Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Setting Up the System for the Average Joe

OK, so I finally bit the bullet and bought a full set of Axiom speakers and a refurbished Denon 6.1 receiver. Last night for the 3rd night I was on my hands and knees trying to wire/figure out/setup this monolith of modern technology. I even had a friend over to help. We have gotten minimal functionality out of it (still can't get it to talk to the surround (rear) speakers, but at least the rest is making sounds. But this whole process is way beyond my capabilities. Especially if I was to do it RIGHT, and incoporate my Dish Network feed, the DVD, VCR, and CD player as I had once hoped.

My question is, there must be people who you can hire to come to your home that know what they are doing and can set this up as is was INTENDED to be set up, and maybe not have wires running every which way. How would I go about finding such a person/business? How much might I expect to spend on this? I live in the north end of Orange County in California.

you could save yourself some money, and just take take your time, everything is labeled, plug the output from the cd player to the imput labeled cd on the receiver (2xrca: red and white), then for the dvd player you would want to get an optical or digital coax which carries all 6 channels of sound to the receiver, and then hook up the dvd player with either component or s-video cables to the receiver where it is labeled "dvd", and then plug in the component cables that connect to the tv that are labeled "monitor" on the back of the receiver, if this is still too confusing, just read the manuals, they usually explain how to hook everything up

I agree with Darren, this is not like rebuilding an engine, which I can't do

Do you have a manual, it should show clearly where all the appropriate plugs go. For speaker wire you have the + and - that should match for that receiver.

For surround speakers, you will not always hear anything from them, only if the movie has surround decoding. What receiver do you have?

papajim- glad you finally got you some Axioms..

while set-up can be confusing, its certanly not anything you would want to waste money with paying someone to do. there are many denon owners on here, so i am sure you will find someone that can take you thru the process fairly painlessly. it seems super hard at first, but once you get a concept of what you are trying to do, it all just starts to fall into place.

as far as no sound going to the rears.. you might just have a setting on the receiver a certian way that doesnt send sound to the rears.. try and set to an "ALL CHANNEL" mode, or one of the DSP modes. if you have speakers wires connected properly, it should be getting powers to the rears.

and read the manual. i have heard the denon manual can be a little complicated, but its has lots of usefull info, so dive into it, and make it make sense.

good luck, and i hope some denon people get on here to help you trouble shoot the problems's.

bigjohn

It's got to be that stupid Denon. I have one, and will tell you that it is a marvelous, reliable, and thoroughly unintelligible box of switches. Whoever programmed that thing thinks differently than I do.

Which model(s) of things do you have?

We've got to have some local forum member that you could feed that would help out. spiffnme and curtis are both in the LA area, I think.

You can do this, Jim. I'm sure people here will help as best we can.

Tom likes to travel also

Randy

60's 150 350 4-Qs8's
Denon 2805

I should have known you guys would go all "sensible" on me. ;-) You are forcing me to relive the painful (I mean that literally as being old and fat and on your knees for hours with a flashlight and a manual can make you sore!) experience of the last few nights. But I suppose it would be easier to commiserate with you all, than to explain it all to a "surround trauma therapist". So here goes.

The Receiver model is AVR-1705. Everyone is always interested in those numbers so I wrote it down.

I suppose all of my problems could be boiled down into 2 categories: 1) No rear sound 2) Running video signals through the Denon

I was at my drummer's house in Seattle a few weeks ago and it seemed like every source of audio he had was somehow channelled through all the speakers. There was never a source that he pulled up and the rear speakers were silent. I thought that the system would "simulate" surround even if it had no actual surround signal. Here's the weird thing: When I press the "test tone" button, it doesn't event TRY to send a sound to the rear speakers. That makes me think that somewhere the thing has been told that I don't have them. Maybe a setting in the configuration of the box? I've read through the manual about 3 times now, and even though it's apparent that it was either 1) translated from another language or 2) written by someone that got a "C" in high school english, I am able to understand most of it. I am still however somewhat intimidated by all the "modes" and what they are supposed to do. But I figure I'll learn that over time. So why no rear channel?

The second issue of video: At first I followed the wiring schematic taking the video out and component out from the DVD and mapped them as indicated. I could not ever get a PICTURE to show up on my TV. So in frustration last night, I wired the DVD video directly into the TV as it has always been, and routed only the audio through the Denon. This provided my first glimpse of daylight as I actually saw a picture and heard sounds that appeared to be from the same source!!! But I fear that by doing it this way I am giving up some sort of functionality. I just had to have SOME kind of victory last night or I was going to hurt myself.

My friend pointed out that I really needed a digital optical cable to run from my DVD to the Denon. I plan to get one of those today on the way home from work (radio shack knows me on a first name basis now). He seemed to think that would kick in those rear speakers. He may be right. But again, I wired my Dish network regular TV stereo into the amp, and it plays it in stereo through the FL and FR speakers, but now the Center and rear sit quietly. I was hoping for more.

Thanks for your patience and help everyone. Please forgive my sarcasm and attempts at humor!

"I was at my drummer's house in Seattle a few weeks ago and it seemed like every source of audio he had was somehow channelled through all the speakers. There was never a source that he pulled up and the rear speakers were silent. I thought that the system would "simulate" surround even if it had no actual surround signal. Here's the weird thing: When I press the "test tone" button, it doesn't event TRY to send a sound to the rear speakers. That makes me think that somewhere the thing has been told that I don't have them. Maybe a setting in the configuration of the box? I've read through the manual about 3 times now, and even though it's apparent that it was either 1) translated from another language or 2) written by someone that got a "C" in high school english, I am able to understand most of it. I am still however somewhat intimidated by all the "modes" and what they are supposed to do. But I figure I'll learn that over time. So why no rear channel?"

I had this problem with my HK receiver, but I believe the solution is universal. You have to tell your receiver that you are running rear speakers. Go to the speaker setup or configuration and there should be an "on" switch for the rears.

EDITED TO SAY: Check pages 43-45 in your manual, I think that should answer your question.

Jim,

If you do not have any other video sources just leave your DVD player hooked to the T.V.

Just occured to me. Are you running component video cables? If the Denon is anything like my HK, I do not see the receiver on-screen menu through the component video input. Instead I use the s video connection to see the onscreen menu. Hmm, just trying to help. I know how frustrating it is when things don't work.

As darren700 said, you will need a digital coax or an optical cable to handle the sound to all your speakers. If you are just using analog connections (usually the red and white connectors) you will just get stereo playback.

Good luck.

Edit--sorry, just read that you have multiple video sources. Disregard my opening statement.

We're gonna get this fixed. Without you having to pay my airfare or pour me a beer or anything

How do you have the Denon connected to your TV (what kind of cable and which jacks, what kind of TV do you have, does it have multiple inputs, etc.)?

You have to connect the Denon to the TV using either composite, S-Video (the multi-pin thing - better) or component (the three RCA cable - best) from one of the jacks marked "Monitor" on the back of the Denon.

Here is a link to a picture we can refer to together

1705 back

If the Denon isn't even trying to send a test to the surrounds, you might have them set to "none" in the speaker setup. Go to pages 19-20 in the manual and run through that again. If you are running 5.1 you want Surr. either large or small (probably small) and the S. Back set to none.

Here is the manual in case anybody needs it:

1705 Manual

Hook up the DVD audio using Digital optical input 1.

After that, you should be able to mess with the surround settings and get what you want. I think you'll be MUCH happier in the long run if you run your video sources (Dish, DVD, etc.) through the Denon rather than having to switch the inputs on the TV and the Receiver all the time.