Cambridge Azur 540R volume idiosyncrasies

DaveReading

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My trusty CA Azur AVR died recently, and while I mull over a more upmarket replacement I've bought a second-hand one (540R V1) as a stopgap.

It works well, within the limitations of the spec, apart from a couple of odd behaviours. One is that the rotary volume control doesn't do anything (no change there, its predecessor had the same problem!), but I can live with that.

The other issue, also related to volume, is a bit odder: when playing a stereo source without using any DSP, the remote will happily lower the volume, but refuses to increase it. Select one of the Pro Logic II modes or play a Dolby source, and the remote will happily control the volume on both directions.

I know the 540R series is prone to volume-related bugs, but just wondering if anyone else has come across this particular one? I've tried the reset procedure, but I'm not sure what, if anything, that actually achieves - while the manual says it returns to factory default settings, it doesn't appear to have any effect on the tuner presets, for example.

If only there was a jumper that would erase the NVM. :)
 
Having got progressively more suspicious about what DTS/PLII were doing to my CD reproduction (even with the centre and surrounds disabled), I stumbled upon a fix to the above (entirely by accident):

While selecting stereo defaults to an indicated -50dB, but with almost inaudible volume from the speakers and no response to the Volume Up key on the remote, I found that then selecting either Bass or Treble and making even a small adjustment with the +/- keys immediately restored the volume to the expected level AND enabled the Volume Up on the remote.

If anyone else is suffering the same problem with their 540R, I'd recommend trying the above.
 

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