Post by terence May 12, 2006 (1 of 14)
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confused technically, i'm afraid. recently bought some new amplification. guy in shop started asking me where my speakers are in my room, and punching in distances to an on-screen menu to "set the amp up right" (or so he told me).
then he told me i needed to do the same with my marantz universal player. i haven't really got a clue what he means. i specially don't understand why, if he has "set up" the amp depending on the distance i sit from my speakers, i then have to do the same again for my SACD player?!
surely the player just passes on a neutral signal, uninterfered with, and then the amplifier does something with it? why would i need to alter the signal in the player, then have it altered again in the amplifier?
i hope somebody reading this can understand what i'm talking about, because i don't.
HELP please?! i feel a total dimwit, and the hi-fi guy says all this is REALLY important....
[P.S. i can't even get the menu up on the TV screen to start with!].
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Post by mandel May 12, 2006 (2 of 14)
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Providing the delays (to compensate for distance) on the pre-amp work when you're using the multi-channel input then there is no reason to set-up delays on your player as well. I suspect that they will, but you'd need another Arcam user to confirm this 100%.
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Post by terence May 12, 2006 (3 of 14)
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would you say these delays are truly important mandel?
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Post by fafnir May 12, 2006 (4 of 14)
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terence said:
confused technically, i'm afraid. recently bought some new amplification. guy in shop started asking me where my speakers are in my room, and punching in distances to an on-screen menu to "set the amp up right" (or so he told me).
then he told me i needed to do the same with my marantz universal player. i haven't really got a clue what he means. i specially don't understand why, if he has "set up" the amp depending on the distance i sit from my speakers, i then have to do the same again for my SACD player?!
surely the player just passes on a neutral signal, uninterfered with, and then the amplifier does something with it? why would i need to alter the signal in the player, then have it altered again in the amplifier?
i hope somebody reading this can understand what i'm talking about, because i don't.
HELP please?! i feel a total dimwit, and the hi-fi guy says all this is REALLY important....
[P.S. i can't even get the menu up on the TV screen to start with!].
Some players duplicate settings that are present in your preamp. These settings include base management and speaker distance. If set various distances both in the preamp and in the player, your will wind up with incorrect distances overall. Distances are important.
The way to do it IMO, if you have these setting available in both player and preamp, as evidentally you do, is to leave the settings in the player at default. This would be the same distance to each speaker, and to make sure that each speaker you have is set to "large." Then proceed to set the speaker distances in your preamp to the correct distance and to set the speakers to large or small, depending on what it is. Generally, the sub does not have a large or small setting - either you have one or you don't.
If your front speakers are set to small, you probably have the opportunity to adjust the crossover frequency to the sub. I suggest that, for now, you not bother with this. You may want to return to it later after you gain more experience with your system.
My system provides the option of having the sub replicate low frequencies in the front speakers even if they are set to large. If yours has this capabilty, you may want to experiment with it. It any event, the sub will play the .1 information in SACDs whether the front speakers are large or small.
You will have to use your manual to adjust the configuration. They are generally not intuitive. I don't know how to connect to the TV. It should be in the manual. If all else fails, call or email the manufacturer - most are fairly helpful.
If it's any consolation, when I first received my SACD equipment - receiver and player - I spent many hours before I finally got it right. And I'm a retired communications engineer with 42 years experience. The manuals were beyond terrible.
Best of luck.
Brian
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Post by mandel May 12, 2006 (5 of 14)
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terence said:
would you say these delays are truly important mandel?
I'm just listening to some chamber music (in DTS:Neo6) and as a test I played with the delay for the centre channel. The effect was much more pronounced than I'd have expected, the soundstage loses focus if the delays are out, even by just 20-30 centimetres. Definitely worth getting your tape measure out :D
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Post by cyril May 12, 2006 (6 of 14)
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I dont know exactly what gear you have, but normally the analog six channel inputs on most recievers/preamps do not go through any digital processing, thus do not get time or level adjusted. Therefore you must enter time delay and level corrections into your SACD player. However each manufacturer does things diffently, so it pays to read the manual..
Normally the time settings in the preamplifer/AVR are only applied to DD and DTS signals recieved via the spdif port.
Cyril
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cyril said:
I dont know exactly what gear you have, but normally the analog six channel inputs on most recievers/preamps do not go through any digital processing, thus do not get time or level adjusted. Therefore you must enter time delay and level corrections into your SACD player. However each manufacturer does things diffently, so it pays to read the manual..
Normally the time settings in the preamplifer/AVR are only applied to DD and DTS signals recieved via the spdif port.
Cyril
This is an important distinction and you would do well to investigate how the preamp handled these settings.
Further, if you can mangage to arrange everything to be equidistant from the listening chair and go "DSD direct", that would eliminate a lot of signal processing and yield the most pure sound.
Nevertheless, I am using these compensation settings on my equipment right now and getting wonderful results!
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Post by cyril May 14, 2006 (8 of 14)
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Terence, if you could tell us what AVR/preamp you have and point us to a pdf of the manual (if it is not online) then I would be more than happy to advise.
Regards
Cyril
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Post by ramesh May 14, 2006 (9 of 14)
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I have a Marantz DV 9600 as well.
The most likely reason you don't have the start up menu on the screen is that the 'video off' button has been activated by mistake on the remote. When 'video off' has been selected, an icon is seen on the player display. Some detail is available of the 9600 in the June 2006 issue of Hi Fi Choice. Audioholics.com has a thorough review of the preceding DV 9500's video capabilities.
The DV 9600 was specifically designed for optimal multichannel sound from the i-link output, to Marantz's 9600 A-V amplifier. The Marantz i-link has been tweaked above standard specifications to reduce jitter, but this performance is only available via this Marantz i-link av processor. This digital out keeps the multichannel DSD feed in the digital domain until it reaches the digital circuitry of the processor. The advantage of this digital feed is to obviate the need for 6 expensive analogue interconnects, jitter reduction, etc. ( I have Straightwire virtuoso analogue interconnects as I have stereo only; these cost US $ 450 per pair new; but any cheaper analogue interconnect may not be realising the potential of the player. Only mentioned because you haven't specified which Nordost cable you use. If it's Valhalla I'm sure it'll sound very nice.)
If you have an i-link equipped av receiver, it should be easy to programme the speaker distances yourself, as Marantz specify it in metres, rather than time delay ie msec.
If you are connecting it to a TV, the HDMI output gives a more artefact free picture than the component. However, non HDCP HDMI televisions and receivers will not accept the Marantz HDMI, as it is HDCP encrypted. I had to change from a Samsung to a Sony TV last year as all Sony HDMIs are HDCP compliant, but obviously not for Samsung. The excellent gamma calibration of the Marantz ( I have it on near max ) will give a good dark punchy black with excellent greyscale tracking.
The ac cable on all Marantz players seem crappy ( though I haven't seen that of the SA 11 ). I bought a JPS labs digital ac cable, US $ 375, for my old Marantz DV 8300. The performance improvement of the cable is in the sound, not the picture, and is very significant.
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terence said:
confused technically, i'm afraid. recently bought some new amplification. guy in shop started asking me where my speakers are in my room, and punching in distances to an on-screen menu to "set the amp up right" (or so he told me).
then he told me i needed to do the same with my marantz universal player. i haven't really got a clue what he means. i specially don't understand why, if he has "set up" the amp depending on the distance i sit from my speakers, i then have to do the same again for my SACD player?!
surely the player just passes on a neutral signal, uninterfered with, and then the amplifier does something with it? why would i need to alter the signal in the player, then have it altered again in the amplifier?
i hope somebody reading this can understand what i'm talking about, because i don't.
HELP please?! i feel a total dimwit, and the hi-fi guy says all this is REALLY important....
[P.S. i can't even get the menu up on the TV screen to start with!].
Usually a SACD player does not have digital output. If your universal player doesn't have i-link then the only way to connect it to reciever or amp is analog output, stereo or mch. While watching DVD's you can use amp's decoder and digital input or built-in player decoder and analog connections. When using amp's decoder you "set the amp up right". When using built-in maranz player decoder do the same but for player. Assuming that you have analog-only SACD output this is the only way to set up your system for SACD reproduction.
As for on-screen menu if the TV's screen is blank there's no signal from player. Try it with DVD-video disc. If with DVD-video you have picture then I don't know. Try and let us know.
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