** Denon AVR-1911 : Owner's Thread **

[snorkel4u]

As suggested by Kittu, I thought it would be good to have a Denon 1911 dedicated thread for owners to discuss settings, reviews, prices, feedbacks, tips and tricks and any issues or problems with the set.

My gear - I recently procured the 1911 from US for 380$, no shipping no customs. Paired it with a 42" Panny Full HD Plasma TV. Media source is AC Ryan POHD gen1. Recently purchased Energy Take speakers from Reliance Digital.

Very soon would be buying an AV Rack to house all the equipments.

Initial outcome - I wired the speakers myself and they're just kept on the TV stand and next to the rear couch, for now... Need to find wall hanging clamps for wall mounting the speakers.

I have an option of drilling nails in the wall and suspending them by the keyhole type holes at the rear of the speakers. Reason being the satellites are ported at rear so its advised to have a 2" clearance from the wall. Anyways... that's yet to figured out...

I have tweaked around much with the settings of the AVR, but have played a lot of BR Rips (M2TS) and they play fabulous. The Subwoofer packs a punchy bass that rattles my glass windows which are in steel panes... and the couch as well... I am yet to experiment with the positioning of the Sub but right now I have 2 sweet spots. The AVR has been able to decode all the sound formats thrown at it.


I have the following questions -
- What should be my settings to get the best out of the AVR + Speakers combo for 2.1 sound?
- What surround modes are best for Audio? Any specific settings for them?
- People have mentioned in reviews that this AVR+speakers combo delivers a punchy and tight (not boomy) bass. How can I achieve that?
- How do I change the surround modes from my remote?

I will keep adding my questions to this thread as I experiment more with my AVR.

 

[haisaikat]

- What should be my settings to get the best out of the AVR + Speakers combo for 2.1 sound?
A: Very Open ended question I

- What surround modes are best for Audio? Any specific settings for them?
A: Use the restorer for MP3, for 2 channel audio you may use the Multichannel Stereo mode. Use yyour ears of course

- People have mentioned in reviews that this AVR+speakers combo delivers a punchy and tight (not boomy) bass. How can I achieve that?
A: In Menu-->Manual Adjustment-->Set the crossover of fronts to --Full Range-- and . Do you have a subwoofer?

- How do I change the surround modes from my remote?
A: There are 8 buttons (2 rows of 4 buttons), toward the lower half of the remote. Those buttons have names as Standard, D/ST, etc. they can change sound modes

 

[snorkel4u]

Thanks haisaikat!

Yes I do have a Subwoofer, any helpful link to understand, LFE/ Cross over frequency and phase concepts?

 

[haisaikat]

Thanks haisaikat!

Yes I do have a Subwoofer, any helpful link to understand, LFE/ Cross over frequency and phase concepts?

Before you go online for LEF settings, there are lots of threads on HFV, you should first read the Denon manual thoroughly on what each terminology means as per them and also read the same for your subwoofer as there may be certain subwoofers with extra tweaks that you can utilize if you can keep in mind while reading any online recommendation.

As for my own setting, My Overall SW mode is LEF+Main and Crossover is 150 Hz. On a individual speaker basis I have kept the crossover for fronts as 90Hz (Large), center 100 Hz (Small), rest of surrounds as 110/120 Hz (all Small).

Please note that this is not the last word in audio settings. You may use the Audessy EQ setup to get a base settings and then copy it (Base Curve Copy function of Denon under Manual EQ) to tweak further by changing values manually.

 

[snorkel4u]

Read this on one of the forums.

The cross over frequency should be purely for what is sent to the any speakers set to 'small'. So in your example of a cross over of 80hz and all speakers set to small, anything below 80hz will be sent to the sub and anything above 80hz is sent to the relevant channel (so everything in the .1 channel is sent to the sub)

The 'normal' recommendation is that you set the cross over on the amp to a suitable level for your speakers (80 hz is the THX recommendation for 'normal' speakers) and then set the cross over to its highest level on the sub. That way the correct information is sent to the sub for any small front/centre/surround speakers and the sub will also play the full LFE channel - if you also set the sub cross over to 80hz then you would simply lose any of the LFE channel that was recorded above this frequency - the amp wouldnt reassign it to one of the other channels as (a) it probably wont realise your sub isnt playing it (b) there is no information for the amp to decide which other channel to play it through.

 

[haisaikat]

This information is also written similarly in the Denon manual. So I would highly recommend that you read both the Denon manual and the Sub manual before proceeding. One example is that some Subs have capability to take Pre-outs of front channels as additional inputs, howver denons dont have separate front preouts. but many other things klike these you can know off the hand from what manula you already have.

 

[TaureanBull]

Hey snorkel4u : Did someone get it for you? No Shipping No customs, 1911 @17K INR :licklips:. Congrats.

 

[snorkel4u]

yup, a friend got it for me...

 

[nairrak]

Hi Snorkel...am also planning to buy a Denon AVR-1911..could you please let me know the voltage rating on it?Is it 230 V or 110? Does it require a stepdown converter to connect in India? I saw an ad in Amazon and the voltage rating on display picture is 230V ~50Hz..but just wanted to confirm...

 

[snorkel4u]

wow... first post Welcome to HFV...

if you buy it from US, it will be 110V. If you buy from India, it is 230V.
And yes, I use a step down convertor, automatic types and it works fine...

 

[snorkel4u]

deleted post

 

[nairrak]

Hi...Thanks a lot for responding ..I am planning to ship my television (NTSC) and avr-1911 to india..denon manual says that it can take any signals (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)..so planning to hook up the cable connection in India(PAL) to denon and using HDMI connect to an NTSC TV and hope it works..do u see any challenges ???

 

[hemant0285]

Using HDMI will not bring in Pal or NSTC issue.... u can go ahead... absolutely no issues

 

[nairrak]

Thanks a lot Hemant!!!Really appreciate your response!!!

 

[jack_dawson]

Needed help on radio of denon 1911. How to use this feature I have not been able to hook up? Also can I connect my Mac to this and stream music? Please help guys?

 

[no1lives4ever]

I would recommend that anyone using a Denon AVR to go through batpig's denon to english dictionary here

I would highly recommend using Audyssey auto setup to set up the system. Go through the Audyssey guide on batpig's site. Unless you have a properly treated room and some measuring equipment, you will find that Audyssey used properly does a superb job of setting up your AVR + speaker + room combo, better than doing it by ear. You may find the sound a bit flat, but that is how it is supposed to sound. And remember that Audyssey is designed to set up the system for movies and not for music, so check using some surround demo tracks.

Also remember that Audyssey sets up your system such that the reference volume is at volume 0 on the Denon receiver. While it is not possible to listen to movies at this volume all the time, do all your tests at this volume to know the real expected output of your AVR + speaker + room + Audyssey

-- no1live4ever

 

[bluescorp]

Hey Guys,

Thx for this thread. I too am a proud owner of 1911. I have paired it with Wharfedale 9 series and SW 150.

Now I have few queries, can I?

1. Generally i play music & movies from media player (Kaiober) via HDMI. How can i improve the compressed sounds like mp3 (apart from settings on 1911) in 2.1 mode. Some suggests expensive DACs. I have set the system manually. Is DAC a must for music? I have seen in the dealers place they use DAC even with musical marantz. If DAC is must which brands to go for.

2. Can audessey help in music listening.


Thx in advance:licklips:

 

[no1lives4ever]

Hey Guys,

Thx for this thread. I too am a proud owner of 1911. I have paired it with Wharfedale 9 series and SW 150.

Now I have few queries, can I?

1. Generally i play music & movies from media player (Kaiober) via HDMI. How can i improve the compressed sounds like mp3 (apart from settings on 1911) in 2.1 mode. Some suggests expensive DACs. I have set the system manually. Is DAC a must for music? I have seen in the dealers place they use DAC even with musical marantz. If DAC is must which brands to go for.

A DAC would not help you unless you have high quality source material. heavily compressed MP3s will not sound good no matter what you do with them. The information was lost during compression and that can never be recovered.

I personally find the compressed audio restorer functions on most equipment to be totally useless.

A first step would be to listen to 320kbps cbr/224kbps vbr MP3 then check out FLAC files as your sources.

Make sure that you are connecting your media player to the AVR using a HDMI or S/PDIF cable. Most media players have very bad quality audio DACs. You will also want to ensure that the media player is not doing any sample rate conversion for audio files. Audio files that have been ripped from Audio CDs should be with a 44.1khz sampling rate and your AVR should be receiving audio with the same sample rate.

Now if you still feel that music is not sounding right, then you may want to consider getting a DAC, but unless you are using FLAC files or audio CDs as your source, the DAC would not make a huge difference. On my 1911, the internal DAC fed with music from FLAC files that I ripped from my own CDs sound good enough for me to not consider a DAC.

2. Can audessey help in music listening.


Thx in advance:licklips:

Audyssey helps with both music and movie. For movies, Audyssey does a great job of setting the channel levels and speaker distances. This along with the EQ ensures that surround sounds are very clearly placed in the room. For movies, it is recommended that you use the Audyssey eq curve.

For music you have many options with and w/o audyssey on the AVR:
a. Try out the Audyssey, Flat & Bypass Front L+R EQ curves and see if any of them sounds better. I typically use the Audyssey curve, while my brother likes the Flat curve better.
b. You may want to switch off Dynamic EQ or change the reference volume level to reduce the effects of Dynamic EQ.
c. You can also try to bypass Audyssey and use the Manual EQ for music. A good approach would be to use the copy feature to copy a approximation of the Audyssey measured EQ curves to the manual EQ and then start from there.
d. You can also try using the Pure Direct mode for stereo music listening. This will bypass all processing on the AVR.
e. You may also want to check out the fake surround modes like PL II Music & Neo 6 music. I use the Neo 6 Music mode for listening to electronic dance music.

Finally, do go through batpig's denon guide here and follow the Audyssey guide to set up Audyssey properly. And make sure that your room is completely silent when doing the Audyssey measurements. No fan, ac, outside noise, etc. Audyssey setup is best done late at night when everyone at home is asleep.

-- no1lives4ever
PS: I have a Denon 1910 AVR with a different set of speakers, so you may have a different experience from mine with the setup.

 

[amanojp]

Hi Friends..

can i get the AVR1912 from US and use it in India ( step down TS) witout any issues...please advise.

thanks,
manoj

 

[baijuxavior]

Hi Friends..

can i get the AVR1912 from US and use it in India ( step down TS) witout any issues...please advise.

thanks,
manoj

You can import the AVR from US and use it here with a suitable step down transformer. However if some issues arise, then you will be in trouble as you won't get warranty for the product here.