Sound Problem (1 Viewer)

[Donn K]

Alright, I'm not sure if this should go here or in hardware as I am somewhat new to all of this. Anyways, I am having an issue with what I am guessing is my receiver. I have a Pioneer VSX-D814, hooked up to that are two Wharfedale Valdus 500s and the Valdus Center. When I have it set to Tuner, the speakers sound great at about -75 to -70. But If I have it set on TV/SAT, DVD, AUX(PS2); I have to have it cranked up to -20 to get any real amount of sound out. And at that level the speakers hiss pretty bad and I can barely hear anything out of the Center. Now since they sound great while listening to the radio, I am assuming that there is something I need to do to the receiver. I've read the manual front to back about 5 times, and messed with the thing more then I care to remember. So what should I be trying to do here?

 

[John S]

Calibration of audio is your best bet. This means running test tones and matching the levels on all channels. You can run the channels a little hot, it may help.


Different levels between different sources and even content is normal though, so hard to say if this is normal or not.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

Welcome to the forum. It would also be helpful if you posted how your components were connected. The tuner obviously has no connection to the receiver, while all of those other sources do. My bet is you have something connected incorrectly. Those sources should all be connected via digital inputs, either digital coaxial or digital optical, to the extent you have them available with that model receiver. With the digital connections, the audio outputs on all those devices should be set to bitstream and not pcm.

 

[Donn K]

The TV is hooked up with just basic Red/White RCAs. The PS2 is also connected this way. I have a toslink cable laying around somewhere. I am pretty sure I tried to hook it up that way a while back and couldn't get anything out of it. So I want Digital Coax from the TV to the Receiver? And use the Toslink from the PS2 to the receiver? I know a good set of cables helps. But would it really change the sound that much?

 

[Charlie Campisi]

Is everything running through your tv? That could be your problem right there. It certainly sounds like a connection issue. You want to connect the audio directly to your receiver. You can connect the ps2 with red/white or optical audio, just do it directly to the receiver. Is your tv signal: cable, satellite or OTA? You want to connect your satellite or cable box audio directly to the receiver. Same for dvd.

Remember, if you use digital connections, you have to go into the setup menus of each device to enable the digital (bitstream) output. They will typically continue to output over the red/white simultaneously with digital when you enable it.

 

[Donn K]

Alright, you read that wrong. The PS2 goes straight to the receiver. It uses the basic hookups that it came with. I tried to hook it up via toslink one time and I could not get any sound out. Though now that I think of it I might have forgotten to take the receiver off of analog. So I will try that again. The digital cable goes right to the TV. Just a cable to the back of the TV, no A/V of any kind. The DVD player has the basic A/V cable setup too, directly to the reciever.

 

[Donn K]

Well it looks like the receiver is the culprit. Borrowed an old Sony STR-D550Z from a friend. Hooked it up and everything sounds great. I could blow out the speakers if I felt like it. Not something the Pioneer was even close to accomplishing. The volume gets loud before the speakers start to hiss. Although I am not glad that I am looking at a new receiver. I am actually pleased that it was the receiver and not the speakers. I guess I'm gonna start looking at H/Ks.