver Questions

DiscoKandy · 12 Mar 2017 at 23:13

Hi,

I have an old LED TV, a couple of sets of mission speakers and a sub kicking around, thought I might as well turn our loft room in to a bit of a movie room. I bought a second hand Yamaha RX-V477 av receiver today but had a couple of questions I was hoping to get some help with, as the last AV setup I had was a Panasonic VHS player and Pro Logic AV amp, its fair to say I'm well out of touch.

Firstly, how do I know which codec the amp is using to play whatever input I'm putting through it, in other words how do I know its not using Pro Logic when it could be using Dolby Digital or something ?

Secondly, the volume on the amp is turned up to 50 (out of 98 I think) but produces a fairly low volume, is that normal ? I'm used to Hi Fi amps that barely need cranking past quarter of the way to produce a decent amount of volume.

Appreciate the help

Thanks

Metallifux · 13 Mar 2017 at 07:48

Most amps display on the front panel what they are decoding.

DiscoKandy · 13 Mar 2017 at 11:03

That's what I thought, this one only shows CinenmaDSP when you flick it on to movie mode - but I gather that's more of a Yamaha EQ Setting, all very confusing.

El_Watcher · 13 Mar 2017 at 12:56

For the signal being decoded/output, you should be able to turn off any Yamaha presets with the remote by pressing the Straight button on the remote.

As for the volume, this will in part be dictated by the speakers you have connected, and what impedence they are. If they are hard to drive, it may require a higher volume setting to get louder sound.
You will also want to run through the YPAO setup (if it came with the microphone), as this will properly detect and setup the speakers. If the previous owner had wildly different speakers, the amp might still be using the old setup with your speakers.

Use the manual here if you haven't already, to see all the setup options.

hornetstinger · 16 Mar 2017 at 10:31

"Secondly, the volume on the amp is turned up to 50 (out of 98 I think) but produces a fairly low volume, is that normal ? I'm used to Hi Fi amps that barely need cranking past quarter of the way to produce a decent amount of volume."

That is normal, modern amps use a negative dB scale, for example -60dB isn't loud, but -10dB will be.

"As for the volume, this will in part be dictated by the speakers you have connected, and what impedence they are. "

Incorrect. Inpedence is how difficult a load is. It has no bearing on dB output. The only thing is the demands on the power supply are greater, and the power output from the amplifier into a 4 ohm loud is ideally doubled, but with Yamaha AVR's probably find only slightly more power.

You are confusing with speaker sensivitity, which is how loud they will be with a given watt. For example if you have a pair of speakers with 80dB sensivitity, and set your amp to -30dB, then measure how loud they are. Then you switch off the amp, connect a pair of speakers with 93dB sensivitity, set the amp to -30dB, then measure how loud they are- you will find the 93dB speakers to have more output for the given same amount of power from the amplifier.