A/V Receiver Gives me Headaches. Any help please?

[Razzie.P]

For you A/V gurus out there - how the heck to I know which listening mode is "correct" when watching a movie or playing a game? My receiver has loads of options to choose, but can't find out from the source which I should pick. For example, if I pop in Mission Impossible 4K disc, will it tell me somewhere which format the soundtrack was recorded in? Or should I match the mode to the player itself? Or (even better) is there a "one setting to rule them all" option?

 

 

https://www.onkyo.com/manual/txrz610/adv/en/012.html

 

https://www.onkyo.com/manual/txrz610/adv/en/011.html

 

 

Thanks for the help!

[Flojomojo]

It depends how your speakers are configured, and your personal tastes.

 

Did you perform the initial calibration setup of your receiver?

 

Dolby DTS is probably preferable if your thing supports it. My Yamaha amp has a bunch of different settings for concert halls and spectacle movies, but they all sound echoey and fake. I just leave it on straight 7.1 surround (I only have 5.1) and it sounds best to me that way.

 

Which reminds me, I need to fix my subwoofer. Complex theater setups are a pain in the ass.

[spacecadet]

There basically is one setting to rule them all, and that's NOTHING.

 

All receivers have an option to just pass through the sound mode included on whatever media you're listening to. This should be the default and you should just leave it alone unless you really just *like* something else. But it sounds like you don't, so there's nothing to worry about - just set it to play your media as it was intended and forget it. The people who created whatever you're listening to (whether movies or music) have already mixed it and added whatever effects they think are right. You don't need your receiver to add anything else.

 

I did have an Onkyo receiver until fairly recently and I actually *couldn't* get it into just a base sound mode. I realized, embarrassingly, years after the fact that it was because I was using an optical cable, which doesn't support the most advanced sound modes (which are pretty much the current standard). So make sure you're using an HDMI cable from your devices to the receiver, and cables that support HDMI 2.1 or above.

 

But then it should just go into whatever's on the disc unless you set it to something else, as long as your devices are set up to pass through the native formats too. Some game consoles might need a little setup of their own for that, in their audio settings. I remember I did have to Google how to do that for the PS4 and maybe the Xbox One too. (The Xbox One is problematic; I think it will always do its own mix unless you're watching a Blu-Ray, in which you can set it to pass through the native audio. The PS4 can be set to always pass through the native signal.)

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I'm not gonna be a huge help here. But my Onkyo in my living room does just as described above. If it supports the mode, it auto switches to that mode when I play the movie. My receiver is fairly recent and support Atmos so newer 4k movies with Atmos, the receiver will switch to that mode. If a movie only has 5.1 or 7.1 DTS ...then my receiver switches to that mode. My receiver actually displays which surround mode it is in when it detects the audio stream from the movie.

 

In my game room I have an older yamaha receiver that is more basic. But it still auto switches to the surround mode the game switches to. So for the PS4/PS3 and Wii-u for instance it will switch. For all others I essentially have it forced to enhanced stereo mode. All that does is make all 5 speakers in my game room actively play sound from a stereo source. It has some algorithm in place where it blends both left and right into the center channel, and lowers the volume a bit from the front channel speakers when it sends to the rear surround speakers. So all of my classic consoles I have set to this mode. I'm so used to it now that if my kiddos switch it to direct stereo by accident and don't tell me...I immediately notice it and cannot listen to it in this manner any more LOL.

[spacecadet]

For all others I essentially have it forced to enhanced stereo mode. All that does is make all 5 speakers in my game room actively play sound from a stereo source.

Yeah, I admit that I do that too, and it's also the only case where I let my receiver do any extra processing. But at least for me, I do it because my speakers are pretty weak for music - in my living room I have one of those satellite/subwoofer combos that all came in a box for a few hundred bucks, and sets like that are never all that great, but especially for music. So the "all channel stereo" sound mode on my receiver helps music sound fuller. That's why I was saying if a person actually likes a sound mode, then go ahead and use it, but most of those additional sound modes are really intended to make up for shortcomings in someone's setup. A few are to simulate a particular listening environment, like a theater, but they usually do it poorly IMO.

 

With a really good set of front speakers, I doubt routing music to the surrounds would help it sound better; it would probably just make it sound weird. I have a decent set of stereo speakers attached to an audio-only rack in another room, and I don't ever feel like the sound is lacking in there with only two speakers. But it does help in my living room where I have more speakers, but lower quality. But for movies, TV and games, I always just use the default mode that's on the media.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I actually have a very decent Klipsch center channel and rear book shelf speakers I use for the rear channels. I have a 10" Klipsch self powered sub as well.

 

The front left and right are an old pair of passive Roland MS-30 studio speakers. Everything configured at 6ohm from the receiver since that is what the Roland's require. I don't think the center and rear surrounds like it much, but then I don't crank it loud enough to be an issue. But if I don't have the enhanced stereo enabled then it still sounds pretty empty in the other parts of the room. It is a very small room though. Only 10ft x 14ft. Was likely bigger when the house was first built but a lot of the rooms were changed to odd sizes when they added the second floor back in the 70s to account for a narrow stairwell.

 

I also have the speakers placed in what most consider the worst way possible. The center channel is behind the tv as there isn't space for it in my setup to put it in front. And it would cut off part of the lower portion of the screen since the TV is on the default stand it came with. Still there is about 2 inches of empty space from the bottom of the glass top it sits on to the bottom of the TV for the sound to travel through. Left and right fronts are at opposite corners of the room angled inwards towards center and stand about 3.5ft off the ground on stands. Sub is located in the left corner with the port at a 45 angle to the corner. Rear surrounds are up high mounted on the wall near the ceiling facing directly at the listener and slightly down. But it all still sounds great to me!

[Razzie.P]

Thanks! Sounds like the "base sound mode" that you guys described is what I'm looking for. I'm guessing that's the "Direct" mode on the Onkyo? I'll play around with it tomorrow and check it out. I have a PS4 and XBox One connected to it, so I guess I'll have to dive in to the settings to get them set up properly, but yeah, having the sound mix come through "as the creators intended" is what I'm wanting to do.

 

Thanks again!

[spacecadet]

Thanks! Sounds like the "base sound mode" that you guys described is what I'm looking for. I'm guessing that's the "Direct" mode on the Onkyo?

 

It may be for you, but see how it sounds because I think this also turns bass management off, and you usually need that depending on your setup. Dolby Digital and higher spec digital surround formats do rely on your receiver to know where to send the discrete bass signal (the ".1" IFE channel). You usually would set that up when you first get the receiver and do the Audyssey automatic setup, or manual setup. And it depends on your specific speakers.

 

It's been a while since I used my Onkyo receiver but the way I remember it working is that there were two separate buttons: one for "surround" and one for "listening modes". If I pressed "surround" it would default to whatever the native surround mode on the media was. If I then pressed "listening modes" it would go through all the different extra audio processing modes. I think if I *repeatedly* pressed "surround" it would also go through the listening modes, so be careful of that, but the first press would just give me what was on the disc. And I think it remembers that setting if you use it once and then leave it.

 

But most Onkyo receivers will tell you what's actually on the disc if you just press the "Display" button a couple of times on your remote while a disc is actually playing. Just see if what it says there matches what mode the receiver shows (which should be on the display at all other times while playing). If it doesn't, then just press that "surround" button if you have one and see if it matches what's on the disc then.

[Flojomojo]

Did the Onkyo come with a little microphone for calibrating levels?

[spacecadet]

Did the Onkyo come with a little microphone for calibrating levels?

 

Mine did and mine was a lower end model, so I think they all do. But "direct" mode bypasses all that, which is why I was saying it's probably not the right mode. I think that mode is more for people who have separate equalizers or processors for room/speaker compensation - more for higher-end setups.

 

You just want to see on the receiver display the mode that matches what's on the disc.

[_The Doctor__]

after calibration adjusts bias for the speaker and adjusts there frequency curve and sound pressure levels... direct mode does NOT change those settings... the direct mode will simply use the most direct decoding of the source material. If it's in 2 channel stereo it will only use 2 channels... if if it's 7.1 it will do 7 channel surround with bass. if it's dts it will do dts if it's dolby blah blah it will do dolby blah blah blah... It will not change the corrections made at initial set up. Those are not going to be changed by any mode... They are a base line for the amplification and drivers and are tuned to the speakers themselves.

Edited November 2, 2018 by _The Doctor__