Greg,
Happy to hear you got your player all in one piece
1. Make sure the playback priority is set to DVD-A otherwise it will play the DVD-V layer , should default to DVD-A layer but you never know!!
2. Using the players setup menu and selecting Speaker size and Output level will in turn set the players internal crossovers so the signal that is sent to the receivers 6CH input are taken care of already. So you should just main line (0 out) all your receiver settings unless you need to adjust a speaker level down the road.
Also, your receiver should not allow for speaker size settings for 6CH input (mine does not for 6CH direct anyway) if it does I would set them the same as you did in the Denon setup menu. For my H/K only type of input, level adjustment and delay settings are adjustable for 6CH input...
Done a little searching and found the following that might help during your setup quest. Will keep looking for DVD-A issues and keep you posted. I did see a post about having optical outs set to none for DVD-A..???
Ralph Potts-
HTSpot senior writer
Analog Multi channel out Bass Management - This has been an area of discussion surrounding this player since it’s release. I will forego the explanation of why certain speakers should be set to large versus small etc. when setting up bass management, as most should be some what versed in it by now. The 2900 utilizes an 80Hz fixed crossover point for it’s analog multi channel outputs. The analog subwoofer output (.1) on the 2900 is significantly lower than the other 5 channel’s output. There is roughly a 5 decibel (or more) difference, which makes calibrating the 2900’s output to 75db (using the Radio Shack analog SPL meter for example) impossible. The five main channels can be calibrated/balanced to 75db while the subwoofer channel would be barely audible. This creates a problem for anyone not using all full range speakers. In my case I use large main speakers and medium sized center and surrounds. This would require setting the center and surrounds to the small setting. I found that setting ALL speakers to the small setting yielded the best results. Leaving the mains set to large and others to small seemed to yield less bass response. In order to calibrate/balance the output from the five main channels AND the sub I did the following:
Set all speakers to SMALL and subwoofer to YES
Set my pre/pro to the multi channel analog input
Set the 2900’s test tone generator to Manual (so I could adjust each speaker separately)
LOWERED the five main channels to their lowest setting (-10db)
Left the Subwoofer setting at it’s MAXIMUM setting (0db)
Set the volume on my pre/pro to reference level (0 db)
Set my SPL meter to 70db, slow response, C weighting
This gave me a reading on the meter from the subwoofer output of about 69db. This will vary depending on what your sub’s gain is set to. I then balanced the remaining channels to that reading on the meter. You may find that you need to adjust the sub’s gain to achieve the proper balance. Once this was done the results from the subwoofer’s output compared to the other channels was much better. The blend between my speakers and the subwoofer was excellent. The crossover worked as advertised and for the first time I was able to enjoy my DVDA/SACD recordings with proper bass management !
The 2900 features a “ filter “ option in it’s audio setup menu. The owner’s manual states that this is for discs recorded in 6.0 rather than 5.1. The default setting is “ On “. Setting the filter to “ Off “ automatically set’s all speakers to Large and the subwoofer to Yes. The manual states that this will increase the subwoofer output 5db for DVD’s (and DVD A discs) and 15 db for SACD. I tried this and did not note a 15 db increase in the subwoofers output, nor any significant change in the output for DVD or DVD A discs. As previously stated the best results overall were achieved with all speakers set to Small subwoofer set to Yes.
There are adjustments for time alignment (delay) for DVD Audio and Dolby digital/DTS decoding only. There is no such adjustment for time alignment for SACD playback. As I understand it this is an issue with most if not all SACD players. The 2900 will allow you to indicate how far your speakers are from your listening position in terms of feet or meter distances. Once I set up the unit for speaker size, time alignment, and calibrated the channel levels, I was ready to do some critical listening.