A BM Question for Denon 2900 Owners - or Anyone Who Might Know! (1 Viewer)

[Jason Perez]

Hello everyone!

I have been thinking long and hard about upgrading to the Denon 2900 (over the 2200), because of its build quality, beefier power supply, and better DACs. However, I know that there was an issue with the Bass Management (the "filter" I believe) that was since corrected with the release of the Denon DVD-2200. Does anyone know if this issue has since been corrected, maybe via a firmware upgrade, because I am more than willing to spend the extra $$$ if it has.



Any feedback, comments, or opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Jason

 

[Jeffrey R]

Jason,

I'm not sure what issue you are talking about. I own the Denon 2200, which has been a great unit. From what I know, the only difference in operation (not DAC's, build quality, etc.) between the 2200 and the 2900 is that the 2200 has an option in the setup to boost the bass on the analog inputs by 10db. This is to correct the low bass output from SACD and DVD-A.

Apparently, the 2900 does not have this feature, so in order to correct the low bass, people have to lower the non-sub channels in the 2900 setup by about 10db to get the bass output correct. Again, the 2900 does not have the simple option in the setup to boost the bass by 10db. And I also believe that you cannot raise the sub level in the setup, which is why you have to lower the other channels.

Otherwise, I believe the 2200 and 2900 have the same bass management, which is fixed at 80Hz. This has worked great in my system.

 

[Jason Perez]

Thanks Jeffrey!

I just read posts about this issue on another site, but they were kind of vague. If they have not addressed this with newer models of the 2900, than I believe I will go with the 2200. Shame though, cause I really liked the build quality on the 2900.

By the way, although both models have Burr-Brown DACs, the DACs on the 2900 are different! They were designed specifically for the 2900. Apparently, the DACs on the 2200 are "off the shelf" Burr-Browns. Whether that translates into a real difference in audio quality I cannot say. Hopefully, I will be able to audition both units tomorrow!

Thanks again for your reply Jeffrey, and I am glad to hear your 2200 is working well for you!!!! Anyone else know if this has been corrected? I can't believe Denon is still selling the 2900 for $1k when it lacks such an effective feature found on its $600 little brother!

Regards,

Jason

 

[Lewis Besze]

I would only drop the 2900 for the 2200 if the lesser price is the real reason.The 10db "loss" is only affecting the LFE channel not the redirected bass from the other channels,and the "loss" will occur only when you set the mains or all speakers to small.If you leave all speakers to large there is no "loss".Yes the only way around this to lower the other channels to "meet" the LFE channel's output, if you engage the BM.
This is not a "bug" that can be "fixed" with firmware upgrade,as it is operating as it intented. Denon consulted Dolby regarding BM when they built the 2900 as there wasn't any other company that had any kind of standard regarding this. The problem with this that both DTS and Dolby requiers the decoders that boost the LFE channel by 10db reproduce the soundtracks properly.DVD-A and SACD don't require such boost,so I think that's were the problem lies originally.
The "Filter" is for the very rear recordings of that contains "height" channel information which is encoded in the LFE channel and becomes a "full range" one.The Filter should be set to "Off" in this case,and connect a full range speaker instead of a sub to hear the info.The 2900's manual talks about something utterly different here, like the bass boost,but it's actually incorrect.All in all I'm happy with the 2900,and wouldn't trade it to the 2200. YMMV.

 

[Skip Hammerman]

I experimented with the BM on the Denon 2900 as well after getting it a few weeks ago. Here is my solution that prodces great "correct" bass on SACD, DVD-A and movies. I use the Parasound Halo C2 pre-amp.

1) Connected the Denon via analog to C2 analog passthrough inputs (for multichannel music)

2) Connected the Denon via coax digital to C2 (for movies)

3) Set the filter "Off" on Denon

4) Balanced the channels via Denon for output. NOTE: in order for me to get appropriate and equal output for all channels including LFE as measured by the Radio Shack meter, I had to turn the gain on the sub (Velodyne FSR-18) much higher than it had been prior.

5) Rebalanced the pre-amp for multichannel using the Denon coax output as the source. NOTE: now I had to turn the sub level way down (in the pre-amp) when setting the channel sound levels.

It is my understanding that this works because the "balancings" arew independent from each other. When using the analog source, the channel levels are adjusted by Denon only and when using the coax source, the channel levels are adjusted by the Parasound only. I may be wrong but this set up works great.

I have programmed my remote (MX-700) with a DVD-M(ovie) button and with a DVD-A(udio) button and thus when I select a source, I automatically get 5.1 analog for music and DTS or Dolby Digital for movies.

Happy tweaking !

 

[Jason Perez]

Thanks everyone!

Now all I have to do is head out for an audition and open my wallet...hopefully there is still some money in there!!!