Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Denon 3808CI questions

I believe I forgot to mention that I noticed a pause on dual layer discs when I had the same DVD player hooked up to my 3801 but the audio and video would pause for a second and nothing would happen with the receiver. Apparently my 3808 notices a loss in signal faster than the 3801 which causes it to "click" and change inputs or what ever it is doing and then reverting back to the original audio format. I have another DVD player (Hitachi DVP745U) which is newer but I would believe is of lesser quality than my Sony five disc DVD carousel (8 years old) hooked up downstairs also so I will give it a try. Does anyone know if there is any way to tell at what point on a DVD the layer is overlapped short of watching it again?

Mark, I will look into the possibility of a setting like you are talking about.

Thanks guys
Cam

Not positive, but the "click" may occur with analogue. What audio input to the 3808 are you using?

I do not hear any click whatsoever. I have everything going into the 3808 via HDMI with the exception of my SDI modified DVD player and its audio input is coax.

The delay however is normal. The 3808 needs to re-sync to the different audio formats. It's a continuous delay, start, delay, start when watching HD or BR as they go through the previews (Disney Spam is the worse).

Interesting that you ask what input I am using because on my 3801 I was connecting my DVD player via coaxial digital (pretty sure anyway) but now it's connected via SPDIF. Maybe that is making a difference. Is there any audible difference between digital coaxial and SPDIF? I was under the impression that SPDIF is the best input to use with exception to HDMI.

Your digital coaxial was also using the SPDIF link lay protocol.

Well apparently it is the dual layer on DVDs giving me problems as you guys had suggested. I have another question though regarding subwoofer setup with the 3808. First off, I ran the auto setup and then manually went through to my configurations and had to change my front left/right speakers to small from large and change my subwoofer frequency to 80 Hz and I left it set at LFE instead of LFE + Main. I am noticing a huge difference in bass output from my previous receiver 3801 that I set up with a SPL meter. It just sounds like I'm losing an awful lot on the bottom end. I don't only notice it in the room while playing music but I also notice it far more upstairs while playing music, there's just not as much bass (bottom end). With my previous setup (3801) my whole floor would shake and lower frequencies were far more noticeable but I'm losing it for some reason. The question I have is what's going on but seriously is it possible that the EQ could be causing this? I'm really confused as to what could cause me to lose those lower frequencies.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again guys/gals
Cam

I'll leave details to any actual 3808 owners but somethings I'd be checking on my 3608 are...

Did you run both the autosetup and the autoEQ feature. If so, turn the EQ off and compare. I could never get the sound I wanted from the autoEQ feature.

Make sure it didn't accidentally switch to some EQ preset by accident. Worst sound I ever heard was when I somehow accidentally set my EQ to "Flat". Flat is obviously not the same as having the EQ turned off.

Speakers set to small with a crossover of 80 sounds good for my liking but double check the sub distance settings and the sub volume adjustment in the speaker setup. The auto-Setup often messes this one up as it has a hard time with DSP controlled subs. It had mine turned way down, if I remember correctly.

Double check that your knobs on the back of the sub are where you expect them to be. I know it's a "duh" thing to tell you but you never know whos fingers might have gotten back there.

When all is double checked, break out the SPL meter again and remember that SPL meters don't always work the best with LFE. Most are not designed to be accurate down at those frequencies although many people do use them for this.

I tweaked my sub by ear to find a more suitable sound for my tastes.

Cam, it seems the autosetup sets the bass levels much too low for most of our tastes. I had to bump my 3808 up 5db to achieve a satisfactory level. You should bring out the SPL meter and try setting up the subwoofer levels using it or just use your ear to get a setting that you like. The LFE setting means you will not be using the sub for music, only for the LFE channel during movies so I would suggest using the LFE + Mains setting, it is early for me so I might be to quote a certain baseball player "mis-remembering".

Jakewash,

I believe what we discovered is that with the sub setting set to LFE, you will still hhear your sub for music IF your mains are set to small and you are listening in "stereo"

if you change the mode to "direct" or "pure direct", or if you set the mains to large, then you will not get any bass from the SW when set to "LFE"

LFE+mains simply sends the bass signal to both the sub and the mains (even when it is set to large). the only bass that gets sent to the sub are the frequencies below your the crossover poitn set for your mains.

Murph, the only setup that I ran was the auto setup, I thought auto EQ was part of that setup. Looking at the manual it only shows one auto setup feature and it's called the Audyssey multi-EQ XT. I did just notice in the manual that it states "when using a subwoofer to defeat the volume and crossover controls if possible", or set the volume to "12 o'clock" position, crossover frequency to "maximum/highest frequency", low pass filter "off" and standby mode to "off", which I did not do before running the auto setup so I don't know if this would be the contributing factor to my problem. I will also bring out the SPL meter and test everything.

Jason, if I set the receiver subwoofer setting to LFE + Mains won't my front l/r channels will be reproducing LFE as well? I thought it was better to use the subwoofer exclusively because that's its job :-) and it can push more air etc., at least I think I learnt that somewhere on the forum.

Also guys, I will not be able to make any changes or give you any feedback until this weekend because I'm stuck in bed until then, but the more suggestions the merrier and I will try to answer any setup questions as best I can from memory :-).

Thanks again pals