Now the fun begins. I tried to go through the Odessey setup today and ran into a few glitches. Yes, I know, theres a good setup thread on avsforum (which I will track down), but I wanted to do a quick setup to get me started while I figure this manual out.

On the first run I had no sub or center because of connection issues. I got those cleared up, but audessey is still not detecting my sub (I think).

I am expecting rumbly sounds during autodetect, but hear nothing. I took my BFD out of the loop and set the volume to the 12 oclock position and still nothing. I set up the speakers manually and tested with a movie. Everything in the chain works just fine and I get rumbly stuff out of the sub.

Any suggestions?

You hear absolutely nothing from the sub? With audyssey, the sound emmitted by the sub is not what you would think, it is a realy faint popping sound at a low frequency. I would think if it was not emmitting a sound, the mic would give you an error on the display screen that it was not detected.

Are you getting any output from the sub, try playing something 5.1 just to check that it’s working and getting a signal. When I move to the house I freaked out because nothing came out of the sub when I ran test tones. Turned out I hooded up to the line out rather than the line in on the sub.

Also I’m not sure since It’s been a while since I’ve run it but you might have to set the subwoofer to “yes” in the setup menu.

Dean. Yeah, I confirmed with some 5.1 material and everything in the chain works just fine.

Maybe I'm just not hearing the faint popping? I guess I'll let it run all the way through and see what it sets up.

OK, its working this time. I do not know why I did not get the popping the second time around. Thanks guys.

pop pop pop pop pop.....pop pop pop pop pop

Packing material bubble popping! One of the great joy of modern life!

The bass pops are kinda cool. Anyway...

Woohooooo!! I'm back in business. I celibrated with a little Dave Brubeck live in the UK and some Bach organ suites. Oh, and a little Mster and Cmmander to see how the whole thing was dialed in. Sounded damn good!

Right now the fronts are set to full (I forgot to put them to small) center is small crossed at 60Hz (surprising because this is their -3db point) surrounds are small crossed at 150Hz.

Are those the settings that Audyssey gave you Fred, or have you made some changes to them?

Nope, not yet. The only thing I did was turn off Odyssey and re-engage my BFD. I will be starting a thread on one interesting observation.

How does the 2808 compare with your last AVR, what was the old one anyhow?

Frickin' confusing! The old receiver was a low end Sherwood.

Right now there are not a lot of differences I can take advantage of. The variable crossover is the biggest one. The extra power probably doesn't do anything because I am in a relatively small room (unless I start cranking that pipe organ stuff to 120db ). I guess I get a little more headroom as insurance.

I can use one of the 12v triggers to power my sub now so thats nice.

Upscaling might be an improvement if I can figure out a way to send movies through the HTPC unprocessed. I don't think my mobo has that capability though.

Zone two stuff will come in handy when I have $$ for speakers for my bedroom setup. For now the micro-stereo is good enough.

I now have the ability to process HD formats, but no bluray player yet so more future advantages.

I don't have a lot of other sources, so all those connectors for VCRs, DVD players, coffee makers etc. don't do anything for me.

I also now have pre-outs should I ever set up in a really big room (or want to really piss the neighbours off). Depending on how the pre-outs work, I may have another use for them.

Edit: spell checker wants to cha

All in all, this receiver should keep me happy for a very long time.

Edit: The spell checker wants to change bluray to blurry. Funny

I've been using my Denon for, hmmm, 6-7 mos now and I'm still finding out new things on it every-so-often, mainly from asking questions on the forums instead of trying to deciphre the Manual from Hades. You'll love the Denon, but you may end up with (more) grey hair as you try to figure it out

I survived my ex. Nothing short of a life theatening event is gonna give me more grey hair!!

Tomorrow morning, Fred will post in the "dreams" thread about waking in a cold sweat after a dream in which his Ex comes over to help him set up the new receiver....and she reads to him from the Denon manual.

::walks away shuddering::

::checks for new grey hairs::

Good playback software on the PC will do a way better job than any scaler built into a receiver. You're doing it the right way.

While its still possible to get a better picture using some of the pc software available, its a non-trivial exercise I don't have the patience for. I use the built in scaler from my HTPC, which is remarkably good. It works fine for me.

Since I don't own many movies, this will be come a moot point once I pick up a bluray player.

Hi Fred

I've owned three Denon receivers. I finally abandoned the Audessy setup. It would always put the subwoofer at a -12db. I always do the manual setup on the receiver.

Hi Damien and welcome to the boards. I will probably not use the Audyssey EQ as I already have external eq via the BFD that is much more precise. For fun, I will, as some point use REW to do some measurements to see what Audyssey does.

I may eventually do some manual EQ with the filters built in to the the Denon to tame the top end a little as my room is very reflective.