Denon DVD-2900 - no analogue subwoofer output (1 Viewer)

[Rob Gillespie]

My new Denon DVD-2900 arrived today and it seems fine except for one issue - there's no bass output from the analogue RCA jack.

I've tried using it with a digital connection to the amp and everything is as it should be. But when feeding the analogue outputs from the player into the amp (a Denon AVC-A1) I get all the channels EXCEPT the LFE, both with the player's own test tones and source material.

I've used a Millennium DTS decoder through those same inputs for a few years and I've confirmed that they're working fine. The problem seems to lie with the player - it's just not passing the sub channel out.

I've also tried fiddling with the various speaker configurations but to no avail.

Any ideas before I take it back as faulty?

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Correction, the bass output is there but it's EXCEEDINGLY low, probably to the point where I wont be able to calibrate it to the same level relative to the other channels.

 

[RAF]

Hello Mate! (Long time)

Off the top of my head I assume you've checked a couple of the obvious items such as

• Checked the cable to make sure it's o.k.
• Made sure that the SW volume isn't set extremely low in the Setup menus (don't know why it would default to this, but you never know)
• Make sure you have the SW chosen as being there in the SETUP menu
• Make sure that you don't have your speakers all set to LARGE in which case, if I recall correctly, it sends all lower frequencies to your speakers rather than to a SW

Good luck. Let's hope you don't have a faulty unit and, if you do, this gets resolved expeditiously.

Take care.

 

[John Beavers]

Rob,

This issue came up with my 3800. I was able to get balanced sound ouput by lowering the Denon 3800 speaker levels on the mains/center/rears to -9, and left the sub at 0. I then raised the sub level on my pre-pro by +8 db. I know it's a pain, but that will get you balanced output on your 5.1 analog output. Just remember to lower that pre-pro sub level after you're done with listening to the hi-res material I forgot once, but never will again.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Thanks guys. Actually John I don't have any hi-res material yet. I'm just using regular DVDs and DTS CDs.

The player can generate it's own test tones and they're all coming through fine except for the LFE one.

I'll try recalibrating again tomorrow but I was hoping not to have to keep bouncing settings back and forth.

 

[John Beavers]

The player can generate it's own test tones and they're all coming through fine except for the LFE one.

I know, and I thought my 3800 was defective in that regards, but apparently it was designed with the sub output level to be about -17db from the other channels. Only way to correct this is to drop the main/center/rear channel levels via the 2900's speaker setup menu and then juice the DB level on your sub via the pre-pro cablibration speaker levels menu.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Right, that makes sense (in a duuuh kind of way) so I'll give it a go tomorrow when I'm less likely to wake the neighbours.

Overall impressions of the player are favourable. Image quality seems about the same as my trusty old Elite DV-09 as far as I remember - probably better in some respects (I have no progressive though). It's louder though. The DV-09 was silent in operation whereas with the 2900 I can hear the motor and disc rotation.

 

[Lewis Besze]

I know, and I thought my 3800 was defective in that regards, but apparently it was designed with the sub output level to be about -17db from the other channels. Only way to correct this is to drop the main/center/rear channel levels via the 2900's speaker setup menu and then juice the DB level on your sub via the pre-pro cablibration speaker levels menu.

Actually it is about 10db low,and this is tracable to the to the fact that the BM was modeled after Dolby's recommendation.This is of course is OK but apperantly Denon just like Pioneer made the mistake to use Dolby testones which assumes the 10db gain from the decoder,but since they don't go through the DD decoder first it appears to be 10 db too low.In reality they're fine,at least in my case.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Mmmm. not sure it is in my case. The couple of movies I tried last night had no LFE output at all (audible).

 

[Rob Gillespie]

OK, things seem OK now, if slightly unconventional.

I've backed off the level outputs from the player down to -7, except for the sub. LFE level from the amp has also been raised to about +9. I've gone for those numbers to give me a bit of leeway in both directions. Bass on DVD and DTS-CD material is now really good, but obviously the overall output level from the amp has to be set higher.