Volume control help with Denon 1507 Biamping

[ajinkya]

Hi,
Continuing my experimental saga helping my friend set up his HT (Yes, the same one who insists on streaming wav's #@#).

We have his Denon 1507 connected to his speakers in a biamplified configuration. To do this, we set the AVR to 5.1 configuration, set the surround back (SB) channel amps to 'zone 2' and connect those to the tweeter sections of the speakers. So you have the woofers being controlled by the main L/R (front) channels and the tweeters being controlled by the L/R SB (now zone 2) channels.
All works well and sound is appreciably more powerful and detailed. However, all is not well in wonderland.

The problem is that the volume controls for zone2 is different from the main volume. So, to get the woofer and tweeter to sound equally loud, each time one has to set the main volume, switch to zone 2 on the remote and then set that volume to the same as main. This gets irritating very quickly. In fact, its more irritating than listening to Navjot Siddu laugh at his own jokes repeatedly. More importantly, we can't set the zone2 volume to mute on system startup, which means there is danger of the volume being very loud by mistake, when amp is switched on.

So, in a nutshell, does anyone have any workaround to this problem? Has anyone used the Denon series and faced a similar experience. Comments, help, donations and further criticisms of Siddu jokes are all very welcome.

-Ajinkya.

 

[captrajesh]

Funny, no one replied to this.

 

[spirovious]

Zone 2 vol is not controled by main volume(I read somewhere)So thats but obvious.
Have you configed 1507 as biwirable?
When you select zone 2,certainly volume will not work,but with biamp,it shld.

 

[goose]

More importantly, we can't set the zone2 volume to mute on system startup, which means there is danger of the volume being very loud by mistake, when amp is switched on.

OK, I've tried similar stuff (ie bi-amping) on my AVR-1609 (couple of model years later than the 1507). I did see your other post discussing this with Venkat. Per the manufacturer, yes these AVRs are not bi-amp capable, but what you've done is perfect and makes is semi-bi-amped. You should still get the sound quality of a Bi-amped connection (which you've mentioned you are), but the volume control is going to be a pain in the neck!

To my knowledge you can't solve the independent volume control, you will have to toggle and adjust them b/w Main and Zone 2. But on your other point highlighted above re POWER ON VOLUME LEVEL, ref page 23 of the owner's manual where it says you can adjust the power on level for the Zone 2 between -70db to +18db. Why don't you set it to -70db? For all practical purposes -70db is almost MUTE. You can't hear a thing at that volume level.

Atleast the tweeter won't scream when you power on the next time.

 

[spirovious]

Can A+B spk combination work as A+B makes A as 5.1 & B as stereo?

 

[ajinkya]

Well, this is the revival of a very old thread. My friend finally decided not to go the (semi) bi-amp route because of the volume issue.

Goose,
thanks for the tip. I'll ask him to set it to -70dB on default if he uses Zone2, as you suggest. This will work.

Spirovious,
The denon requires both speakers to be at or above 8 ohms, if we use the A+B combination (this is from memory). The speakers being used are Wharfedales, which are 6 ohms nominal. So, this will create a bad load for the denon, based on the specs required. So, we didn't try this route.

-Thanks,
Ajinkya.