AV Receiver set up advice.

[Davie_GLA]

Evening all.

So i bought myself an AV receiver this weekend, and Onkyo 309 and it seems to be a decent bit of kit. I'm after some advice on set up though as while i'm watching the F1 just now the commentry sounds 'muted' for want of a better explanation.

Configuration at the moment is front and left speakers with centre and a sub, models as follows, all old kit:

Fronts:
Mission M71 (http://www.epinions.com/review/Mission_MSM71BK_630750/content_168185138820)
These can be bi-wired, what ever that means and are split at the back with 4 connections, two high and two low frequency). on this the receiver has at the back 'Front A and Front B' on it, are these for zones or can i wire these to frequency?

Centre:
JPW CC70 (http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/center-channels/paradigm-reference/cc70/prd_120346_2743crx.aspx). I think this could be the problem when reading reviews. A few people complaining about it sounding as if the vocals etc are muffled.

Sub:
Paradigm PDR-10 (http://reviews.cnet.com/subwoofers/paradigm-pdr-10/4505-11312_7-30112540.html). No complaints here other than finding it very hard not to have it set to "Re-Arrange internal organ" setting.

Now, cabling. I need to address this as i'm using very thin old speaker cable. I only need about 3m of this though and can't seem to find good quality cable in such short lengths.

Sorry for the essay, thanks in advance.

David.

[rex]

I do not know your particular amp but I tend to put up the speaker level by 3db on the centre channel to fix the voices to the centre of the screen. I often do this even after using the mic for calibration.

Usually found in speaker setup menu / level adjust.

[OldSkoolRS]

The main problem is that you have a non matching centre. For best results you should ideally have the same speakers across the front or at least the matching centre from the same range. Years ago I had an Acoustic Energy setup and their 'matching' centre wasn't a very good match at all (non of the speakers in the centre were the same as the left/rights and it was much smaller) so this doesn't always work out. Though my current setup uses matching PMC speakers and the sound matches very well of course even as sounds pan across. During the upgrade process I had a mixture of PMCs and it wasn't so good.

You can help by making sure the centre isn't buried in an AV cabinet as this will often tend to make the speaker sound boomy as the cabinet can resonate. Even aim it up towards you if possible with small rubber feet as well as the above mentioned boost to the centre level. Also try the different surround modes as some might give a clearer effect if it's not 'true' 5.1 source that you're listening to. If your amp has it try the DTS Neo sound modes for example instead of the Dolby Pro Logic ones, or try Pro Logic music mode even (it doesn't know that you're listening to speech/sound effects ).

HTH.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Sunday 27th November 19:31