avr 300 volume settings

[seanb724]

Just curious what others use for volume settings as mine seem somewhat high. For example, watching a movie, volume is typically in the 70 range, and that's with a sleeping toddler upstairs, so it's not "earth shattering" by any means.

I know this is speaker dependent and room dependent. I have magnepan mg-i's for mains and a cc3. Avr300 is set to 4 ohms. My room is hard to describe. It's roughly 15' x 22', but it's 18' ceilings and the back wall is open another 12' on the 1st floor but not the 2nd. There's a 10' opening on one side wall for a foyer, and the 2nd floor on that side is open as well. So I'm filling a ton of space.

Is my volume setting expected?

thanks,
Sean

[Hifi addict]

for movies 70 is fine. for music, this is to high, but as you are stating: depends on your speakers

[Crustyloafer]

I tend to run it at about 70-75 for watching tv. When I pull the projector out for amovie session then it usually runs at 85 all the time.

[matthew_hallson]

I have mine set at between 70-75 for movies, which is fine most of the time. I have B&W nautilus 803 fronts and htm2 center. 75 is great for dialog etc, but can get a bit loud at night when gun battles break out. It would be good if the AVR300 had a kind of "late night, kids sleeping" type mode to add some compression in these situations!

I have also increase the center channel by about 3 DB to get clear dialog, which I found necessary despite what the level meter was telling me.

Regards,
Matt

[seanb724]

Originally Posted by matthew_hallson

It would be good if the AVR300 had a kind of "late night, kids sleeping" type mode to add some compression in these situations!

It does, but it only works with DTS I think. It's under the 3rd basic menu screen (just hit menu briefly, and page over twice). It's compression and there is off, low, medium, and high.

/Sean

[roffe]

Originally Posted by seanb724

It does, but it only works with DTS I think. It's under the 3rd basic menu screen (just hit menu briefly, and page over twice). It's compression and there is off, low, medium, and high.

I find it under the second basic menu screen, and for me it seems to work for all DSP modes (but of course not under Stereo Direct).

[seanb724]

You're right, it is menu 2. I was trying to recall it from memory. :-/

But the manual states that compression only works with Dolby Digital and some DTS recordings (p. E-24).

/Sean

[roffe]

Originally Posted by seanb724

You're right, it is menu 2. I was trying to recall it from memory. :-/

But the manual states that compression only works with Dolby Digital and some DTS recordings (p. E-24).

/Sean

OK, I may be wrong. I am pretty sure that the setting is still there even when playing stereo sources, but it may be true that it only works on digital surround material.

[glimball]

I have to run my Monitor Audio GR20 + GR Centre + rear speakers at 85 to get a decent volume and 90 to be what I would consider a little loud on CD and TV. For DVD I run at around 90 and often little higher. The room is about 6.5 metres square and 3 metres high. (And, yes, I have adjusted the input trim)

I know that the MA's are not particularly sensitive but it still seems a high setting compared with my other ssystem of old Audiolab 1000A + very old (20 years!!) bookshelf MA's. If I wound my old sytem up to near the max I would blow my ear drums out! The AVR300 + new MA's, even at max volume, outputs nothing like the same leel of sound energy.

Puzzled!

[roffe]

I recently upgraded the software, and seriously think the volume is louder on the same setting compared to before the upgrade. What is the software version of your unit, glimball? (press DVD and SAT buttons on the front panel simultaneously to find out).

I have commented on this in this thread:
Arcam AVR300 DSP 1.12 upgrade - Sound change?

[ANDY_DUTTON]

Your old system in common with most ampliferes that had volume pots usually allowed you to drive the amplifer massively into clipping, I mean 40- 50dB into clipping. This often meant that the amplifer would be at its max unclipped volume for a CD input at 1/4 to 1/2 of the volume control range. This was done partly to allow old quiet sources such as old radios or some record decks to be turned up and partly because people were impressed by how loud the amplifer appeared to play.

Because in a unit with a volume pot the noise floor is reduced as the volume pot is turned down this was not really a problem. However if in a digitally controlled analogue volume control such as used in the AVR300 you did this you would just get lots of hiss as the noise floor would be at the loudest level even when the volume control was at the lowest level.

So we have balanced the volume range of the AVR300 to the input of the amplifer. You can still drive it into clipping using a normal source but we have set it up so this would only be about 10dB on a loud recording. The basic upshot of this is that it is quite safe to play an AVR300 at max volume as it will be just into clipping on very loud passages. This does not mean the AVR300 is less powerfull it just means that we have set it up so you can't drive it massively into clipping and damage both your hearing and your speakers.

Regards,
Andrew

[glimball]

Thanks roffe and thanks Andy,

I have checked my software and find that it is only 2.74! I've written to Crustyloafer for advice on the multiple step upgrade needed to the latest versions.

Why haven't I upgraded before? Well, I only bought the unit a few months ago AND to upgrade means flying down to Dubai with risks of damage in the hold (they won't usually let electronic gear of this kind travel in my hand baggage.)

This is now getting off-task for this thread - so I'll stop - except to ask if Andy also has any advice he could PM to me and, perhaps, he could comment on why the software is so old on a recently purchased unit?

[Hifi addict]

I guess, the device was in stock with the dealer or countrydealer for a "long" time.

reason for this is that shipping 1 device every time it is sold, is very expensive and will take a long time.

Keeping stock is a way to service new clients quickly. A simple software update will do, as I assume that no hardware updates have taken place since

[roffe]

You don't need to upgrade in multiple steps. You need two upgrade files, which you apply in this sequence:

1) The DSP 1.12 upgrade
2) The AVR300 software upgrade version 3.16

These are complete upgrades which include all previous corrections, so you don't need all the older upgrades between your version and these.

[roffe]

I have some passages that now seem to drive the amplifier to "clipping" around the 90dB setting on the volume control. Only it doesn't seem like analogue clipping, but rather high pitched noise spikes when playing loud snare drums, threatening to kill off my speaker tweeters. I think this is strange, as the volume is not very loud, and it behaves the same even with a digital stereo PCM input, and thus letting the AVR300 do the decoding.

I find this strange, and I have experienced this on two completely different loudspeakers, and it seems to me that the spikes occur suddenly, without "warning", at the same volume control setting, independently from the kind of speaker chosen. It sounds like static crackling, and is very annoying.

Anyone else experiencing this? As it is, I almost don't dare playing the unit above 85dB, which gives me a sound level that I could easily achieve with an amp costing a small fraction of the price of the AVR300.

Anyone else experiencing this problem (high pitched static clipping noise, almost like pure static crackle, on a tweeter killing level with about 90dB volume control setting)?