Help Denon x1700h has stressed me out big time

woodski13

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OK so today at 10.00am I started a new complete set up of my new surround system . 12 hours later and I feel I've got no where . I replaced a cheap £120 dz260 sony surround kit which is 12 years old and at this stage sounds better .
I've got a new x1700h which I've calibrated twice with the audyssey mic . Both times it sounds terrible . On normal TV I hear to much from the rear speakers and alot of speech also comes through the rears which just doesn't sound right and over powers the centre speaker . I'm using a sky q box which is hdmi into the avr and then from avr hdmi out into the TV through the earc hdmi . There is hardly any bass coming from the sub either .
Another problem is if I cast youtube off my phone I get no sound .if i use YouTube on TV still no sound but if i use YouTube on sky q I get sound but only in stereo so it sounds naff . Tried a different hdmi on TV but no different. The earc hdmi is also causing conflicts with my avr and firestick and sky box if I switch between these devices .The TV is an LG 65c1 .
As of yet this avr is doing no justice to my new bk sb300pr sub . I'm sure it's me doing something wrong as I'm new to these bits of kit .
I have attached some pics which might help you understand more than I do. Any help would be great as I'm going to wake to this issue and get stressed again .thanks.
 

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Firstly increase your crossovers to 80hz and see how that sounds. You should see a big improvement as you are not utilising your sub properly at the moment.
 
First off i would set all your speakers to small with an 80hz crossover for all your speakers as jonjames has stated and switch off both Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume in the Audyssey setting.
 
Firstly increase your crossovers to 80hz and see how that sounds. You should see a big improvement as you are not utilising your sub properly at the moment.
Just tried 80hz on all speakers and tried a movie ,slight improvement but very tinny sounding as well but could do with more bass . Also tried normal TV and still sounds bad the rears are overkill
 
Also set all speakers to small. You can also try disable Audyssey Dynamic EQ as it makes the surrounds too loud IMO.
 
Are you using Audyssey flat or reference? Flat will be a bit ‘tinny’, reference reduces high frequencies but they both should sound good.
 
Also make sure all these are off as loudness management is usually on by default.
4CB31655-AC9F-44E4-AA23-8ABC67F18E80.png
 
First off i would set all your speakers to small with an 80hz crossover for all your speakers as jonjames has stated and switch off both Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume in the Audyssey setting.
OK so just tried these and a definite improvement the tinny sound is alot better and speech in rear surrounds is also better . Starting to look up now .
 
OK so just tried these and a definite improvement the tinny sound is alot better and speech in rear surrounds is also better . Starting to look up now .
What speech in the rear surrounds are you talking about? What sourround format are you trying to listen to? Meaning DD 5.1/Atmos etc?
 
Your sub setting is -8.5 dB raise it a few dbs and see if your base sounds any better
 
What speech in the rear surrounds are you talking about? What sourround format are you trying to listen to? Meaning DD 5.1/Atmos etc?
I'm just listening to what format it selects . The rears are definitely better using the settings suggested in an earlier post .
 
Your sub setting is -8.5 dB raise it a few dbs and see if your base sounds any better
Went to -6.5 dB and sounds better again . Is there a limit you should try not to go above or is it personal taste just don't want to damage anything in the first 24hrs .
 
Went to -6.5 dB and sounds better again . Is there a limit you should try not to go above or is it personal taste just don't want to damage anything in the first 24hrs .
I'd just raise it to your personal taste but I'm no expert when I calibrate my Sony avr I always have to lower it because it was near 0 and shaking the house :)
 
I add 4db to my sub post calibration with the same sub as you.
 
As you are new to the Denon, did you set it up via the Setup Assistant last entry on the main menu?

This will take you through the whole procedure of configuring and setting everything up.
 
Audyssey isn't magic. It's needs some help. When you calibrate with Audyssey, there's a few things to do before running it. Fiddling afterwards doesn't give the best results.
  • As has already been said set the speakers to small and the crossover on all of them to 80hz. Doesn't matter even if your mains will go lower.
  • Up to you as to where you set the subwoofer crossover to. I had mine set to 100Hz and I used LFE+Main, but I've seen that setting starting religious wars on some other forums.
  • Kill Dynamic EQ, Dynamic volume and LFC.
  • Set the Subwoofer Level to something ridiculously low like -10 or -11
  • On the Sub itself set the gain to a little under half way. I always found Audyssey seemed to to undermeasure the the bass so this builds in headway.
Run Audyssey again.

After calibration:
  • Check the distances are correct. For the sub further away is OK, but closer is bad. I found Audyssey was a bit and miss on detecting distances.
  • Make sure Dynamic EQ, Dynamic volume and LFC are still disabled.
  • Unless you have high end speakers, consider midrange compensation.
  • Adjust the Subwoofer level in the settings and the gain on your sub to suit your tastes.
 
Audyssey isn't magic. It's needs some help. When you calibrate with Audyssey, there's a few things to do before running it. Fiddling afterwards doesn't give the best results.
  • As has already been said set the speakers to small and the crossover on all of them to 80hz. Doesn't matter even if your mains will go lower.
  • Up to you as to where you set the subwoofer crossover to. I had mine set to 100Hz and I used LFE+Main, but I've seen that setting starting religious wars on some other forums.
  • Kill Dynamic EQ, Dynamic volume and LFC.
  • Set the Subwoofer Level to something ridiculously low like -10 or -11
  • On the Sub itself set the gain to a little under half way. I always found Audyssey seemed to to undermeasure the the bass so this builds in headway.
Run Audyssey again.

After calibration:
  • Check the distances are correct. For the sub further away is OK, but closer is bad. I found Audyssey was a bit and miss on detecting distances.
  • Make sure Dynamic EQ, Dynamic volume and LFC are still disabled.
  • Unless you have high end speakers, consider midrange compensation.
  • Adjust the Subwoofer level in the settings and the gain on your sub to suit your tastes.
If the OP runs Audyssey again after making the changes then they will have to set speakers back to small and change the crossover back to 80hz.
 
I strongly recommend paying for the Multieq app so you can create your own curve. Pretty frustrating battling Audyssey without it. A Youtuber recently toured the Sound United (Denon's parent company) headquarters and the marketing director showed him the Audyssey curve that they use in the demo room. All channels have about an 8-10db bass boost and a slight downward sloping curve, none of which you can do without the app. Seems a little weird they would publicly admit that the default curve is so inadequate, but there you go. One thing you can do with the regular in-receiver setup is drop the surround levels a bit if they're too loud, which is one of the first things I do after loading a new calibration.

Boost.png
 
Last edited:
Audyssey isn't magic. It's needs some help. When you calibrate with Audyssey, there's a few things to do before running it. Fiddling afterwards doesn't give the best results.
  • As has already been said set the speakers to small and the crossover on all of them to 80hz. Doesn't matter even if your mains will go lower.
  • Up to you as to where you set the subwoofer crossover to. I had mine set to 100Hz and I used LFE+Main, but I've seen that setting starting religious wars on some other forums.
  • Kill Dynamic EQ, Dynamic volume and LFC.
  • Set the Subwoofer Level to something ridiculously low like -10 or -11
  • On the Sub itself set the gain to a little under half way. I always found Audyssey seemed to to undermeasure the the bass so this builds in headway.
Run Audyssey again.

After calibration:
  • Check the distances are correct. For the sub further away is OK, but closer is bad. I found Audyssey was a bit and miss on detecting distances.
  • Make sure Dynamic EQ, Dynamic volume and LFC are still disabled.
  • Unless you have high end speakers, consider midrange compensation.
  • Adjust the Subwoofer level in the settings and the gain on your sub to suit your tastes.
I will try recalibration very soon and try setting another preset if that's possible with these settings .
 
I strongly recommend paying for the Multieq app so you can create your own curve. Pretty frustrating battling Audyssey without it. A Youtuber recently toured the Sound United (Denon's parent company) headquarters and the marketing director showed him the Audyssey curve that they use in the demo room. All channels have about an 8-10db bass boost and a slight downward sloping curve, none of which you can do without the app. Seems a little weird they would publicly admit that the default curve is so inadequate, but there you go. One thing you can do with the regular in-receiver setup is drop the surround levels a bit if they're too loud, which is one of the first things I do after loading a new calibration.

View attachment 1627782
Once I suss the basics I will probably get this but the reviews look pretty bad .
 
Today I have got to a point where I'm starting to see its potential thanks to all these replies .It's a big learning curve coming from my old set up . The avr is even working with the hdmi port today as yesterday it kept giving a black screen or no sound .
One thing I have noticed though is yesterday it said atmos on the avr on a movie but today it won't show that . I must of changed a setting but clueless as to what or even if its been changed on my TV. Probably best not to mess for a day or 2 .
I'm so pleased you guys have helped so much ,thanks .
 
I will try recalibration very soon and try setting another preset if that's possible with these settings .
Use all the positions with the mic that are available to you. The first position is the most important. Have it at your main listening position (MLP). It should be placed at a seated head height and the mic should be held in the vertical position and perfectly level. A simple mic boom stand would be best.

Post calibration set all speakers to small. Set the crossover to 80hz if Audyssey has detected the roll off as being lower than that figure. Do not lower to 80hz if Audyssey has detected it as higher. Set LPF for LFE to 120hz, the default setting. LFE only, LFE+Main can cause boomy bass because of timing issues and is best avoided.

Levels can also be adjusted post calibration to suit your personal taste, this will not effect the room calibration. I find that Audyssey has a tendency to set my surrounds too high for me personally.

Tinny sound. This could be down to your speaker positioning and a photograph of your speakers in their current position would be most helpful. If you have the centre on a shelf then make sure it is sitting proud of the shelf edge by around 25mm.
 
I will take a picture of set up Gibbsy when the light is better in my living room .
I'm still tinkering with the sound as i am unhappy with the tinny (did move speaker 25mm over shelf) hollow speech even after following the above tips . So downloading the instuctions i discover you can manually EQ .To do this i had to disable the MultiEQ XT option which then allows manual eq of the centre speaker . Is this a bad move ? will i lose other sounds/effects done during initial setup . I have now got to a point where im happy with the centre speaker but not sure of other problems this may cause with the multiEQ.
 

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