Getting the most from your AV receiver

A few hints and tips for getting the most from your AV receiver. Some of these will apply more to older models more so than newer ones.

Before we get to the AV receiver itself, it is always worth setting up your speakers as best as you possibly can to get the best sound you can from them, just as you would do with a stereo based system, before allowing your AV receiver's EQ system to go wild. Place the left and right speakers (in relation to your listening position) using music - get them sounding as good as you can get them. Then add in the centre and rears and try and place them in the best position you can to produce as good a sound as you can get at the listening position. THEN, run your auto set up. If you've done a good job setting the speakers up, there will be less work for the receiver's auto setup and EQ to do - the less the speakers are EQ'd, the better as you won't be having to drastically change their output. Ideally, and arguably, no EQ at all will produce a better quality sound, leaving the original signal intact and untouched. Chances are though, the EQ system will make some changes, but hopefully the changes won't be anything too drastic and will have a positively benefit your movie experience.

Not placing the speakers as best you can is likely cause of the notion that an AV system can't sound good with music. It can, if set up with care.

Do try and keep some space around your AV receiver. They do produce a fair amount of heat, especially when being driven hard, even Class D based ones (HDMI boards produce a certain amount of heat). Enclosing it in a cabinet, or placing it in a tight shelf could cause it to overheat and shorten the life span of its internal components, and could lead to an early grave for your receiver!

Run the receiver's auto setup, as it'll sort out the basics you need - speaker distances, speaker levels etc, even if you're not going to use any auto equalisation.

Do double check the results of the auto setup. A microphone can easily be fooled into thinking a speaker is bigger than it actually is because the speaker is placed up against a wall or in a corner, and will more often than not set a small speaker to 'large' - this could result in damaged drive units. If you're in any doubt as to what a particular speaker should be set to, consult your dealer or the manufacturer.

It doesn't matter how much your speakers cost or how good they are, you'll never get the best out of them by going for this month's best buy, five star AV receiver at £500. The receiver has one power supply, and as well as supplying the pre-amplifier section, the video boards, the digital section, the display, the remote circuit etc etc, it also has to drive anything between 5 and 13 speakers at any one time. That's a big ask of any amplifier, and don't be fooled by overhyped power output ratings that are usually measured when only driving ONE speaker!

Even when using a small sub/sat speaker package like the classic KEF 'eggs', these small speakers still sound far better on a good quality £1500 AV receiver than they do a £500. Why? Because a £500 receiver just isn't good enough to allow the speakers to perform to their designed specification. Done the demo many times, its an easy decision. Do your speakers a favour and give them the clean power and quality they need! Any good quality speaker will respond well to better quality amplification, and more power, whether you use its full capabilities or not.

Virtually every AV receiver out there will have some sort of room EQ. Expensive ones will have excellent room EQ like DIRAC Live, but more budget receivers don't have that expensive luxury. By all means let the auto setup run the EQ in order to try and get the best out of your speakers, but once it has done, don't be scared to compare the EQ'd result against turning the EQ off! Room EQ doesn't always sound better, and can produce negative or undesired effects. This is certainly the case for AV receivers up until around 15 years ago, but I can't speak for modern budget ones.

On the subject of EQ, whilst it is generally seen as a positive thing, it isn't necessarily necessary. The main issues with rooms are in the bass region, mostly below 300Hz-500Hz, so it is certainly worth EQ'ing subwoofers (which not all older AV receivers do fully in their auto setup). But messing about with the rest of the frequency range can an adverse effect on quality, especially music. 

I've taken many phone calls over the years from people who have had their AV receivers for years, but suddenly have no sound coming from it. The first thing to check is to make sure that the input you're listening to has the correct audio input selected. By this I mean that most inputs on an AV receiver can accept digital and analogue sound. This choice can be set to automatically pick up on any incoming signal and lock onto it, but it can also be chosen manually. The result of the aforementioned phone calls are usually because wandering little fingers have been randomly pressing buttons! There's usually an 'audio select' button, which will cycle through HDMI, digital, or analogue sound for whatever input you're on. Worth checking first!

If you're one for adjusting things on the fly (during films), it's worth every now and again resetting the receiver and setting it all up from scratch. Usually, these changes are temporary and will reset when the amp is put into standby, but you may inadvertently change something more permanent. It's worth resetting everything and starting again fi you find the sound you're getting doesn't sound right anymore, or seems to have changed drastically - starting afresh can fix any little niggles about the system not sounding right.

Feel free to get in touch for any advice.

davidf

info@thelittleaudiostore.co.uk

david@thelittleaudio.company