Problem with Denon AVR-2803 (1 Viewer)

[Henry_Torres]

Hello,

Last night I was listening to some music and I soon noticed that I was only getting bass out of my speakers. The highs were incredibly low. I tried all of the other sources (tape, cd, tuner, etc.) same problem.

I know its not the speakers, because no sound is coming out of any tweeter.

I just have the 2803 with 2 Infinity IL10 bookshels and a JBL powered sub.

My only thought is that something inside the receiver got overheated and burned out.

The receiver is just about 5 months old, so I dont understand how this would happen so soon.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Vincent_S]

If this happened without you adjusting/tweaking anything, then I agree with you and it sounds like there is something wrong inside.

 

[Paul Chalk]

Have you made sure the speaker wire and the binding posts on the speakers are on tightly? Do you have another amp you can power the speakers with to see if the problem is still there?

If you've tried both of those and the problem is still there, then you most likely have blown tweeters. You should contact your speaker dealer and see if the tweeters can be replaced.

I blew the tweeter in one of my B&W 602's when I was running them a bit hot with a cheap receiver a while back. I called my dealer, they ordered a new tweeter, and it was replaced all with in a week.

If it is a problem with receiver then you should call your Denon dealer for help.

 

[John Garcia]

Put your head up to the speaker with the receiver at a low level and see if you can hear sound coming from the tweeters. If not, you may have blown them both. Tweeters are usually the first thing to go when you feed them with distortion.

One thing you can try is one or more of the other channels on this reciver to see if it is a receiver problem, but to eliminate the speakers completely as the problem, you will have to hook them to something else. Try taking them to a friend's place to try them out.

 

[Chuck Kent]

While I'm leaning toward the blown tweeter scenario too, it's worth pointing out that the 2803 does have a microprocessor reset that can be done to it. This resets everything back to out of the box settings, including bass management. Maybe the highpass portion of music isn't getting processed correctly... (The reset procedure is in the manual toward the back.)

 

[BobK]

Try a set of headphones. If the receiver's high end is out then they shouldn't work either.

 

[John Garcia]

I have never seen a function on a receiver that would remove just the highs, defect or not. If the receiver had a problem with all the channels, you would get nothing, not a limited frequency band. I feel there is something else wrong, and the only time I have heard something similar, was when my friend fried his tweeters. I'd start the search at the speakers, then look to the receiver.

 

[Chuck Kent]

Well John, you about to hear about your first...

Several years ago, Stereophile's Guide to Home Theater tested a Denon 58xx series receiver. They had bass management issues that would not function correctly in some modes. They made a call to Denon, who suggested the reset, and after the reset, everything was back to normal. There have also been posters (here and other places) from time to time that have also cured some little operating gremlins by doing the reset. I myself have reset my 3803 once in the year I've had it. (My trouble was PCM decoding just didn't sound quite right (I suspected the sound to be out of phase.))

I do agree with you that the receiver would not be my first suspect. The reason I suggested trying the reset is that Denon receivers (and I suspect a few others) are basically ran like PCs. ALL functions are controlled by the operating software. If there happens to be a glitch, the highpass filters may not be engaging correctly. Since it would be cheap and simple to try, hey, why not?

 

[KenRen]

Chuck hit the nail on the head. I had a 3803 which suddenly sounded muddled, perhaps similar to your out of phase comment.

The only new connection was an optical cable from my DVD. Optical, no true electrical connection. But that was enough to do something to the receiver.

I reset the receiver, and the sound came back to life. Any problem of this nature, with a Denon, should be an automatic reset as the first step.

Those who have never reset their Denon might want to write down their settings and give it a try. Who knows, they may have been living with some audio problem and didn't even know it.

KenRen

 

[John Garcia]

Any problem of this nature, with a Denon, should be an automatic reset as the first step.

If Denon is having issues like this, even on their top model, I don't think Denon would be among my considerations for a receiver. I have NEVER had to "reset" any of my audio gear, nor would I ever expect to have to. That is unacceptable to me that their software, in an isolated, essentially unchanging environment, would tweak.

 

[Steven Simon]

Henry????

 

[Henry_Torres]

Thank you so much guys for all your input. Ill be back home tomorrow night, so I will try some of the troubleshooting then.

Ill keep you posted.

 

[Henry_Torres]

Looks like its the speakers.

1st Step: Performed the microprocessor reset on the 2803 to no success.

2nd Step: Turned the volume on the receiver really low and went close to the speaker tweeters. No sound was coming out of them.

3rd Step: I connected headphones to the receiver. The highs were back, sound was perfect through the headphones.

So I guess this means I blew my tweeters. I bought the pair of Infinity IL10's from Crutchfield last year, so I shouldnt have any problem getting them serviced.

I'm still wondering how this happened if the speakers are rated much higher than the receiver. I was playing MP3s from my PC at not that high of volume. I guess distortion as mentioned by John Garcia may have caused it.

Thanks again.

 

[John Garcia]

What the speakers are rated to is not where the problem lies. Distortion does not come from too much power, but too little. At some point, the amp will run out of sufficient power to reproduce the sound at the volume you are asking it to. The sound's waveform is "clipped", where the peaks of the wave are chopped off, and this shows up as distortion at your speaker. That distortion causes the drivers to heat up and can seriously damage them. Tweeters are typically more sensitive to this.

 

[Cagri]

Henry, were you listening to 2 channel music and what was the volume on the 2803? I am really curious to know at what level the 2803 started to clip and blew your tweeters.

 

[Henry_Torres]

Thanks for the explanation John, I never knew that.

Cagri, I had the receiver set to Stereo mode. I was listening to MP3s from my PC at the time. For about a 1/2 hour the 2803 was operating at max volume due to some MP3s encoded at low quality. Although, the sound was not very high.

I spoke to Crutchfield last night, they told me to send them the tweeters and they will send me replacements, no questions asked. I love authorized retailers.