Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners AVR Audio Format and Input Settings Questions

Just got my Axioms wired up and bitstreaming working (again) on my HTPC. I've never gotten into the audio details and setup before and now I want to know. I've read my Onkyo manual front to back no help there!

I know nothing about all of these audio formets and settings. And need a starting point.

For input settings on the HTPC, Cable Box, SqueezeBox and Xbox360, I'm using

For Dolby TrueHD, DTS MAsterHD, Dobly Digital and DTS, I'm using the DIRECT setting. Options are: PureAudio, Direct, Lastvalid, and for the other formats I'm not sure.

For Receiver audio mode settings:

For HD audio bitstreaming Dolby & DTS HD, I think my setting choice should be DIRECT.(And if I use THX Select2 when I go 7.1, I think I still get the bitstraming HD, but it adds the rears on 5.1 material.)

For Music, right now for the SqueezeBox input, I'm using Dolby PLII Audyssey THX Music, because, well I don't know why

For XBox 360, I have no idea.

Since all the gear is in the rack, and I don't get OSD with format changes, I never know what I'm listening to.

I know each input has a setting for each audio format, and then AVR setting for movies/tv, music and games.

Is there somewhere you could point me to figure this out, or do you have any input?

Gear

Axiom Speakers: 2-W22s, 1-W150, 2-QS4s and old 10" JBL sub
(Planning on: Another center W100 and another set of QSs.)
AVR: Onkyo TX-SR706
HTPC: Movies (Bluray-DVD), Music (wma lossless), and OTA HDTV (and Cable soon)
SqueezeBox Duet: Music: Local (wma lossless), internet radio, Rhapsody and Pandora
Xbox 360
(all gear rack mounted across house)

Usage

Movies: 98% Bluray with HTPC (W7 Pro 64, MyMovies, TMT3 w-Bitstreaming patch, (streamed from a WHS)and a few DVDs
TV: 98% HDTV (OTA) Dolby Digital from HTPC,Media Center.
Music: 50% SqueezeBox Duet thru AVR, 50% wma streamed from WHS thru Windows Media Center.
Games: Xbox 360 w-HDMI
Netflix streaming, thru Xbox360 (HD) and sometimes thru HTPC (no HD yet)

Hope I was clear enough, lots of options

Thanks

Jeff

Hey Jeff if you figure it out let me know as I’ve had my Onkyo for 4 months and I’m still trying to decide what I like best. For now I’ve just got everything set to “Last Valid” so I don’t have to keep switching things back if I jump from one input to another.

I can tell you what I’ve found so far but I hate to say it only you can decide what modes sound best to you.

I mostly use “Direct” for both HD formats. I use “Direct” or one of the THX settings for most music because I don’t like the high frequency roll-off of the Audyssey curve which can only be deselected by choosing “Pure Audio,” “Direct” or one of the THX modes (which actually uses the Audyssey calculated “Flat” curve so no high frequency roll off unless you then select THXs RE-EQ).

For Xbox games it’s a mixed bag. Some games like “Elder Scrolls Oblivion” don’t play well with PLIIx so I use “Direct.” OTOH, “Mass Effect 2” works fine with it so I’m actually using PLIIz.

For TV and some DVDs of TV shows I actually find that “All Channel Stereo” sounds best since there is little or little out-of-phase sound for PLIIx(z) to work with.

Sadly the biggest thing I’ve found is that no one mode works best with any given input. It really depends on the material being played from that input. Best I can suggest is just to keep experimenting to find you what you like best for each situation. Otherwise just pick something that seems to sound good, map it to an input and be done with it. A safe bet would be to use “Direct” on high quality sources like HD Blu-ray tracks and SACDs and PLIIx(z) on everything else picking between non-THX and THX modes depending on if you like the Audyssey high frequency roll-off or not.

I haven’t really played around with any of the special modes like “orchestra” or “unplugged” so I can’t even comment on them.

Thanks alot, that's plenty of info to get me started. I just didn't want HD source inputs to be set on a setting I was guessing was the correct one and in reality be degrading the sound. If the rest is just up to personal pref, Im good to go!

Thanks again

Jeff

While I personally find that most digital processing PLIIx(z), Neo:6 and even some EQ degrades the sound quality of HD and SACD sources not everyone shares that opinion so don’t discount at least trying it out for yourself. But rest assured if you find you prefer high quality sources w/o extra processing it doesn’t mean you’ve necessarily set things up improperly. People have different likes and dislikes which I try to respect by telling more than one side of the issue.

Do not use direct. Check your owner's manual, but for my Onkyo it completely bypasses your subwoofer. From the Onkyo Owner's Manual:

"Direct
This mode delivers pure sound with minimum sound quality adjustment and filtration. The sound recorded for the right and left front channels is output to the right and left front speakers only and not output to the subwoofer."

If you have some full range fronts, and don't use a sub, then by all means use direct, but those M22's are limited range, and you do have a sub so you are not getting the full frequency response out of your system.

Good catch, I didn’t see he was using W22s. Or that the bass management for the Onkyo differs from my previous Denon 2807. On the Denon there was a menu selection to use a subwoofer and set a separate crossover for 2ch Direct but it only worked for digital sources, OTOH my with my Onkyo 3007 there is a separate menu selection to allow the subwoofer to be used with analog sources if wanted in “Direct” mode but not for digital. I made the mistake of assuming the Onkyo worked in “Direct” mode the same as the Denon.

I think for the new Onkyos (mine is the 600) if you are using something with a dedicated LFE track you are fine, the sub will come through since there is a specific track for the sub. However if its just a CD or its compressed equivalent it will only be sent to the L/R speakers. The amp won't reroute any audio from their intended channels.

I can't comment on the 3007, its a little too nice for my price range at the moment, so I haven't done any research on it. Damn student loans.

Well I'm not saying "Direct" is correct, but let me assure you with my 706 set on DIRECT, The sub is definately getting feed. Watched Blurays Saturday and the whole system sounded incredible. And the sub was definately getting data.

Watched some some HDNet Concert footage and played some of my ripped music last night and I had to turn down the sub quite a bit.

I think the squeezebox input is set on last valid. I'll have to check.

The HD CAble box, if the Broadcast was Dolby Digital was set on Dolby Digital.

I realized last night, I have a long way to go to get my system "tuned in", but that's part of the game and why we do it. At least for me, well the sound and visuals quite a bit count too!

So far I love the Axiom's!

Listened to some Juan Martin, Marisa Monte, Richy Kicklighter, Danny O'keefe, Kenny Rankin, you name it last night, all sounded great and Heard parts, nuances, and even some instruments I've never heard before!

Any more input is appreciated, Thanks

Jeff

I know nothing about the onkyo but on my denon if you push direct to takes the sub out of the equation and sets your mains to large.

Just guessing, but that's probably the same as the "PureAudio" setting on the Onkyo

Pure audio does the same thing as direct plus it turns off the video circuits on the AVR.

THere is an Onkyo TX-SR706 thread at AVS, I;m just going to go ask! THere has to be someone in there named Mr Onkyo

Yeah, on the Denon there is also a Pure Direct mode which turns off the video source going to the TV, the On screen GUI, the receiver panel, ect.

Direct should directly send each channel's audio to that channel. So for CDs there'll be no sub-woofer activity. But for formats which have a .1 channel, the sub will get some information, but only that which is encoded as LFE. So that means all your other speakers will be forced to play full range for any content which is on their specific channels.

Personally, even with music, I want my receiver crossing over the low bass from each channel to the sub were it is handled better. So I don't use any "direct" mode.

I give up ... which mode do you use?

Direct mode on my Denon 2807 allowed the option to use a subwoofer with a separate crossover setting from the primary setup for just 2ch digital sources.

My Onkyo 3007 allows the choice to use a subwoofer in “Direct” mode for 2ch analog sources but not digital.

However, on both I believe the default setting is subwoofer “off.”

Well, I have a Pioneer, so everything is named differently. Most of the time I use the full processing mode, which does time alignment for speaker distances, crossover, EQ, standing wave attenuation, and loudness to boost bass as the volume is decreased, along with enabling Prologic IIx to turn everything to 7.1 (switching to Music for music, and Movie for everything else; I don't use Game even when gaming).

But if there's some 2 channel music which doesn't sound right with Prologic, I'll press the Stereo button, which does the time alignment between the sub and the mains, and still applies the EQing, and standing wave stuff.

I do have a profile saved without the EQing, but after listening to both the natural, and the EQed output, I really do prefer the seamless blending between speakers I get from the EQ. Then again, I have a pretty mismatched set of speakers. Though the different it makes is night and day, with it off, when playing some content which is mixing parts into each speaker I can hear each speaker. But with the EQ on, the sound seems as if it is just in the room. The EQing mode I use on my Pioneer, by the way, makes separate adjustments to each speaker, not even taking LR pairs into account, to try to get each one's in-room response to be flat.

Also the standing wave attenuation really does make the bass sound much clearer. It basically finds which frequencies build up in the room, and cause the bass to sound boomy. It cuts (attenuates) those frequency centers, and then adjusts the over-all sub-woofer trim to get the average output to reference level.