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Please Help. Just spent $1300 and it sounds like a $400

post #1 of 4
3/26/09 at 10:45am
Thread Starter 
This is my first post here so please bare with me. I just purchased a very expensive "High End" surround sound system and it looks and sounds like the cheep Out-of-the-Box system I just used it to replace. I pray im doing something wrong.

Heres what I bought:

Pioneer Elite VSX-01TXH A/V Reciever
Definitive Technologies 600 5.1 Speaker system

Im hooking this all up to my 52" Sony Bravia LCD Full HD 1080p.

Problems:

-Sound from the rear speakers is almost unnoticable.
-The picture looks no different 1080p upscaling mode than it does in the 720p. The salesman said playing my Sony standard dvd player through the Pioneer system would give me 1080p and I woulnt be able to tell a difference between it and a blu-ray. Im not a moron, and I dont really expect that kind of quality, but I figured it would at least give me somthing noticeably different.

Issues:
-The house was pre wired with speakers in the ceiling but they were crap and I pulled them out and hung the rear speakers from the ceiling using the same wiring. THe guage looks to be 16 and its traveling about 40ft. There is a possibility I have the red and black swapped as the wires weren't color coded. I can check that with a meter but dont want to go through the hassle if I need to switch out the wire with say a 10 or 12 guage?

-The way Im running the cables is the DVD Player is hooked up with Component cables for video and an optical cable for sound. The Cable/DVR is hooked up the same way. I can use HDMI but I wanted to be sure the sound was going through the optical cable as I believe those to be the best for surround.

One reason I believe somthing is wrong is because when the audio system is on AUTO mode it always plays on Stereo and I have to manually change it to surround sound. When I do this it sounds NOTHING like the sound I got from the theater store demonstration room.

Please help me if you can. Thanks
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post #2 of 4
3/26/09 at 12:29pm

Re: Please Help. Just spent $1300 and it sounds like a $400

Quote:
Originally Posted by mkimich
This is my first post here so please bare with me.
Welcome to the forum. I'll keep my clothes on and bear with you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mkimich
I just purchased a very expensive "High End" surround sound system and it looks and sounds like the cheep Out-of-the-Box system I just used it to replace. I pray im doing something wrong.

Heres what I bought:

Pioneer Elite VSX-01TXH A/V Reciever
Definitive Technologies 600 5.1 Speaker system
That is some nice equipment. I like Def Tech and have used Pioneer receivers since the 80's. But 'very expensive' is relative to the user and it definitely isnt' 'high end'. With proper set up you should be excellent sound quality though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mkimich
Problems:

-Sound from the rear speakers is almost unnoticable.
-The picture looks no different 1080p upscaling mode than it does in the 720p. The salesman said playing my Sony standard dvd player through the Pioneer system would give me 1080p and I woulnt be able to tell a difference between it and a blu-ray. Im not a moron, and I dont really expect that kind of quality, but I figured it would at least give me somthing noticeably different.
- Surround speakers are there to add to the effect and not be noticable. Does your receiver have the MCACC auto calibration? If not, what did you use to set your speaker levels? And your ears are not reliable.
- My cousin has a Sony TV and it looks great. I guess that your TV has an excellent upscaler and the one in the receiver doesn't add anything to the mix. Sometimes there isn't anything you can do about that. Your video is only as good as the weakest component.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mkimich
Issues:
-The house was pre wired with speakers in the ceiling but they were crap and I pulled them out and hung the rear speakers from the ceiling using the same wiring. THe guage looks to be 16 and its traveling about 40ft. There is a possibility I have the red and black swapped as the wires weren't color coded. I can check that with a meter but dont want to go through the hassle if I need to switch out the wire with say a 10 or 12 guage?

-The way Im running the cables is the DVD Player is hooked up with Component cables for video and an optical cable for sound. The Cable/DVR is hooked up the same way. I can use HDMI but I wanted to be sure the sound was going through the optical cable as I believe those to be the best for surround.
- 16ga is fine. Check the polarity of the wire to be sure.

- If your Pioneer can decode audio via HDMI then that is the best way. In fact that is the only way to get the the newer surround formats on Blu-Ray. But some receivers only offer HDMI switching. You will have to consult your owner's manual to be sure.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mkimich
One reason I believe somthing is wrong is because when the audio system is on AUTO mode it always plays on Stereo and I have to manually change it to surround sound. When I do this it sounds NOTHING like the sound I got from the theater store demonstration room.
Have you changed the audio output of your DVD player to bitstream? If it is set to PCM then all you will get is stereo and your surround mode is really a simulated mode.

-Robert
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post #3 of 4
3/30/09 at 9:52am

Re: Please Help. Just spent $1300 and it sounds like a $400

The salesman is full of beans on the video....no matter how good your upscaling is, you can not take (more or less) 640x480 DVD video and make it look as good as 1920x1080 Blu-ray. Oh, maybe if you sit far enough back you can't tell....

I would definitely check the wire polarity. If you have a battery, a flashlight bulb and a long piece of wire it's easy. It's even easier with a long piece of wire and a continuity checker. Just put one end of the checker on one wire, the other end of the checker on a long wire, and the far end of the long wire on the speaker wires. Right away you'll know which is which. Mark them!

Definitely go through a good, serious speaker setup with a sound level meter (Rat shack is OK) before you get too down on the sound quality. It will make a world of difference when everything is set right.

How about your speaker placement? Does it conform to the expected Dolby layout?
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post #4 of 4
3/30/09 at 12:13pm

Re: Please Help. Just spent $1300 and it sounds like a $400

"Upscaling" is done digitally with HDMI interface, so I'd try HDMI from DVD to receiver and from receiver to TV, for both sound and video. Don't get your hopes up too high about getting a true 1080p picture with upscaling, though. ChuckQ is right on about that salesman.

I used Avia II calibration disc for my set up, and it worked well. It has easy tests for proper speaker hook up, calibration, and phasing, along with a good walk-through for optimizing your picture.

This forum is chock full of great information. Take your time, read up, and play around with speaker placement, set-up, sound fields, etc. You'll find that some of the little things you do make huge differences. You might even become addicted.
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