Help with 4306 - Setup questions

smanaton

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Hi Guys,

I want to do 2 things, have a 7.1 setup and also bi amp my front speakers

looks like i wont be able to do that though :(

is it a case of one or the other? i could imagine that this would be a popular configuration?

one option is to buy a power amp, would something like a ROTEL RB03 do the trick? its only 70WPC but its cheap, i dont really want to be spending loads of money (if any!)

my kit list is below and i'll also be adding my old KEF TDM65DS for the rear surrounds

Any ideas?

any help greatly appreciated!!

Shane
 
Basically, you can do one or the other unless you start adding in poweramps. Fairly sure you can use the 4306 to Bi-Amp the Fronts and the poweramp for the Surround Backs.
 
Fairly sure you can use the 4306 to Bi-Amp the Fronts and the poweramp for the Surround Backs.

I've got my recently acquired Denon POA-T10 pressed into bi-amping duties on my Fronts because my 3805 appears to be unable to decode and allow you to set levels and delays when the poweramp is assigned away from the surroundback to either Zone 2 or Zone 3. If the 4306 allows 2 of the surround back amps to be assigned for bi-amping duties AND yet still allow you set levels and distance (EDIT: of the surround back speakers), then I can't wait to save my pennies for a similar set up.

To check if this is the case, assign the Power Amp to the Fronts for bi-amping and then see if there are still options for you to adjust the parameters for the surround back speakers whilst in "bi-amp" mode. On my 3805 all options for surround back disappear!
 
Shane, have you managed to do check whether it is possible to change the delay and level of the surround back speakers when you have assigned their amps to bi-amp the fronts? I am interested to learn whether you can or can't. Thanks.

Bob
 
Shane, have you managed to do check whether it is possible to change the delay and level of the surround back speakers when you have assigned their amps to bi-amp the fronts? I am interested to learn whether you can or can't. Thanks.

Bob

Hi Malice,

Sorry, never got a notification of the thread being updated, for the moment i have bi amped the front speakers and left the setup as 5.1, i'm off out in a minute but when i get back this evening i will have a look and see if i still get the option to change the surround options, will let you know, i'm still thinking what to do, did you match the power output from the power amp to that of the av amp? i'm not sure if i have to do that or not

Thanks,

Shane
 
As I am using the 3805 AND an external Poweramp to bi-amp my fronts, it is crucial IMO to have them matched for power and gain. If had used the 3805's extra surround back amps to bi-amp the fronts (a non std 3805 feature but a kludge of a workaround) then I would have been less worried about power and gain for powering up the surround back. However, I don't think I would have opted for a 70wpc rear amp when the mains are at 130W like yours. I think that would have been too much of a mismatch TBH.

I had considered looking for a 5 channel Rotel Power amp, two each to drive the fronts in bi-amp, and the 5th to drive the center. But these were fairly costly and I believe I got my Denon POA-T10 at a more cost effective price in terms of my final set up.

Bi-amping is worth it though in my experience.

Bob
 
Hi Malice,

Sorry for the delay in replying, i will get a chance to have a play with this tomorrow

I think i am going to get a power amp to run the front speakers, something with 5 channels and use 4 channels to bi amp the fronts, the kefs are power hungry so i think it will work better, i want to do that as cheap as possible though
 
I think it was Buckster who recently had a Rotel 5 ch amp @ 110W per channel for sale in here. NOt sure what happened to it.

I am still intrigued to learn of your "Playing" with the bi-amp setting and what happens to the surround back speaker settings/parameters!
 
Hi,

When i assign the power amp to the fronts the suround options disappear for the surround back, i can still use surround a and surround b but not sure if it will work how i want it, seems though that i wouldnt be able to use a power amp for the rears

i was hoping this was going to be easy :(
 
TBH that's what I thought would happen, which means that if you use the inbuilt bi-amping capability by assigning the Power Amps to the "FRONT", then it appears that you cannot use an external amp to power the surround back because there is no option to enter delay and levels.

The only way to biamp the fronts and have 7.1 is one of two ways:

(1) have a matched gain external power amp which can be used in "parallel" with the 4306's front amps, or
(2) have a separate 5 channel amp which will biamp front right and left and then the centre probably as well.

Option 2 seems an expensive way to go! Looks like I've dropped lucky with the POA-T10 power amp being a dead match for my amp.

Jase: It looks like the surround back processing is also removed if the Pamp is assigned away from them! Seems like a useful feature to have for the surround-back pre-outs.
 
shame that surround b wasnt the switchable power amp, would make more sense!

I'm puzzled by what sort of power i'm going to need going to the front channels, maybe i could get away with 2 cheaper 2 channel amps (seems to be cheaper to buy 2 than a multi channel)

any idea what sort of wattage i would need, my speakers are 4ohms so i think the more power the better but as a stop gap (contract has expired and only have a few days work lined up at the moment)

Rotel RB03 rated at 70wpc @ 8ohms all channels driven

so presumably 140wpc @ 4ohms?

or doesnt it work like that?

grateful for any help!

Shane
 
afterthought,

the autosetup tests for surround rears anyway, if a power amp was plugged in maybe you would get the surround options back after it had thought the speakers?
 
shame that surround b wasnt the switchable power amp, would make more sense!

Just bear in mind that Surround A and Surround B share the same amplification. They'd have to include extra Amps for Surround B to really be able to assign them properly.
 
Just bear in mind that Surround A and Surround B share the same amplification. They'd have to include extra Amps for Surround B to really be able to assign them properly.

ah yes, good point
 
IMHO I think that although the 4306 is rated at 130W against my 120W, the POA-T10 with 120W was a nudge louder than the 3805. If I were you I'd be tempted to look for one of these (or the T2) and bi-amp the fronts with the 4306. I think they'll be close enough as to not cause any issues with gain and matching. Cheaper than getting complete new amplification across your fronts.
 
FWIW there's a couple of Rotel RB-981 on that big auction site. They are 130W per channel with an input sensivity of 1v. Your 4306 has a rated output of 1.2V like mine. Unless anyone has some other insight into this combo, it may be worth a punt for about £150.
 
I have setup my recently purchased AVR 4306 and everything seems to be running fine ... both audio and video results are stunning. I just managed to activate the network connectivity features and am able to listen to internet radio channels, connect to my PC and stream MP3 files and control the unit from my PC.

My question is specific to internet radio. In order to choose specific internet radio channels that are not on the Denon database, I tried the option "my Added stations" where i am asked for the station URL (incl IP address). Now I am not able to find such a URL for any of the internet radio sites!!.

Anybody who has done this? pls pls help ... is there any directory of internet radio sites from where I can get this information?

If this is not the correct thread to be posting to ... my apologies ... this is my first post on this forum.
 
Well .... I have already gone to radiodenon.com and registered my receiver and seen the directory of stations ... unfortunately they dont have the stations i am interested in ... so when i try adding my own it asks for URL (with IP address) and that is where I am stuck.

Any ideas on where / how to get the URL with IP address that would work will be useful - sharing of experiences by those who have already done something like this would be invaluable.
 
I spent a little while on this but then gave up. I would welcome any more info anyone else comes up with...
 

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