What's new

Problems with new HT setup (1 Viewer)

Deepak Saxena

Auditioning
Joined
Sep 26, 1999
Messages
1
I just put together my Ht system consisisting of an H/K AVR320 receiver Paradimg Atoms for fronts, cc-170 for the cetner, adp-70 for rear, and and a pdr-10 as my sub. The sound is awesome, but there a couple of things that are bugging me that I'm hopeing I can get some pointers from here. Other components include a Toshiba 5109 DVD player and a Toshiba 40" widescreen RPTV (Don't remember the exact model number, I've had it for ~ three years now).

1) Extreme difference in volume levels between TV and DVDs. Maybe this is a common thing due to the different dynamic ranges on DVDs and cable TV, but when watching TV, I keep the receiver between -5 and +5dB depending on the channel. When watching a DVD, anything above -18 dB is extremely loud and depending on the DVD I'm watching, I sometimes have to go down to -25dB. Is this normal? Is cable material just extremly low in it's dynamic range or is something configure incorrectly? I have the line out from the TV going straight into the receiver. It's just annoying b/c if I forget to turn the volume down before switching to the DVD input, it's a bit on the loud side.

2) Speaker hiss. If I turn the volume up high enough (-10db +), I hear obvious hiss out of the speakers. Even at lower volumes, I can tell it's there if I stick my head next to the speaker, but it's not noticeable from my seating position. The problem is that since I'm watching TV @ -5db to +5db, it's very noticeable and annoying while watching TV. Due to the placement of the my component rack (45 degree angle on the front right corner), all my cables are basically in a big mess right behind it. I can work on cleaning things up a bit by moving component cable aside and trying to tie them together, but not sure if that's where the problem is. Speaker cable is Monster XP and I'm using a belkin power strip with everything (TV, DVD, VCR, AVR) but the sub plugged into it. Sub is plugged directly into the wall (bad I know...will change as soon as I get a bigger wall wart). I know there can be many many reasons for speaker hiss, just trying to figure out what. As a note, when watching TV, it's most noticeable from the surround speakers.

Thanks,
~Deepak
 

John Spicer

Agent
Joined
Dec 16, 2002
Messages
46
Your reciever volume is tooo hot when watching TV. I would guess that you are not sending enough signal from the TV/Cable box to the reciever. That does 2 things. First, it gives you a crappy signal to noise ratio in the line to the reciever. Secondly it forces you to turn up the reciever which in turn amplifies the noise in the above mentioned signal.

How is the TV configured. In many cases you can set the TV so that it holds the audio feed levels constant at a predetermined level specifically for feeding an outboard audio system. If not, turn the TV volume up and the receiver volume down.

I guess worst case scenario is to adjust the speaker trim levels on the 320 while in the TV mode. That way you can bring back the master volume level to a more consitant value.

-- John
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,810
Messages
5,123,579
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
1
Top