Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HT question

I'm in the process of setting up my HT.
Started off with the Yamaha HT5750 receiver and Polk Monitor 50s as my main speaker. No SW or surrounds or center channel yet.
I'm just playing with main speakers for a week .
Here is my problem.
I'm not getting enough volume even at -15 db for most of the DVDs or CDs.
any sugesstions on how to set this Receiver for 2 speakers?
I even feel my TV ( sony HD tv ) was giving better sound than this. Any sugesstions?

I hate to say it, but you may not get a response right away. More and more non-Axiom owners, or to-be owners are asking questions about other branded speakers around here, and I have seen a decline in responsiveness. Not that someone won't come up with an idea and share with you anyway, just that until you have been around a little bit, response may be slow. Don't forget that there are a lot of other good forums out there too AVS, HomeTheaterForum, etc that are more general. Try posting there as well and you should get the best of all three places. Although, I will admit that I think that it is the no-crap, honest and knowledgeable users around here that are attracting other HT and stereo questions.

Welcome aboard.

i didnt respond cause i have no experience what-so-ever with the yamaha 5750.

yamaha's make great equip,so i would maybe just check the manual and make sure you have the settings correct. you could have an internal setting wrong, that is somehow limiting, or affecting the power or sound levels?

if you had an onkyo, i might be able to help you out more. good luck, i sure hope you can figure it out!!

bigjohn

I don't know alot about the equipment you have, but I do know that the manuals might have some guidance. Have you set up your receiver as shown in the manual? This sounds like it's a setting.

I want to echo the other comments, and give you a couple of specific things to check.

There should be a setting on your receiver for the front L/R speakers - make sure it is set to Large.

I have very different equipment, but one thing I have noticed is that analog sources seem to be much "louder" than digital sources; that is, using my CD player's DAC's and connecting it via RCA cables to the receiver takes much less gain on the receiver compared to CD's (or DVD's) played through my DVD player that is connected via a digital optical cable. That probably doesn't really help you, and I'm not trying to hijack your thread. It just came to mind when you reported a "loudness" problem.

You might also try repositioning the speakers. If it is an overall spl problem, it probably won't help much, but it's worth a shot. You might be getting unwelcome standing waves or boundary reinforcement or some such.

How big is the room? What are your source components? How long are the speaker cable runs and what gauge wire are you using? Are you certain that all the system connections are solid? Do you experience the same thing with ALL CD's, ALL DVD's or could it be media dependent?

I don't suppose you have an SPL meter to measure how much sound you are getting? I know to some people "not enough sound" is different than it is to others. I can only assume that you mean "not enough sound" by my standards.

I think my reciever has a "nighttime" setting or something to that effect which essentially compresses the dynamic volume range, basically making very quiet sections louder and very loud sections quieter, maybe yours has a setting like this that is on? Does that reciever have a 8 ohm /4 ohm switch? If there is, and it is on 4 ohm it might be limiting the power your reciever will provide.

Also, let us know what size your room is. Play with speaker location. An SPL meter is a must-have. From what I've learned 85db is "reference level" and should be achieved easily at "0"
on your volume indicator. In practice this is usually achieved
at higher attenuation levels (i.e. -15 or -10). Also, what music are you listening to? That can make a difference. I have also realized that with the clarity an "transparence" of quality equipment you are often listening to things more loudly than your realise.

The difference between digital and analog interconnects makes sense when I think about it. Digital signals have no "gain" in the ordinary sence. Just a binary stream.

HTfan,

I have had a Yamaha 5740 and I own Polk speakers (RTi8s, CSi5, FXi3s) - although I never tried to drive the Polks with the Yamaha - I used it for M22s.

You have a good receiver and good speakers. What the others have said may be right on. My Polk speakers are so good that shortly after I got them I was listening to a CD at what I thought were crystal clear, comfortably loud levels - only to find when I turned the music down that my pager, home phone (3 feet away) and cell phone (in my shirt pocket) had all gone off and I hadn't heard them.

With my 5740, I could get the music loud enough to irritate my wife, but not enough to really "rock the house" the way my home theater system (HK AVR 230 receiver and Velodyne CHT 12 sub added to the Polks) could - but I would have to turn the 5740 to -5 db or so to do it - in a huge room (8000 cubic feet).

So, with that, here are my thoughts:

It may be louder than you think - confirm with an SPL meter.

Go through the "set up" of the receiver again and see if it is set right - the "Night mode" or some other thing like it could be on.

There is a "stereo" setting on the receiver and it will put out a little more power per channel for 2 channels than 5. Plus, if you have it set for 5 channels it may be trying to send a big part of your sound to a center that doesn't exist. Also, make sure the fronts are set for "Large" so you are getting all the sound you are supposed to out of your 2 speakers.

If you add a really good center the volume will increase significantly in 5 channel mode.

Depending on how loud you want it you may need to take your receiver back and "upgrade" or add an amp if you really want it to blow the windows out of a big room. My HK AVR 230 is rated for fewer watts than the Yamaha 5740 was, but it is significantly more powerful.

>>I'm not getting enough volume even at -15 db for most of the DVDs or CDs.

I guess my first thought is "so what ?". I normally listen to DVDs at -10 for "theater" playback. CDs / music tend to be best about -20dB even when played on the same DVD player (no idea why), and I drop another 10dB for "loud background", ie -20 for DVD and -30 for CD/FM.

One thing to check is to make sure that you are running "surround off", ie not running one of the matrix modes which spreads the sound around the 5 speakers you don't have yet.

For DVD try the 2.0 soundtrack that most DVDs have, rather than the 5.1 which is probably the default. Some receivers are smart enough to push all the 5.1 content to the front speakers if you only have 2 hooked up but I don't know if they all do that.