|
|
|
Q I would like to know if there is any certain order to powering up and down a home theater system that includes a receiver and power amp that would be easiest on the electronic's inards. I am also curious if it is okay just to leave the power amp on (mine has no standby mode, so it is either off or on). I am usually turning it off and on for maybe a hour at a time during the day and am wondering if leaving it on would be best, then shutting it off at night or when I am at work. Or better yet what do you do?
A The
general rule is to turn preamplifier equipment and sources (CD
Player) on first, then the power amplifier. When shutting them
off, do so in reverse order (power amplifier first). There should
be no problem in leaving the equipment on all the time if you
wish, shutting them down if you go on vacation. However, depending
on the bias of your power amplifier, it may use significant electricity
while sitting there. Feel the top of the amplifier after it has
been on for awhile, and not in use. If it is really warm, then
it might be best to leave it off when you are not using it, to
save money on electricity. If it is cool, then it is efficient
and will cost very little to leave it on. This assumes the equipment
is solid state. Tube amplifiers should always be turned off when
not in use. I use a Rotel RLC-900 AC line conditioner ($200) that
allows me to turn on the receiver, and the Rotel senses the receiver
is on and then turns everything else on in sequence (power amplifiers,
subwoofers, etc.) The Rotel automatically reverses the sequence
at power off. I turn it all off when I am done listening, even
if it is a couple of times a day. I have never had a problem.
Q I recently bought a Sony STR-DE515 Pro Logic receiver. It came with two Celestion Impact 35 front speakers, and three garbage surrounds. I decided to buy three new speakers. I opted for Energy's XLR dipoles for rears and an Energy XLC for a center. Knowing that I should have 5 similar speakers for any future DD/DTS upgrades, can this considerable investment in speakers be integrated into the system?
A If
the Celestions and Energy's have tonal balance from front to rear,
then you are fine as is. Otherwise, you might want to get another
pair of Energy speakers for the front to match tonality. The concept
of having the same speakers all around is just to increase the
chances of having tonal balance. It is perfectly feasible to mix
and match different brands if you do some careful listening.
Q When
I tried hooking up my subwoofer by speaker level inputs for my
main speakers, I experienced a great deal of trouble that frightened
the heck out of me. First, I ran my main L/R speaker cable out
from my receiver and into the speaker level inputs for L/R on
my subwoofer. I then ran my speaker cable from the subwoofer directly
into the main L/R front speakers. As always, I made sure polarity
was closely watched. I have
heard that using RCA cables to connect to the sub-out from my
Yamaha receiver was not the best way to hook-up the subwoofer.
Not to mention the cross-over is so high (90 Hz - although a Yamaha
tech said that the mains still get full frequency even when using
the 90 Hz sub-out). Basically, I wanted my main floors' power
supply to focus on the upper and midrange frequencies so that
I could optimize the overall tonal quality. The way I envisioned
the setup was that I would use the variable crossover in my subwoofer
to optimize the frequency range that both my subwoofer and towers
would "see." Once I found the best crossover combination,
the subwoofer and its built-in power supply would handle the deep
bass, and the towers with their respective power supplies would
be responsible for the rest. Seemingly the whole system would
sound better by freeing my towers from having to reproduce deep
bass. When I hooked it all up for a test drive, things went sour
quickly. As long as I had the subwoofer on, everything seemed
to be OK. However, when I turned the subwoofer off , a few seconds
later a 10 sec burst of very low hum shot out to my towers. Following
the short burst of hum, the overall speaker volume dropped a considerable
amount. Needless to say, this freaked me out. Admittedly, I have
little experience hooking up subwoofers in this manner. Did I
do something wrong? I live in an apartment, so I can not always
have my subwoofer on. When I turn it off, what does that do to
the signal as it goes into my towers? It seemed like when I turned
off the subwoofer, its circuitry was disabled allowing some dying
signal to flow out to my speakers. Then, the volume would drop
to an almost inaudible amount. All of my speakers were Polks,
and I thought I followed the instructions correctly. I would be
greatly interested to hear your comments on this matter.
A The
crossover in the subwoofer is affected by power on or off, so
if you want to continue using the system the way you have it,
simply turn the volume down on the subwoofer when your neighbors
are bothered by it, rather than turning the power off. Keep track
of where the volume control is set when you want it on, then just
readjust the volume at that time. The high-pass out from the subwoofer
back to your mains is fixed, usually somewhere around 80 Hz, so
you won't get < 80 Hz sound in your main speakers when the
sub is turned down. I would suggest using the subwoofer line-level
output jack on the receiver rather than the speaker-level signals.
This way, when you need to turn down the bass, the subwoofer can
be left at power off, and it won't affect the main speaker sound.
Q I have purchased DTS LD software but was unable to play it with my current Pioneer LD player. It gives a hiss output, but is fine for Dolby Digital. I also have DTS DVD software region 1 (from my friend's stay in US) but I live in region 3 (Singapore). How do I solve this problem? Which player do you recommended in region 3 that can play DTS LD + DVD?
A First,
let's make sure you have the right connections. To play DTS LDs,
you need a digital coax output or Toslink digital optical output
on the LD player. The digital output from the LD player goes to
the digital coax or digital optical input on a DTS decoder. The
analog outputs from the DTS decoder go to the 5.1 analog inputs
on the receiver. If you play a DTS LD using the analog coax output
jacks on the player connected to analog input jacks on your receiver,
you will hear the hiss, because the DTS signal is not being decoded
properly. The new Pioneer LD/DVD player is DTS compatible, and
will handle DD DVDs, DTS DVDs, DD LDs, and DTS LDs.
Q Motorola
has announced [on their web page @http://mot-sps.com/ADC/markets/dspaudio/DSP56362.html]
the arrival of a
new DSP56362 chip that is to replace the 56000 and 56300 core
family chips used in 24 bit A/V surround sound decoders. Do you
know of an
amplifier/processor/decoder/receiver that has this latest chip
already installed in the box?
I believe that B&K products have a special relationship with Motorola - something like testing grounds. Perhaps B&K's new AVR202 contains this chip? If so, it seems it would out-perform any of the current DTS decoders that sport the earlier 56009 chip.
I have read that the Yamaha DSP-A1 uses
the 56009 chip. I had decided to purchase the A1 in about a month.
I am getting second thoughts now in light of some new developments.
I would like to get a receiver that contains the latest chip.
Can you confirm if the A1 actually uses the
56009 chip or does it use one of Yamaha's own integrated chips?
On a slightly related note, I read your
review of the Yamaha DTS-DVD player (S700). It all sounds great
except you have to switch the unit by
remote before it will recognize the DTS audio bit stream. This
is not a good feature. Do you know of any DTS DVD players that
automatically
switch from DTS and DD without the consumer having to do anything?
A The
DSP-A1 does use the 56009 DTS chip. You can see it in the circuit
diagram of the review. It's almost impossible to buy something
with the latest chip, because by the time a product comes out
with that chip, there is already another chip being announced.
What I look for is overall performance of the component, rather
than whether or not it contains a specific chip. With the DVD-S700
player, you have to go to the menu and turn on the DTS digital
out. After that, the digital output jack will pass DD and DTS
automatically without having to do anything else (except decode
the bitstream in the decoder or receiver).
Q I
need help deciding whether to purchase a 32XBR100 (a few are still
left at a local dealer), or wait for the 32XBR200. I know the
32XBR100 is a fine set, but the 32XBR200 seems to be borrowing
from the 32XBR48, which I did not think was as good as the 32XBR100.
I was hoping you may have some insight or advance info to help
in this comparison.
A You
should wait for the 32XBR200 if DVD is in your future. The 200
has their new Trinitron Wega Flat tube and component video inputs.
A lot of magazines have down played the quality of component video,
but they are wrong. Component video signals give superb pictures.
Q I recently read your article on the Yamaha DVD-S700 DVD player. In this review, and in the Q&A, you state, "As you will see, it does not perform very well with audio on CDs, but no mass market DVD player does." Yet in your June Review of the Panasonic DVD A310 you state, "If I had to complain at all, I'd say that the sound was a bit edgy and strained, but overall I was very pleased with what I heard... I was pleasantly surprised with the sound coming from CDs, enough so that this player could easily double as a decent CD player."
This seems almost contradictory. Because
the 'audiophile' world is so touchy with components ranging from
mid-fi $300-500 to tens of thousands of dollars, this inspires
me to ask, when you say that the DVD CD performance is not very
good, are you judging that versus a $10,000 player, a $1,000 Rega
Planet, a $500 Adcom, or a $300 Sony ES? I have an older Sony
ES, and I dare say that CDs sound
better from the A310 than the CD player. Therefore, is it worth
it (if I don't have the money for something really expensive,
i.e., $1000+) to get a mid-fi CD player like an Adcom or Parasound?
A Your
question points out the fact that much of what review magazines
do is subjective. Ralph Calabria reviewed the Panasonic A-310,
and I reviewed the Yamaha DVD-S700. The irony is that Panasonic
makes the S-700 for Yamaha (this sort of thing is common in the
hi-fi industry), so the players are very similar. To my ears,
I found the DVD player to sound a bit edgy, but that is just my
subjective perception, and it carries through to the previous
DVD players I have encountered. Our laserdisc player was less
edgy, but it was still (to my ears) not as good as the various
CD players we have in the lab (including Audio Alchemy and McCormack).
I don't think you need to go to a $10,000 CD player to get great
results. If you are happy with the CD sound from the A-310 DVD
player, then you need look no further. However, before you decide,
take your Sony ES with you to an audio store and listen to it
in comparison with other CD players, side-by-side with the same
electronics in the rest of the system. Also listen to CDs and
DADs on whatever DVD player they have.
Q So
long as you take care to avoid covering up the ventilation slits,
is there any reason that a (non-tube) amplifier couldn't be
oriented on its side rather than in the standard horizontal flat
position? (That is, can I stand it on its side?)
Also (second question), if one provides
additional amplification for the front main drivers only, does
it become difficult to volume match the center channel?
A The
heat sinks in an amplifier work by a "chimney effect",
meaning that the heat travels upward from in between the blades
(fins), drawing cooler air from beneath. If you turn the amplifier
on its side, the blades will be oriented horizontally rather than
vertically, and the chimney effect will be substantially reduced.
Therefore, I would not recommend doing this. As to your second
question, it would only be a problem if you want to crank the
sytem up to volumes that the lesser powered center channel could
not handle. Since you can control the center channel volume separately
from the front left/right, it is a matter of lowering one in reference
to the other, but should still be rather easy to do. However,
keep in mind that the center channel gets most of the signal,
so if you really want to increase the power available, do it for
the center channel first, then the front left/right.