Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HK 7300 owners... Great Receiver, a bit complex.

Just hooked up my new HK 7300 after getting moved into a new home and WOW!!! The difference between my Yamaha 2400 on HT is slight, but on 2 Channel CD, it is definitely an improvement. Couple of questions:

Can the Crossover menu be accessed from the remote?

Do you trust the receiver test tones or prefer DVE/Avia?

I cannot get an option for "Surround Off +DSP" or "Upsampling" on my CD player input (optical connection)

Any general reccomendations on this receiver's setup?

I have the same receiver, and let me tell you...hehe, it's definately a bit complex.

As for the X-over display, yes, you hit the OSD button, and it will appear on the TV, but you will not be able to see the values on the remote itself. You have to use the OSD.

I used the receiver test tones, plus an SPL meter, and it seems good to go. I would not recommend using the remote's EZSet SPL meter, as it's not that accurate.

As for Surround Off + DSP -- someone correct me if I am wrong, but just hit the 'surround' button a couple of times, and it should automatically go to DSP...but since you are using an 'optical' cable, I don't think it will work quite the same -- Refer to the manual.

As for other receiver settings, well, I keep adjusting things, here, and there, all the time. I programmed most surround fields, but there are certain ones that I cannot access via the OSD (like Dolby Digital EX (which makes the receiver put out 7.1)). I can, however, use that mode when I watch movies, but cannot seem to 'program' it, for speaker levels.

Other than that, I definately suggest you keep the manual handy, as that is one of the most useful tools with this beast. I have referred to it several times, while adjusting/tweaking, etc.

Good luck...and enjoy!

I agree with inthedeck on all he says about the 7300. Secondly, the 7300 is the best receiver I have owned and I have others to compare. Runco, Elite, Yamaha and Denon. While all of those have their positive attributes I have fallen in love with the HK for sound, video processing and fine tuning. But it is also the most complex as far as learning curve goes. The good thing is, is that after a while of working with the 7300 it's become so easy that it's just second nature and one of the simplest receivers to make audio and video adjustments that I've owned. I know it's a pain in the ass to learn at first and HK could have done a much better job in making the manual easier to understand. The information is there, I just had a hard time referencing it and trying to set everything at the same time. But I promise you this once you play with it and play some CD's, watch a few DVD's and familiarize yourself with the HK itself it will become second nature and quite easy. Best of luck.

Guys- Thank you both. Very helpful. Two final questions:

What is the crossover speaker group on the LFE supposed to be? If I have all my speakers crossing at 80hz should I just pick "Left/right". It lets you pick all the groups of speakers for the crossover group for the LFE. I have never seen this on a receiver.

Also, does Logic 7 only work w/analog and digital PCM sources and not any that are any type of Dolby Digital (Even if only DD 2.0)?

Thanks again all.

If all your speaker groups are crossing over at the same frequency then yes you might as well pick left/right. I'm not sure why HK ties the LFE cutoff frequency to one of the other crossover frequencies you picked rather than just letting you set that frequency independently (*) but if they're all 80 then I don't think it matters which group you pick.

* My guess is that re-using a cutoff frequency saves a few lines of DSP code and makes room for other features but I don't really know.

So by selecting the “group”, you are in a sense selecting the crossover point for the sub that that group is set at? Huh, I had no idea and didn’t bother to wonder about it either……..

I’ve got the 80’s set to 60 and the rest set to 80. Can’t remember what group I picked. It didn’t seam to make any difference when I was playing with it though. I’ll have to try again.

While 7300 questions are being asked, can someone explain to me what in the heck this “global” and “independent” actually do?

Also, has anyone had volume control problems with their HK? The other night the volume pegged out on me all on its own. In a panicked state, I couldn’t find the remote in time and the volume ran all the way up while watching a flick. (things got quite loud) I thought the remote wigged out (MX-850), but it was the receiver. I’d run the volume back down, the receiver would turn it back up. I finally gave the control knob on the receiver a twist back and forth and the issue went away.

When you set to "Global", you get the same bass management settings (speaker size, crossover etc... maybe even channel levels, I forget) for all the different inputs and audio formats. If you change the settings while listening to FM stereo content via Neo6, you also get the new settings when you next watch a movie in DD 5.1.

When you set to Independent, nothing changes immediately, but from that point on changes you make when listening to one particular input only apply to that input -- the other inputs are not changed.

In other words, if you set this up properly you can have the receiver automatically switch your mains to Large and disable the sub, center and surrounds when listening to CD audio, but automatically kick everything back to "Small" with a booming subwoofer when you watch a DVD.

Right now I have no time to futz with the system so I am running "Global" and everything set to "Small". When winter comes I may set it back to "Independent"

Mike, just a minor clarification on the use of a speaker "group", as it affects the sub response. This has nothing to do with the regular crossover for bass management between the sub and the speakers(e.g. in your case at 60Hz for the M80s and 80Hz for the rest). It just affects the frequency above which the LFE channel to the sub is rolled off. The LFE channel theoretically extends to 120Hz, but in practice even at moments when movies have some LFE present there's rarely anything over about 80Hz. The LFE to the sub is rolled off above the frequency for the "group" selected. You shouldn't use your M80s to determine this since 60Hz might lose a bit of the LFE above 60Hz. 80Hz is fine. The only reason to set it at anything lower than the 120Hz max is that supposedly this might avoid some noise in the 80-120Hz area, but it's no big deal.

Thanks fellers. That helps. One of these days I've just got to take the time and set this beast up propperly.

I'll move the X-over group to the surround group instead of the mains and see what happens.

I just thought of another question.

I prefer DTS and Neo 6. But, this AVR defaults to Dolby and Logic 7 for DVD and Satalite. I realize that DTS usually has to be configured with the DVD, but why does the AVR default to both of these settings, and can I change that?

Darth,

You are correct re Logic7. It won't work with an incoming Dolby Digital 2.0 or DD 5.1 signal because the receiver automatically locks into a DD digital stream.

But you can apply Logic7 to any other incoming PCM or analog stereo signal.

Darth,

One question I have for you...and others that have the HK 7300 -- when you turn the TONE = 'IN' do you hear a high-pitched hum from the speakers? Just curious, as this is how it is on my receiver. Once I turn TONE = 'OUT' then I do not get the hum anymore.

Just curious if you, or others, experience this...and maybe have figured out a way to get rid of it?

Not that I notice no. But I will double check this week.

^^ Maybe try switching the source, from DVD to CD to etc. For some reason, I experience this high pitched noise. Maybe an issue I have to contact HK for...not sure.

Thanks again.