Audio volume levels - HDMI vs optical/coaxial

Jari K · 05-06-2008, 08:03 AM

I just bought new HDMI 1.3-receiver (Yamaha v1800) and have one (probably silly) question. I used optical/coaxial with my old (non-HDMI) receiver and pretty much got used to the similar sound VOLUME. This means, that the volume was usually around -40db (give or take, of course) when watching 5.1-films. Around that, anyway. Probably somewhat different with 2.0/mediocre-sources.

Now, with HDMI connection and new receiver, the volume is more like around -20-30db (based on two 5.1-films). So getting the "same/similar" sound VOLUME level out from my new v1800-receiver, I have to use (around) -20-20db instead of -40db.

Is this just normal (HDMI is in "lower" level, it seems)? Granted, I probably have some tweaking to do with my new receiver (taking it slow, since plenty of things at the moment), but still.

Note, that I´m talking about general volume here, not "balance" of the speakers, speaker distance, or stuff like that. I used "YPAO", which gave pretty good results at least with the speaker distances. I still have to double check/listen the speaker balance etc. Like I said, some tweaking...

Thanks.

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CraigF · 05-06-2008, 08:26 AM

The displayed volume is often based on the rated output power of the amps. Depends on the unit, but 0dB is often the manufacturer's rating, some go to maybe +3dB etc. I am guessing your new amps might have a lower *manufacturer rating* than your old ones. OTOH that doesn't mean your new amps aren't in fact better or more powerful...the manufacturer just picks a 0dB point and the displayed volume is just based on that reference. Means nothing by itself, the dB display is just relative within than unit. So don't compare dB displays between different AVRs.



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