Question about not using a sub and the bass I am recieving in 5.1 vs stereo. Help... (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Carter]

I just upgraded from a pro-logic reciever to a Pioneer VSX-D412 reciver. It is a budget 5.1 reciever but it sounds great except for 1 problem with the bass. I seem to be getting less bass now than I did when I was using my old pro-logic reciever which was also a Pioneer. I have some pretty good sized floor standing speakers as my mains and when listening to a cd or even dvds in stereo I seem to get much more bass than I do when in 5.1 mode with my dvds. I have my mains and my center channel set to large and my rears set to small. The sub is set to 'none' but my crossover is set to 100. Is there a anything I can do to get more bass out of my 5.1 stuff without getting a sub since it isn't i the budget right now? I know my speakers can handle more than I am hearing with my dvds and it seems there should be a way to tell my reciever to kick all the bass to my mains if it is not already doing so. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

If your sub is set to none, then it should do exactly as you say. Double check that setting, as if it is set to none, the xover setting won't matter, and the rear SMALL speakers should send bass to the mains.

DO you have a test 5.1 disc with signal sweeps like AVIA?? That would answer the question of what's happening immediately.

Keep in mind, also, that much "music" bass is much higher freq that movie Bass- just cause you hear bass in music, the film soundtrack bass freq are pretty low down, and your speakers might not be having much luck reproducing- but I'd use tones to check the receiver's bass mgmnt first.

-V

 

[Jonathan Carter]

While I don't have access to the Avia disc (or $$ to buy one) I have used the Audio test section of the THX optimizer on my SW: Ep2 dvd and I've done the test where it does a sweep from the high freq. all the way to to what I guess is the insanely low end. I've gotten much more bass out of that than I do actual movies (to my ears at least). However, even if music bass is a higher freq. than movie bass, I guess I'm still confused since my music and even my movie dvds sound much better bass wise in stereo than my movies do in 5.1. It's as if it just goes away them minute the movie starts. My reciever isn't dropping any of it out since I don't have a sub connected, is it? I'm not expecting floor shaking power, but, as an example, I was going through the Matrix: Reloaded last night and it seemed almost muted on the low end. I lacked any punch at all. Maybe I'm missing something or my understanding of what I should be getting bass wise in 5.1 vs stereo or even pro-logic is incorrect.

 

[John S]

I'd buy a sub..... $135 for a 12" Sony....

 

[Jonathan Carter]

I'd love to but unfortunantly, that's out of the budget for the time being. I was sort of hoping there was a good way to get the 5.1 to take advantage of my floor standing speakers bass capabilities. I'll keep trying stuff.

 

[John S]

I generally find when you do that for surround, you have to crank the fronts way up to get any sort of good bass response...

Best of luck for you with it.