Denon AVC - A11XV Advice Needed on Surround Mode Please

[Rob Wright]

Hi,

 

I just bought a Denon AVC A11XV To replace my Yammy 663 that started to crackle on the left channel. It is a brute of a thing.

I actually use the AVC primarily as a pre amp for my 2 channel system so that I can switch over to watch a movie when I wish.

So the way it is configured is the Front pre outs go to my power amp and I use the surround speaker pins on the AVC for the rear and centre speakers. The sub is on the pre out.

 

This monstrous Denon can take three sets of surround speakers. Surround A, Surround B and Surround Back. I only want to use one set. There is no real advice in the manual about which set to use if doing this. But I can turn sets on and off and select large or small speaker and I am aware of how and why to use that function. The thing I am concerned about is not knowing how the sound is channeled to A,B and Back which is making me unsure of which to choose and why? Or once I turn the others off does all the sound go to the one left on. That makes sense to me but looking for confirmation if any body that really understands how these things work can help that wo0ulod be greatly appreciated.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Rob Wright

[cwt]

6 hours ago, Rob Wright said:

This monstrous Denon can take three sets of surround speakers. Surround A, Surround B and Surround Back. I only want to use one set. There is no real advice in the manual about which set to use if doing this. But I can turn sets on and off and select large or small speaker and I am aware of how and why to use that function. The thing I am concerned about is not knowing how the sound is channeled to A,B and Back which is making me unsure of which to choose and why? Or once I turn the others off does all the sound go to the one left on. That makes sense to me but looking for confirmation if any body that really understands how these things work can help that wo0ulod be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi Rob ; dont have any Denons but recall that surround A is for the settup you require . Surround B is for alternative surround speaker types [ you may like to run both monopole and bipole speakers for your surrounds depending on your source and ambience wants ] ; denon had this pretty unique capability .

You can ignore surround back ; this is for when you are running a 7.1 channel system rather than the 5.1 you are . The back surrounds would go on the back wall and are there to take advantage of any 7.1 soundtracks with dts-es or thx-ex either native or upscaled pl2x ; dts neo6 for example.

Setting large or small is for bass management . If you dont have large floorstanders for your side surrounds [ these will have extended bass compared to smaller on walls ] you have the option of rerouting the bass from a smaller speaker to your subwoofer instead . A good place to start with small surrounds is to set your low pass lfe channel to 80hz thus taking those low frequencies away from your surrounds to the more capable subwoofer 

 

Another option with your capabilities is to run a 5 channel all large speaker settup for any sacd or dvd-a discs/files you have  and a regular bass managed small surround one for movie playback . This is because sacd etc is full range on all channels so you dont need bass management per se for these ; just leave everything full pass with no bass filters  .. just switch surround modes a/b as needed .

This would require another set of speakers so not for everyone  hope this helps 

[Rob Wright]

16 hours ago, cwt said:

Hi Rob ; dont have any Denons but recall that surround A is for the settup you require . Surround B is for alternative surround speaker types [ you may like to run both monopole and bipole speakers for your surrounds depending on your source and ambience wants ] ; denon had this pretty unique capability .

You can ignore surround back ; this is for when you are running a 7.1 channel system rather than the 5.1 you are . The back surrounds would go on the back wall and are there to take advantage of any 7.1 soundtracks with dts-es or thx-ex either native or upscaled pl2x ; dts neo6 for example.

Setting large or small is for bass management . If you dont have large floorstanders for your side surrounds [ these will have extended bass compared to smaller on walls ] you have the option of rerouting the bass from a smaller speaker to your subwoofer instead . A good place to start with small surrounds is to set your low pass lfe channel to 80hz thus taking those low frequencies away from your surrounds to the more capable subwoofer 

 

Another option with your capabilities is to run a 5 channel all large speaker settup for any sacd or dvd-a discs/files you have  and a regular bass managed small surround one for movie playback . This is because sacd etc is full range on all channels so you dont need bass management per se for these ; just leave everything full pass with no bass filters  .. just switch surround modes a/b as needed .

This would require another set of speakers so not for everyone  hope this helps 

Thank you.

I set it up as Surround A and turned the others off. It's all good.

I'm not a serious home theatre bloke, but do like to watch the odd movie.