Well Folks,
I had stopped posting issues with my Crutchfield Outlet Bargain Denon 2900 because I got the feeling I was boring everyone to DEATH! (Certainly NOT your issue! It was all me!)
Ray was a great help off line, and I Finally got someone at Audioholics to point me in the right direction. One of their moderators, Rob, did not quite hit the nail on the head, but he got me to the right spot nonetheless.
I hope that this post might help someone else out there, or someone else down the line who encounters this problem.
The issue with the SECOND unit that I took home was that it was not recognizing DVD-A discs. Or, more accurately, it was not recognizing the DVD-A signal from DVD-A discs.
It would play the Dolby Digital portion, and the Video portion, but it would not play, nor even offer up the option in the playback menu, for the DVD-A Audio portion of the disc. And no matter what DVD-A disc I put in, the DVD-A light at the left side of the player would never light up.
Until this morning I was resigned to sending the unit back to Denon for repair.
But, after a note from Rob at Audioholics I decided to take one last trip through the set-up process, and the manual.
He suggested that I make sure that the 2900 was set up to recognize Hi-Rez sources.
So after paging through the manual and the set-up menus I got to the "ECT" page in the menu, and the "Audio / Video" choice.
When I got the unit home, this option was set to "Video".
I assumed that this was the default setting, and that the unit would switch to Audio when a DVD-A, SACD, or RBCD was inserted. With it set to "Video" the machine would recognize SACD's, and play them fine, as well as RBCD's. I assumed the same would be so for DVD-A's.
Well, as it turns out, this setting is for toggling between the AUDIO and VIDEO material on DVD-A Discs!
(You really have to read carefully in the Denon manual to realize this, and there was NO mention of this setting in the "Audio Set-up Tips" paper that I downloaded from Denon!)
It has nothing to do with the type of media that you want it to default to.
With that setting on "Audio", the 2900 is now very happily recognizing DVD-A discs, and is now playing everything beautifully!
What a difference!
I have found that I actually like the plain stereo track better than the multi-channel track, and since I obviously have to use the multi-channel outputs/inputs for the Hi-Rez DVD-A I have to say that the DACs in the Denon are indeed everything they have been touted as. To My Ears, this is indeed one serious player!
With the exception of now having to calibrate the Denon for DVD output, (I have used the Yamaha auto / mic thing, and to my ears it did a fantastic job) I think I am Finally where I hoped I would be with this system a couple of weeks ago.
The Denon is (NOW!)easily the best player that I have ever owned for DVD & Redbook CD, the DVD-A and SACD is a major Gas- (this is the first system I have had that is capable of this. ***And just a side note to those who might be shying away from the SACD / DVD-A format because they might think that they are not interested in the multi-channel playback format- If you are at all interested in the best option for 2 Channel Stereo Playback, you have to hear what this stuff is capable of reproducing in 2 Channel Stero. Leaps Beyond regular RBCD quality!***)
The Yamaha 2500 is, (surprising to me since I REALLY loved my old RX-V2092) quite a bit beyond that 2092 for pure musical & (obviously) movie ability.
And the Yamaha DVD-C750 is staggeringly close to the 2900 (on RBCD and DVD's - I have not yet tried it for multi-channel playback) for the $$$. Even if you just buy this player to use as a 5 Disc CD player and DVD player and forget about the multi-channel option, you will have yourself one heckuva player.
And yes, then there are the Axioms!
They are what got this whole thing started in the first place, and they are just STUPID GOOD!
Wow!
FINALLY!
I am one Happy Guy!
Thanks to everyone out there who contributed their time and advice.
Tom
