Calling All Yamaha AV Receiver Owners

[gosshawk]

Hi guys!
I recently purchased a rxv467 to replace my rather old rxv440rds, and have been a bit underwhelmed so far to be perfectly honest.

The connectivity is a massive bonus as my new amp supports hdmi, coupled with my harmony remote makes the set up easy to use, and mrs friendly.
But I have found the sound a bit....well...lacking.

Until I started using the right audio setting! Now I am suitable impressed and have a big grin on my face!

It seems that if I put it on "standard" and "direct" (the 2 settings I was between) then the dialogue went through front left and right speakers, leaving the center to output nothing (somehow I only noticed this after 3 weeks)
But this evening, I pressed surround decode on remote, and now dialogue blasts through center speaker!

The point of the thread being - What settings do you all use on your av receivers? As I seem to be a bit of a turd, so need help!

 

[james.miller]

Direct does pretty much the same on all amps, that is turn all processing off, so if you are getting dialogue through the left and right speakers when using it then you are watching a stereo source. if its a movie you are watching, with a surround soundtrack, and the dialogue is still coming through the front left and right, then you need to look at your source as it is probably set up incorrectly.


As for what modes, i would wager most people would settle on 'surround' without any fancy (you can replace 'fancy' with 'turdy' or perhaps just 'rubbish') dsp modes with the possible exception of any THX modes that amps might support - i swap between plain surround mode and THX Theatre depending on the content with my onkyo.

Modes like 'direct' and 'pure' are for audio purists who have acoustically perfect listening rooms. ie, virtually none of us

 

[MagicBoy]

Sony owner here.

AV inputs are auto detect mode. It's set to default to ProLogic 2 Movie when it gets a stereo signal and automatically picks DD/DTS when it gets the correct signal.
CD input is in Direct Mode.

As James says above the DSP modes get ignored as they're rubbish. CST.EX B = WTF?

 

[Castiel]

I have a Yamaha RX-V2067 driving a 7.2 Kef 3005SE setup and I use the 'Straight' DSP mode, so in other words nothing. The surround decoder setting is in addition to the DSP rather than instead of.

Sometimes I use the 'Standard' or 'Sci-Fi' modes if I'm in that sort of mood and when listening to Music I use the 7ch Stereo.

 

[gosshawk]

Ahhh, that's some awesome info! Especially the "surround decoder setting is in addition to the DSP rather than instead of" bit, I really didn't know that!

Awesome guys, thank you very much! =]

 

[dave-lew99]

My yammy seems a bit of a pain when it comes to the surround decoder (DSP-AX620)

If you leave surround decode mode off, it will not decode DD/DTS - instead just outputting a 2 channel mix down. If you turn surround encode on, it will correctly decode DD/DTS but also assume everything is pro-logic'd and perform it's own processing - instead of leaving it to 2-channel.

It's quite annoying really as i use a PC to playback everything from tv, music to film - a good chunk of it is not in surround sound!

 

[Castiel]

My yammy seems a bit of a pain when it comes to the surround decoder (DSP-AX620)

If you leave surround decode mode off, it will not decode DD/DTS - instead just outputting a 2 channel mix down. If you turn surround encode on, it will correctly decode DD/DTS but also assume everything is pro-logic'd and perform it's own processing - instead of leaving it to 2-channel.

It's quite annoying really as i use a PC to playback everything from tv, music to film - a good chunk of it is not in surround sound!

That's because you are using the same input for everything and have specified DDPL

Although it should simply decode whatever the source signal is unless you specific pro logic. Having tested mine, it decodes DD/DTS and so on and switches to Stereo when it recieves a stereo source.....

 

[anything I don't mind]

I have a yamaha 467. It depends on the source, if it is a two channel source that you want to upscale to 6 channels then you need to select surround decode. If you are playing a bluray or a dvd with 6 channel source then you need to select straight. The direct mode bypasses the AV receivers processing engine and is just the raw sound from the source.

If i am playing two channel music sometimes i switch to surround decode music settings. If you want to get the dolby digital and dts passthrough then you need to select straight mode.

 

[Abyss]

Are you using the Sky HD box by any chance? If so you probably have it set to use the audio over HDMI which is only stereo from the Sky HD box. Hook up an optical cable, tell the amplifier to use optical instead then put a channel on with dolby digital (e.g. film channel)

 

[jellybeard999]

I just leave mine... it automatically changes from stereo to DD, DTS, DTS-HD etc and back back.

Onkyo TX-SR605

 

[anything I don't mind]

yes the yamaha 467 does that as well, just have to leave it on straight.

 

[Jano]

RX-V3900. Straight.

Music is now handled by a Musical Fidelity M3i via the pre-outs on the Yammy, but I don't think I've actually had do that yet as stereo inputs are now plugged in to the MF rather than the Yammy. Will have to try some of the music channels on sky sometime.

 

[gosshawk]

Abyss: Are you using the Sky HD box by any chance? If so you probably have it set to use the audio over HDMI which is only stereo from the Sky HD box. Hook up an optical cable, tell the amplifier to use optical instead then put a channel on with dolby digital (e.g. film channel)

Yeah, I hooked it up like that, although it took me a little while to figure out how to get video via HDMI and audio via optical.... I can't blame anyone but myself, I kinda just jumped straight in, assuming it would be like my old yammy.

But I have now read some of the manual, and the info you guys have is awesome!

Not entirely sure what settings not, but sure its on straight with surround decode. Got it displaying the input on the front of the amp rather than the sound setting too!
And put memory guard on now cos I am happy with it! haha

Thanks for all the help OcUK forum-ers!

 

[Attu90]

I've got a Sony str db1080 which has been superseded twice in my home cinema setup and is now religated to stereo mode in my computer room.

I found it so complicated to set up I'm sure over the years I was using it I never correctly had it set up, saying that the Sony I'm using now is prodadly not correctly set up either LPCM confuses the heck out of me, I like to see what my amp is decoding.

 

[phill1978]

i use a very old denon AVC-1se , it cost (someone, i bought it used) £3.6k has the 16x burr brown thx Ultra 2 plus select cert upgrade DAC 32 bit processing.

sound modes are DTS-6-THX or DD-THX .. no full HD audio only the HDcore higher rate DTS / DD. So some improvement over DVD using blueray

still sounds the nuts to me, it weighs 36kilos lol

i would describe the sound as err.. architectural, meaning its very large and solid with no harshness, quite a warm sound, some effects like doors opening or people talking on the surrounds makes me **** myself a bit as it can sound so real lol




speakers are B&W NT