Funny how one can read a thread and totally miss something that could be fairly important...
| After calibrating the speakers and setting the Bass tone up to +10dB (and subsequently at +6dB), while watching scenes from Matrix Reloaded, the 3803 clipped out. |
(Thanx Curtis for pointing this out!)
As much as I have learned about Denon receivers, one thing I don't know is if the tone controls only affect the main left and right channels or if they affect them all?
I suppose that experimentation could give us that answer. But for now, lets assume that the tone controls
do affect the center and surrounds.
If sufficient power is an issue (and it's pretty clear it is), then running the bass up to plus anything is only going to make things worse. Every 3 decibels of volume increase requires twice as much wattage from the amplifier.
Even though the crossover in the Denon should be filtering out lower bass from the center and rears, running up the bass would be counteracting the actions of the filter.
Jason, try setting the bass back to flat and the crossover to 120Hz. Let us know if this makes any change in how loud you can safely go...