Sony DA5ES Owners: Please double check my settings and answer a few questions..... (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Alexander]

First off, this receiver is a tweakers delight. You can make it sound anyway you want!!! Every receiver should be this flexible and adjustable. Anyway, I need help w/ the setup of my Sony DA5ES receiver. To begin with, I'll give you my room specs, speakers (along w/ distance from the listening position), and the current receiver setup that I did last night. In order to "help you help me", the areas marked *** are the settings that I was unsure about. They may be wrong, but I'd appreciate your input. First, my speakers and their positions:
Fronts: Paradigm Monitor 7's - 12ft from listening position.
Center: Paradigm CC-350 - 12ft from listening position.
Rears: Polk LS/fx Bipole/Diploe - 10.5ft from listening position and 7ft high.
Subwoofer: Sony SAW-M40
Room size: 20ft long (front to back), 16.5ft wide, and a sloping ceiling 12ft to 8ft (front to back)
Current receiver settings:
F/C/S is set to: [SMALL]
Subwoofer: [YES]
F/C/S Distance from listening position: Actual is 12ft, set at 8ft
Surround Distance from listening position: Actual is 10.5 ft, set at 6ft
Subwoofer distance: Actual is 13ft, set at 8ft
Subwoofer Phase: Normal
Surround Position: Side
Surround Height: High (Actual 7ft)
***Front Crossover Freq: 60Hz
***Center Crossover Freq: 80Hz
***Surround Crossover Freq: 80Hz
***LFE High Cut: Standard
1) Does this all appear correct, taking my room into account?....Did I set the crossover frequencies correctly?....To what do I adjust the crossover on the sub after done w/ the receiver settings?
2) What do you recommend as far as setting the equalizer for each channel? I favor a leaning towards the upper frequencies so how would I adjust the EQ accordingly?
Sorry for all the ???'s. I know I should know most of this. Makes me wonder how I setup my previous Sony 777ES receiver. Anyway, these are the only questions I could think of for now. I'd appreciate your help. Thanks.

 

[JackS]

Kevin- I'm not familiar with the DA5 or your speakers, but your frequency settings appear to be reasonable. You can always experiment a little above or below your current settings. My suggestion has to do with your subwoofer. Since line out will not be used and all LFE's enetring the sub will be controlled by the crossovers of your mains and surrounds, set the sub at maximum (120hz), this allows for the receiver to totally control bass without every touching the sub settings again. I suggest you select an excellent CD recording with at least moderate or even heavy bass notes, and use this one recording to setup your sub. Set the subwoofer to 0db and the volumn on the subwoofer to its lowest setting. While the music is playing, begin to increase the volumn at the sub until the desired bass response is acheived. You will now note that 0db on the subwoofer is now your reference number and always will be. During playback of another CD or DVD or any other source may require a small adjustment (usually +/-2db's) which can be made from your remote. 0db is only a reference and easy to remember, so no matter how wild you decide to get using the remote to extend bass, you can always get back to normal.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

What do you like/dislike about the DA5SE? I'm replacing my TA-E9000ES and this looks like a contender (if i give up waiting for outlaw)

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Andrew, I had the TAE-9000ES as well. I know you know what this baby can do in HT, but I haven't played much music w/ it yet. It will give you everything you love about the 9000ES + updated features such as 7.1, DTS-ES, DD-EX, ect... If it weren't for these new features, I'd recommend you to hold on to your Sony preamp, but for one to want to upgrade to these features would be understandable. Feel free to email me if you can think of some specific details that you want.

 

[Michael Langdon]

Kevin,
Why were the actual distances from speaker to listening position not used during speaker setup?
Mike

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Michael,

In the Sony manual, it says that to "create a realistic sensation of being inside the screen, and to experience a larger sound stage, set the speaker distances 3-6 ft closer than they actually are." I tried this w/ my Sony 777ES a few years ago and experienced good results.

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Also, I remember hearing that if you don't know what you are doing w/ the EQ settings, leave them alone because you can do more harm to the listening experience than good by trying to adjust it. does anyone have any experience w/ tweaking it?

 

[Warren_Sc]

I had a lot of "fun" tweaking the EQ. I used it to adjust my mid-bass. I did a bit of trial and error using a RS SPL meter and the bass sweeps on Avia. Remember that you can use wide, normal, or narrow to effect the falloff rate of the EQ. Also on Avia, I used the pink noise to tweak to tonal qualites of my center... just a little tweak.

Have fun,

 

[Kevin Alexander]

I am just about done w/ the listening tests for this receiver. So far, it's simply amazing. I just figured out how to employ DPL2 and DTS:Neo. Personally, I prefer DTS:Neo for music as it provides much more depth to the music, but w/ satellite TV, both DPL2 Movie and DTS:Neo Cinema are great, but for music - definately use DTS:Neo.
I have a few thing that's frustrating me though:
1) Most notable is the speaker level adjustments w/ the test tones -I still haven't gotten it right.
2) I don't know what I'm doing w/ the EQ settings for each speaker.
3) The manual uses a little double-speak when it says that if you enter the speaker distances closer than they actually are, it will give you a sense of being "inside" the screen. But... in the next sentence it says that doing so will make the speakers sound as if they are farther away. Which is correct??? Do I input the speakers as being farther away, or closer than they actually are to get a larger presence from the sound?
Thanks. A full review is coming soon.

 

[Kevin Alexander]

TTT

 

[flenn]

Well, I've had this receiver for almost a week and am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I'm still trying to figure it all out. I pride myself on tinkering with my stuff, but this thing has been a bear. I blame the manual, can't be me .
I set my speaker distances to the exact distances from my listening area. To be honest, I didn't even read that part of the manual that suggests to set them closer.
As for the EQ, I did figure that out and dramatically improved my sound. I drive my mains and center off an HK amp and the sound is a little too warm, for my tastes. By playing with the EQ for all three speakers, I finally have a sound that I really enjoy (could never do that with my last receiver). Although there are more available EQ memory settings (once you set the EQ individually on all of your speakers, you commit these settings to an EQ memory), I can't see improving on the sound that I have so probably won't bother programming anymore. Oh heck, who am I kidding? BTW, I stumbled on this while playing around so I can't even offer any advice on how to set this up. I do know that I did it all from the front panel, not the remote.
I also think the test tones are a PITA from the remote. It's just not intuitive and I finally gave up after getting the sound levels "close enough". I dread fine tuning with my RS sound meter.

 

[DelRay]

Good choice on the sony. I'v got the 444es, I think it,s a great receiver (bang for the buck). I'v got 5 eq settings programmed. Well actually only 4. The fifth one I leave alone, so when I'm flipping through the eq settings and i'm not sure how the sound is being affected, I can always go to no.5 to compare. You're right about the sonys being a tweakers dream receiver. And no matter how much you make the sound right or wrong, you can just clear the memory and start over if you wish. Have fun!!!

 

[flenn]

BTW, I can only get sound out of the 3rd room speakers if I run analog sources. Any digital source does not play in the 3rd room. Anyone know why this would happen? I set the "Input mode" properly on all sources and everything works fine in "AV1". When I try to change "Input mode" (using front panel) while in "3rd room" command mode, it only affects "AV1". When I try to access "Input mode" from the remote, nothing happens. The only thing I haven't tried is through the OSD with the remote. I doubt that would work but will give a try. Anyone else run into this problem?

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Yes, the manual says that the 3rd room sound only works with analog inputs. I was going crazy trying to change the volume while playing a cd that was on my dvd with digital connections and then I switched to the tuner and blasted the house!. So for cd's I run a set of analog cables to the cd analog input so I can listen on my spare speakers. Must be something to do with how they route the signal?

 

[Warren_Sc]

Kevin-

Are you using a SPL meter? Are you using the internal test tones or a set-up DVD?

Speaker levels should be fairly straight forward. I used my EQ to tweak the mid-bass of my fronts and center. Then I played around with the EQ using the pink noise tone on the DVD to make the center match the mains. You really need a SPL meter to do the levels properly.

If anything, treat the EQ like a standard trebel and bass dial. You can always turn the EQ on and off to see if you like the difference.

 

[flenn]

Thanks for the info Phil, you saved me some grief. I consciously tried to sit and read the manual but I think it's structured so poorly, I gave up. I should force myself to endure it because I'm sure there are a few things like this that would be helpful. Also, after you get familiar with a piece of equipment, the manuals never seem to be as bad as when you start from scratch.