What goes to "eleven?" (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Bogie]

I've got a friend who is into serious SPL - he's a drummer. He's got a stack of Pflame Linears, big old Cerwin Vegas, JBLs, etc., and he's feeding 'em with a Denon 2803 used as a preamp (I think he's amping the center channel with it - the rest of it feeds the Phase Linears, a mix of 400s and 700s).

With this AVR, the digital volume readout starts out at negative numbers. When he turns the volume to "zero" you can still have a conversation in the room. And he can't turn it much further until it stops going up.

With an older non-DTS/non-5.1 capable AVR, he was able to peg the needles on his VU meters. With this setup, they're barely twitching.

He wants to make those puppies dance. Any suggestions? He is NOT concerned about amplifier power, so a preamp-only solution is actually welcome - just so long as it is capable of sending enough signal to the amps. We've checked the amps with the older receiver, and they still rock, but it's a pain in the butt to change the system for movies/music all the time.

 

[ColinM]

Is the dynamic range compressor on?

 

[Chuck Bogie]

I don't think so - I'm going to go over to his place some evening and tweak on it. He hasn't really liked it since he got it. He also tried out another high-end AVR, and same story. But when we drop in the old Yamaha, it cranks.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

It may just be possible that output voltages on the pre-amp outputs are a little low with that Denon (in which case there is nothing he can do besides get a different pre amp).