Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Still agonizing over new receiver

Last week I bought a beautiful Pioneer Elite vsx-47tx. Close out price at Tweeter was $1400.00 (with a little haggling I must say). I was all beside myself with joy until I got it home and had a problem with the auto equalization.

For some reason the auto eq sucked the life out of my center channel by attenuating the lower mid range frequencies and boosting at 16Khz. Here is an example of a typical setting result (in that particular range) on the center channel:

125Hz....-7db
250Hz....-5db
500Hz....-3db
16Khz....+8db


As a result, voices sounded thin, tinny and nasaly. Much like you would expect from the speaker in a TV. All other speakers frequency settings came out at or near 0.0db.

I talked to a Pioneer customer service person who informed me that they had other "calls" about this problem but could not give me any details or insights as to what to do about it (he didn't seem to know much about the products anyway). The good folks a Tweeter didn't know why either, but they all agreed that its not a good thing. Tweeter offered to exchange it for me, and as much as I loved the receiver, I declined because I think that I would now rather have a receiver with an eq that can be manually tweaked, such as the new Yamaha 2400.

Sadly, I returned it for a refund and have now turned my attention towards Yamaha(with user adjustable eq) and Denon.

Anyone have any thoughts regarding this problem with the eq?

BTW, the room is not what I would consider "lively" and different speaker placements were tried. Tried auto setup with speakers set to large and small. Speaker sounded great with eq defeated so I don't think its a problem with the speaker (KEF Q95c).

Mike, Masa may have some helpful suggestions when he gets back on the board but I'd suggest that you take a look at the AVS board receiver section. There're a couple threads started by gps and psujohnny in which new Yamaha owners list the equalization results their 1400 or 2400 gave. Some vary pretty widely, although I'm a bit surprised at your 16Khz result. The Pioneer does in fact have a provision for manual adjustment, but if this is to be permanent it would appear to at least partially nullify the advantage of MCACC. I wonder if you were very careful to have the microphone positioned exactly where your head would be.

JohnK, thanks for the reply! I'm still scratching my head about this.

I did see those threads that you refered to and I'll keep checking back to them.

If the vsx-47tx has a provision for manual eq adjustment, neither I nor the folks at Tweeter could find it and the owners manual does not refer to it. However, the Yamaha 2400 does have manual eq adjustment capibility.

And you are correct that manual adjustment would if fact nullify the advantage of MCACC. Thats why I returned it. I really hated to though. If I could figure out what went wrong I'd probably go back and get another one. The elites are so damn hansome!

I was verrrry careful with the position of the microphone and the house was dead quiet. I even moved some of the furniture and took some of the plushy stuff out.

I plan to pick up the Yamaha 2400 tomorrow and give it an audition.

Cheers

Mike,

Darn, you have already returned the receiver??? You could have done some additional experiments before returning it... For example, have you tried different mic positions? Changing the mic position only by a few feet can result in a vastly different results, depending on the room.

That said, I have to say that the 47TX, being the oldest of the 4xTX series, has two drawbacks: (1) No post-hoc manual adjusts of MCACC parameters; (2) The measurement mic is on the remote itself, which might make the mic rather picky on how you direct it etc.

Anyway, I agree that the EQ parameter you listed is rather extreme. Something must be going wrong here. My parameters are mostly within +/- 2dB for all 5 channels, with a few 4-5dB points here and there -- still very significant adjustments, but they never reach 7dB or 8dB. By the way, what was your center speaker, Mike?

Wish you a good luck with the Yamaha 2400. Please tell us how good/bad it is!

I actually did move the mic a few feet from the "sweet spot" but it didn't help. I also tried it with the remote facing forward and backward (I know it sounds silly).

Center speaker is a KEF Q95c.

I'll report back on the Yamaha.

Sounds like you've done all the due homework, Mike. Good luck on the Yamaha!

So how did you like the Yamaha 2400? I am trying to decide if there is $250.00 difference between it and the 2300.
(Ultimate Electronics has the 2300 on sale for $699 + %10 off).
I REALLY love my AVR55, but am wary of the AVR525 due to overheating, warranty issues, and the fan. The manager of the local hi-fi store keeps trying to point me in the direction of Denon.

Hi superstar!
I like the 2400 very much and I think the YPAO feature alone will justify the $250 price difference. The 1400 may be an even better value depending on your needs.

For a more in depth impression, check out this thread and look for my post under the name mcampo:

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=UBB61&Number=470817&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&vc=1

Should you need more info on the Yamaha's please feel free to PM me via this board.

My personal exp. with the HK AVR-525: It has never over-heated, the fan has never turned on, and the warranty is for 2 years, although I have never had to use it. I would have bought the Denon AVR-3803, but I could not justify the $300US price diference...Just my .02
The Denon 3803

Mike,

I enjoyed reading your review on the 2400 at the SPOT -- glad to hear that it is working great for you. My $0.02 on your "criticism" that the 1400/2400 should have a greater number of EQ channels, though: I believe that, with the parametric nature of Yamaha's EQ (meaning, each band can shift the center frequency and bandwidth as needed), 7 channels are PLENTY for most room corrections. A majority of listening rooms shows fewer than 7 peaks/dips in the frequency response that are broad enough (hence audible enough) to justify a correction by EQ in the first place.

Anyway, I read that you actually use the "presence channel" of the Yamaha, which I agree is a very interesting feature. Perhaps, you snatched the M22s back from your son's room to fill in there???