Bass doubling recievers (1 Viewer)

[Joe]

I have read quite a bit about Rotel's bass doubling issues but I was wondering what other recievers have this same issue. More specifically, does the Denon 3803, Marantz 7300, or HK 525 suffer from the same issue?

Thanks.

 

[Legairre]

I don't know about the others, but my Denon 3300 had bass doubling.

 

[Joe]

Anyone else know about this? Thanks.

 

[Chuck Kent]

Sorry to be unfamiliar with the "doubling issue" (I'm not a Rotel person) but what are we talking about?

 

[Joe]

Chuck -

My understanding of the bass doubling is when the receiver sends the signal below your crossover point, say below 50hz, to both the subwoofer and also to your speakers. The issue is that you can't choose to allow all sound below your crossover to go ONLY to the sub (regardless of what the manual may say).

I believe that is basically it. I'm sure others will chime in if I have it wrong.

 

[Joe]

Wow! Thanks for the great info Mike. Much appreciated.

Any chance you or anyone else out there have compared the sound of the 3803 to a 2802 as a pre/pro? I like the Rotel sound but I don't like the issues with their current pre/pros so I'm looking elsewhere.

 

[Chuck Kent]

Ok, now I'm with the program...:b

Mike has covered the Denon situation very well. There's not more I could add.

(Mike, I'm still "trying" to get Denon to contact me on whether or not the Stereo mode highpass crossover is 100% analog or not. Nothing to report yet.)

 

[Chuck Kent]

Mike: I posted over at the thread you noted to see if we can get an answer to our analog highpass question. My user name over there is HAN.

 

[Chriss M]

The rotel does allow the subwoofer to be turned off in pure analog stereo mode, as of the latest firmware revision. You have the following options - 1) pure analog full-range to the mains with no sub 2) pure analog full-range to mains + subwoofer output (double bass) using a processed copy of the full range signal below the crossover point 3) using a digital connection or engaging a digital processing mode (DPLII, etc..) with subwoofer output and no bass doubling, but subjecting the signal to the rotel's DAC's.

The only way to get a pure analog signal to both the mains and sub without bass doubling is by using an external analog crossover like the ICBM. However, i believe this applies to most if not all receivers and pre/pro's in this price range. AFAIK only the outlaw 950 offers an analog 80hz crossover and that only applies to the multi-channel inputs anyway.

 

[Chriss M]

Mike,

I definitely get what you're saying, but whether or not it is a design flaw kind of depends on how you look at the problem. A $200 receiver can do this simply because most receivers digitize everything being sent to them. In most cases, the only way to get a true analog signal is to use the multi-channel inputs (if so equipped). Rotel decided to make all of their analog inputs pass a pure analog signal when set to stereo mode. Sure, an option to set bypass mode on or off would be preferrable but i'd rather have it this way then having everything digitized by the processor.

If you engage any of the rotel's signal processing modes you will not get bass doubling, even when using an analog input. I'd imagine if you used DTS:NEO6 music (which passes untouched signals to the Front L/R speakers) and set the center and surround speakers to "off" you would get the equivalent of a stereo signal with digital processing sending the proper output to the sub. Not really something i would want to do all the time but just a thought.

 

[Chriss M]

To add to my above posts - i'm actually not sure if the analog bypass on the analog inputs applies to ONLY the cd inputs, or if it applies to the video 1-5 inputs as well. If the rotel does digitize the signal on the vid1-5 inputs then you would be able to use your tape and vcr as you described in 2 channel stereo mode.