Problem With Pioneer Elite VSX-39TX Receiver (1 Viewer)

[Stan T]

I started having a problem with my receiver in stereo mode when I hooked up a new CD changer in my system. When I play CDs in stereo mode and turn the sound up anywhere from -22 to -8 it doesn't seem like the sound increases. If I turn it up to -7 it gets really loud and remains that way until I go down to -22. Then it sounds like something clicks off in the speakers & it goes to the regular sound. The -22 to -8 is still loud but it doesn't increase in sound.
Anybody have any ideas. I am running the CD changer into the PCM in on the back of my receiver by optical cable. I've never used optical before. Could the connection to my "PCM in" be screwing everything up. However I tried the CD in my DVD player and the same thing. I'm not sure what else it could be. I haven't noticed this happening until I added the CD changer. Could something be wrong with my receiver or is it one of my connections?
Any help or recommendations?

 

[Stan T]

Well update on my receiver. It seems that it's the same on DVDs also. When it's in 5.1 or 7.1 the fronts don't turn up but the center & surrounds do. The subs in my front mains turn up but the highs don't kick in. If you turn the receiver up really loud the highs kick in & then you can turn it down & everything is equal.
Anybody have any ideas if that would be my receiver or my front speakers? I went through every setting on the receiver that I can think of but everything looks correct. Does anyone know anything that I can try or is there any home theater specialist that makes house calls to try to figure out a problem. I hate to take my receiver in to get checked out & they tell me nothing is wrong with it.
Thanks for any replies with advice.

 

[Stan T]

Bumping up to see if someone can offer advice on this problem with my system.

 

[Douglas Boulanger]

What kind of speakers?

 

[Jonathan_M]

Stan,
I've got the same receiver you do. On the rear of your system, which optical jack are you going into? #3, #4 or #5?
Is your CD changer also a DVD player? If not, and you have a separate DVD player, how do you have the audio coming from it connected to the receiver?
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"We're hosed. We lost the remote."

 

[Jonathan_M]

Whoops. I guess it helps to read the original message more closely...
Okay, I see you have a separate DVD player. If you haven't noticed this happening until you added the CD changer, have you tried disconnecting the changer temporarily to see if the problem went away? (can you play a CD in the DVD player with no volume issues?)
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"We're hosed. We lost the remote."

 

[Stan T]

I have the Pioneer Elite TZ-700 front powered speakers.
I have the same problem when playing CDs through my DVD player. I'm also having the same problem when playing DVDs. It seems like the highs don't kick in until I turn the player really loud and then I can turn it back down. The mains don't seem to increase in volume from -22 to -8 & then the volume kicks in. I can then go from -8 to -22 and then the volume goes back down and the highs don't seem to be loud anymore. I didn't have this problem or notice it until I plugged in the CD changer. I also moved things around to get my carpet stretched around the same period but that shouldn't have caused any problems.
I think it would be hard to be the speakers unless something happened to the 2 front main speakers at the same time.
I think the CD changer is on input 5 (it said PCM in) & I'm using an optical cable. The DVD player is on 2 or 3 digital in. If anyone else has any more ideas please respond. I'm going to try to keep troubleshooting tonight. If not is there home theater consultants that can actually come out & help troubleshoot a system. And if so are they expensive?

 

[Jonathan_M]

Stan,
Do you have another non-powered set of speakers you could try using as you mains to definitely isolate the TZ-700's as being the problem?
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"We're hosed. We lost the remote."

 

[Stan T]

The only other speakers that I have is the surround speakers. I can try switching them out with the front speakers but they're not full range speakers. If it has the same problem I can try replacing the wires. When they were stretching our carpet they could have placed the bar across the wires for the front speakers. My rack was pushed over to one side of the room while they were doing it.
I hate it when you have a problem like this & have to spend a lot of time troubleshooting. Is it a possibility that I could have damaged the voice coils in both of my front main speakers. I do have them pretty loud when listening to music or movies. I'm not sure that both of them could go out at the same time though. And is it a possibility to damage the voice coils but when you turn the speaker up loud they will come on? See my previous post concerning this. If so are voice coils expensive to replace? I'm hoping that's not the problem. I know many people don't know about the Pioneer Elite TZ-700 speaker system and think that because an electronics company makes them that they aren't a great piece of equipment. But not a lot of people have heard them. I think the build quality of these speakers are excellent & have been nothing but happy with them. They put out unbelievable sound.
Any other ideas on what to try or troubleshoot? Looks like my night is going to be filled with troubleshooting.

 

[Stan T]

The only other speakers that I have is the surround speakers. I can try switching them out with the front speakers but they're not full range speakers. If it has the same problem I can try replacing the wires. When they were stretching our carpet they could have placed the bar across the wires for the front speakers. My rack was pushed over to one side of the room while they were doing it.
I hate it when you have a problem like this & have to spend a lot of time troubleshooting. Is it a possibility that I could have damaged the voice coils in both of my front main speakers. I do have them pretty loud when listening to music or movies but I don't think I have run them loud enough to damage something. I'm not sure that both of them could go out at the same time though. And is it a possibility to damage the voice coils but when you turn the speaker up loud they will come on? See my previous post concerning this. If so are voice coils expensive to replace? I'm hoping that's not the problem. I know many people don't know about the Pioneer Elite TZ-700 speaker system and think that because an electronics company makes them that they aren't a great piece of equipment. But not a lot of people have heard them. I think the build quality of these speakers are excellent & have been nothing but happy with them. They put out unbelievable sound.
Any other ideas on what to try or troubleshoot? Looks like my night is going to be filled with troubleshooting.

 

[Stan T]

I tried troubleshooting tonight with some strange results. The fronts will go up in volume & the highs seem alright if I leave the sub channel on in my receiver settings even though I don't have a seperate sub for my system. If I turn the sub channel off I start having the problem with my front speakers again. I changed the CD changer to digital input 3 in my receiver and took it out of the PCM input on the receiver. It sounds a lot better now. Again I start having all of these problems when I take the sub setting out of my receiver speaker setting. It just means that the bass for the missing sub is not getting routed through to my front main speakers with the powered subs.(So I'm losing bass in my bass management). The only conclusion that I can come to is it is a problem with my receiver.
I used to have the sub channel in my receiver in my bass management set to off so the extra bass would get routed to my front speakers but seems to start having the problems mentioned above when I do that. I don't know what's up with it. Any ideas anyone?

 

[Jonathan_M]

Well, I'm glad you tried moving the CD changer to another input. I know troubleshooting is a pain in the behind, but you learn a lot about your system that way.
About your bass weirdness: I know about the TZ700's but I've never seen the back of one to see what types of connections it has. In addition to a left and right input, do they have a separate input for the Subwoofer? If they do, then enabling your sub channel is the right thing to do. If they don't, I'd say turning off the sub channel and setting your front speakers to LARGE would be the way to go.

 

[Stan T]

Jonathan I do have my front speakers set to large with my center & surrounds set to small since they are not full range speakers. My front speakers do not have a sub in. Just regular speaker connections. In the past I have had my sub channel in my receiver set to off with the front speakers set to large. Now when I do this I start experiencing the problems. It's really strange.

 

[Jonathan_M]

Stan, I don't know what to tell you now!

The only thing I can think of to do now is to check all your speaker level settings and also all your physical wire connections just to be sure you're not overlooking something obvious.
I just can't see how adding a new component to your system would do anything to alter your speaker outputs.
I'm stumped.
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"We're hosed. We lost the remote."