Denon 3805 or Outlaw 1070 (1 Viewer)

[Brian L]

A question for the 3805 guys here....

A bud just bought one this weekend, along with a new set of B&W 804's for the front L/R, and a matching B&W Center. He has existing B&W 602's in the rear. He also has an existing B&W sub of unknown model (it is a 12" IIRC).

I went over to have a look-see, and note that the auto set-up/EQ stuff insists on setting his main speakers to large.

What's up with that? We manually set them to small, and re-ran the setup, and it resets all channels to large.

You might be able to argue that his L/R will play down into the 30 Hz range, but no way the center or surround will.

So, what's the deal with that? I will say that Denon has continued the tradition of almost incomprehensible owners manuals, so its not impossible that we got something wrong in our procedures, but I surely would not want to send a 25Hz tone to the center or surround.

Any guidance on this stuff?

I am pretty fluent with old-school manual EQ (I run a BFD on the sub and a Audio Control Bijou on the mains), but unless those settings of "large" are not what I think "large" really means, I would say something ain't right.

And it also appears that it will not EQ the sub? If so, thats a HUGE omission.

BGL

 

[Marvin]

Brian,
The 3805 likes to set everything, or most speakers, to large. I guess it bases this decision on whether the speaker can reproduce a low test tone.
I prefer to run my speakers as small (NHT super 2's and 1's) so I set them to small after running the Auto-EQ.
I'm not sure about the sub EQ question. It will set the Sub's speaker level.

Update: I don't have my manual here but someone at AVS forum listed the steps for setting speakers to "small" after running the Auto-EQ:

 

[Brian L]

Thanks Marvin.

Thats pretty much what we ended up doing...it just did not seem right that we had to do it.

Assuming large means that the channel in question is getting full range signals, that's a huge mistake on the part of the Denon.

And we could not find any indication in the post-Set-up results that the Sub was being EQ'd. And with the speakers set to large, we saw at least one main channel (front right, I think) had an adjustment at 40 Hz.

I think the promise of this stuff is good, but color me a skeptic!

BGL

 

[David Judah]

The auto EQs tend to set speakers to large regardless of brand. I know my Pioneer used to do it as well. It's easy enough to change back to small in the menu, however. Most don't EQ the sub, but do a good job above the system crossover point. I've owned the Pioneer, but messed with the Denon and Yamahas for friends and felt they all did a good job and offered improvement.

Tim,

I'd take a look at the HK 635. It's a newer unit with a more sophisticated EQ that IIRC does EQ the sub also. The reviews and user comments have all been very positive. With the sensitivity of your Klipsch speakers, I doubt power will be an issue for normal usage.

DJ

 

[Sami Kallio]

120/75 = 1.6, a 60% increase. You need 100% increase (double) for 3dB gain, in this case 150W.

 

[Tim_Stack]

Thanks David - I was looking at some HKs yesterday and I'll take a closer look today.

 

[Tim_Stack]

Finally a tiny smidge of 1070 news from Outlaw in their latest newsletter - hopefully it'll be out soon...

 

[Gurudristi]

I just bought a Denon AVR 3805 and am quite happy with the performance. I upgraded from a Kenwood KRV 999D which only had Dolby Digital.
Currently am looking to upgrade my speakers..( looking at Jamo/ Kef/mission). need some opinion.

Even, I had noticed that Denon sets speakers to large. I have also set my speakers to small manually later.
I don't think one needs the sub to be EQ'ed. In any case you are setting the crossover frequency to a low value( probably below 80hz), below this frequency, once cannot identify the location of the source of sound.
Tim, go ahead with the Denon... you can always upgrade after 3-4 years when new technologies come. This Denon is already set up for the future with 8.1 ext in.
Enjoy.