Downmix & Onkyo TX NR-626 issues or just myself!

[leeski]

Hi & Happy Christmas to all…

I have been using Vix & my old Onkyo 606 amp fine for the past 16 months with no problems as far as I could tell. We have however just moved rooms with my av setup and in the process I managed to get a new amp (Onkyo 626). Whilst everything works fine the sound volume was slightly low and not giving me the wow factor I was expecting.

A short fumble with the settings found the audio downmix was selected 'On'. Hey presto, turning it off & everything booms as it should & the VU+ & Onkyo sing in perfect harmony… until… the wife switched to bbc4 or some other reality drivel on tv and because there is no AC3 soundtrack… she has no sound through the amp. Audio options and selecting down mix 'On' again does give some sound through the amp but only very low, the volume has to be turned up pretty high to hear anything (on the vu+ & amp). This is a problem because as soon as we switch back to an ac3 channel… BOOM! the volume is enough to wake the dead.

Am I doing something completely stupid (probably) or am I stuck with only switching on the amp when I want to watch a movie or sports etc. that broadcast in ac3?

To compound the situation our beloved 6 year old pioneer kuro does not like ac3 so to enable the speakers on the tv to work when the amp is off requires the vu+ downmix 'On' again… I seem to be forever toggling with this setting… something I can't remember ever doing with the old amp (which leads me to believe down mix was always on then too!)

I feel that to leave down mix 'on' is my best option and then turn it off when I want to watch something decent… but I have to remember to switch it back on again before turning off the amp… even leaving the amp on causes problems for herself due to the volume change between ac3 & mpeg…


Any help greatly appreciated…

Cheers

[Sicilian]

Please post correct build number.

[leeski]

Sorry, I thought it was in there… version 3 build 806 kernel 3.1.1

[Rob van der Does]

Make sure the volume on the box is always set to maximum.

[leeski]

Make sure the volume on the box is always set to maximum.

Hi, Thanks for that… it helps with the amp settings but when the amp is off the sound is far too loud unless we remember to turn it down before turning off the amp.

[Rob van der Does]

So you have the amp always very (too) loud.
Anyway: not setting the box to max causes an enormous difference in soundlevel between AC3 & PCM.

[leeski]

So you have the amp always very (too) loud.
Anyway: not setting the box to max causes an enormous difference in soundlevel between AC3 & PCM.

Hi, Thanks for your help…

Basically when the amp is on… the only way I can get a similar sound ac3 & pcm is to turn the volume on the box up to max. Everything is ok with this. The problem is when I turn off the tv (switch not remote) I also have to turn off the amp off. No big deal but a pain when the wife & daughter turn the tv on & off like its going out of fashion.

The second problem is that when the amp is off we can't watch the tv normally like we used to because the vu+ volume is set too high from using the amp and downmix is off so we get no sound whatsoever through the tv on mpeg audio channels… so i'm constantly switching down mix on & off...

[Rob van der Does]

I think I'm missing something. Is the volume of the TV set too high then?

And indeed: alternately use of devices that are/are not capable of AC3 playback requires changing the downmix setting.

The only handy solution would be the use of a Harmony remote (see my signature); then you would make an activity 'Watch TV + Amp' switching downmix off, and an activity 'Watch TV without amp' having downmix set to on. That would mean one button push to activate all that is needed for one of both activities.

[leeski]

Hi & Thanks… I think the one button push may be the way forward… My old amp must have been decoding everything in pcm/mpeg and sounded ok! as I haven't changed the down mix until this new amp sounded terrible until down mix was off?!

[Rob van der Does]

My old amp must have been decoding everything in pcm/mpeg and sounded ok! as I haven't changed the down mix until this new amp sounded terrible until down mix was off?!
Hmm, not sure why. Surely any amp should be able to handle downmixed (i.e. stereo) sound?
Only thing I can imagine is that the volume of the STB is set too low (must in fact never be touched and always be on maximum).

[gazhay]

Just got one of those onkyos myself and use it with my vu+ uno.

I have always had to have downmix on for a modulator to send the tv round the house, my old amp seemed to do ok with it, but the onkyo sounds really bad until you turn it off. I'm going to get an external ac3/dts decoder for the modulator end of things and leave downmix off.

[leeski]

Oh well, Ive returned my 626 & gone back to my old 606… Maybe I just had a tempremental unit but the sound quality was all over the place, really disappointed the 626's performance. Another slight niggle was I could listen to the tuner on my 606 whilst watching the tv… the 626 was far too sensitive & failed to pick anything up unless the tv was completely off.

The only downside so far since switching back has been the downmix… if left off whilst watching a decent ac3 broadcast on my VU+, then switching back to a non ac3 broadcast causes the horrendous high pitched blipping noise through the speakers. I suppose my set-up is slightly differnet as I use a QED-WM19 selector switch to go between the amps output or my pio kuro's onboard amp (used for everyday tv viewing etc.)

Cheers