AVR350 bass management

[Singasong]

Hello,

I'm about to buy a new receiver and the Arcam AVR350 seems to suit me just fine. I'm mostly into concert DVD's and two channel music. My setup consists of 5 Danish Audiovector loudspeakers and a Velodyne DD-18 subwoofer.

Since the DD-18 handles bass extremely well I have set all of my speakers to Small, with an 80 Hz crossover. The front speakers are full range doing a fine job down to about 40 Hz. Yet, in my quite large living room, they don't give a good enough bass experience. With the DD-18 handling all bass below 80 Hz that problem is gone. It integrates really well with the loudspeakers.

However, when playing an action movie containing both heavy bass coded to any of the speakers and .1 LFE bass, I run into a dilemma with my current H/K AVR 5500 receiver. Having all speakers set to Small in the receiver leaves only one subwoofer setup option called SUB. With this option the FR/FL/C/SR/SL bass < 80 Hz is mixed with the .1 LFE bass track and sent to the subwoofer. Now, assume I want to raise the level of the .1 LFE track a bit, while maintaining the dedicated speaker bass < 80 Hz in level with the rest of the sound sent to the speakers. This can't be done in my H/K.

Is the AVR350 bass management more flexible? Or is there some kind of work around for my problem? Do the bass management options differ when setting the front speakers to Large?

As an example take the "Lobby shooting spree" scene in The Matrix: Yes, the .1 LFE effects sound and feel very nice, but the background bass heavy music sounds very exaggerated.

(English is not my native language, so if my problem description is hard to understand just let me know and I'll give it another go). Cheers!

[Mofar]

Can't advise you direct. But pick up the owners manual http://www.arcam.co.uk/downloads/DiVA%20AVR350%20E.pdf
and read if your problem can be solved.

[craigd]

I have an AVR350 - and the bass management is quite flexible but I don't think it allows you to achieve what you want to achieve. I have certainly noticed the same thing in that scene of the Matrix and cannot find a way around it.

[craigd]

Originally Posted by Singasong

Is the AVR350 bass management more flexible? Or is there some kind of work around for my problem? Do the bass management options differ when setting the front speakers to Large?

When the front speakers are large all frequencies intended for the fronts go to the fronts. Unfortunately this doesn't solve my problem because I get very heavy bass from the fronts so I have to send it to the SUB to control it. It may help in your case because you are not getting enough bass from your speakers as I understand it.

[Singasong]

I have tried setting the front speakers large, but feel I'm loosing a bit of the bass intended for those channels. This probably has more to do with how my room is set (affecting possible speaker placement options and listening positions etc) than lacking ability of the speakers themself. The DD-18 makes all of those troubles go away.

What I need is probably a receiver that allows different crossovers for each speaker, combined with advanced room correction capabilities. Otherwise I have to turn the DD-18 down some 8 dB's

As much as I like Arcam products I'm now also considering Denon for my new setup. Still, not even the technically advanced Denon AVR-4306 offers individual adjustment of .1 and routed bass. And It's likely not as musical as the AVR350.

[mario@matrix]

The Velodyne SMS-1 bass EQ management unit was helpful in my two sub setup, varying the levels to balance the audio.
I find that the Matrix lobby scene music is overly bassy and is difficult to improve. Terminator 2 is a better DVD to experience bass in the LFE/sub issue.
Try turning off the EQ and finding the optimun position for the sub and your speakers/listening position and then re-EQ it.

Perhaps the solution to your problem could be an extra sub?

This would allow greater adjustment to smooth and balance the bass.