Help an audio ignoramus set up his Arcam AVR280 with new Sony UBPX800M2 player

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Tristero, Sep 15, 2021.

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  1. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    I will cop to being an ignoramus to most matters technical, so please take pity on me. I would appreciate any help that you guys can offer.

    I've been using my trusty old Arcam AVR280 with my Oppo BDP80 for a long time without too much trouble, enjoying a lot of multi-channel action. Lately, I've been having some problems with my Oppo not being able to read certain BR discs due to the Javascript used in the authoring. I've also been having trouble with my old Onkyo CD player, so I decided to get a Sony UBPX800M2 with the thought of using this for movies and BRs that my Oppo can't read while using the Oppo as my primary CD player, including formats like HDCD and SACD. (On the recent Van Der Graaf Generator thread, @riskylogic and others suggested that this might be the best solution for me.)

    So I got the Sony yesterday, hooked it up and it all seemed straight forward enough. I have two HDMI inputs on my AVR (for DVD and SAT), so I removed the input from my Oppo and hooked the Sony into the DVD slot. I could get the video signal through my AVR with no problem and the audio was running through my TV, but for the life of me, I cannot get the surround sound going through my system. I've read through the troubleshooting tips in the manual, trying different connection configurations--like connecting the video directly to the TV and the audio signal into my AVR--and adjusting the settings on the Sony accordingly, but nothing works. After hours of frustration, I was ready to throw in the towel. Is it possible that my old Arcam AVR is somehow not compatible with the newer Sony player or do I somehow need to reconfigure the settings on my AVR?

    Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any wisdom you might have.
     
  2. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    There are two places in settings you need to go to in the Sony, Audio and Music. I suspect the Sony is set to output DSD and should be set to output PCM.
     
  3. Apesbrain

    Apesbrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
  4. IllinoisCheesehead

    IllinoisCheesehead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Illinois
    Couple things to try. 1. In the System Settings, check your setting for HDMI Audio Output. If it's set to Auto, try changing it to HDMI1 to force everything to go out HDMI Out 1. 2. Under Audio Settings, set BD Secondary Audio to Off.
     
  5. riskylogic

    riskylogic Forum Resident

    With the Oppo, were you using HDMI or analog for audio? If the latter, you may need to change settings on the receiver to use HDMI instead.
     
  6. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    Yeah, I was wondering if that might be the issue. I typically use the analog outs with my Oppo (and it even says "Analog" on my AVR's readout). It's not clear to me how I can reset my AVR for HDMI, particularly since I plan to go back and forth between the two players. I'm pretty sure that I tried the other suggestions above last night to no avail, which leads me to believe that this is an issue with my Arcam.
     
    Sterling1 likes this.
  7. riskylogic

    riskylogic Forum Resident

    Don't know about the Arcam, but my old Yamaha had a setting for that. My new Yamaha doesn't have analog in, so it's not an issue.
     
  8. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    I haven't been able to find anything about this in my Arcam manual yet, so I'm writing their customer support. It seems like it would just be automatic if I were only using the Sony with HDMI, but there's no button to push or anything. I even thought of maybe taking out the analog inputs to see if that would force the HDMI to kick in, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having the two players together.

    The amount of trouble I've had to go through for Ray Shulman and his fancy digital menus. . . :shake:
     
  9. IllinoisCheesehead

    IllinoisCheesehead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Illinois
    Take a look at page 25, Using the Main Menu. Talks about changing the audio input source.

    avr280e_manual.pdf (arcam.co.uk)
     
  10. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    That doesn't include HDMI. It's just the obvious stuff that I can control on the front panel, like DVD, Aux, SAT, etc.

    Somehow it's able to process the video signal through HDMI but not the audio.
     
  11. IllinoisCheesehead

    IllinoisCheesehead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Illinois
    Gotcha. Darn it. Thought maybe I stumbled upon something there. Hopefully Arcam support can help you out. My only other thought is that you could try using the coaxial digital audio output from the Sony into the digital coax input on the Arcam and see if that gets you audio, but not sure if you have a digital coaxial cable.
     
    Tristero likes this.
  12. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    Arcam had no useful information. I'm seriously about ready to give up on this whole doomed venture and return all this crap. A frustrating waste of money and time. No 5.1 mix is worth all of this trouble.
     
  13. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    Well, I was able to get the Coaxial connection to work. That's progress! Suddenly, my AVR went over to digital mode. Is the coax considered to be an inferior signal to HDMI?
     
  14. IllinoisCheesehead

    IllinoisCheesehead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Illinois
    The limitation of coax is that it does not support the newer multi-channel hi-res formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, or lossless formats like DTS Master Audio and Dolby True HD, but given the multi-channel formats your Arcam supports (primarily Dolby/DTS 5.1), it should not be an issue for you. My non-professional opinion is that you'd be just fine with the coax.
     
    Tristero likes this.
  15. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    I guess that I can still keep using my Oppo with the analog outs for a lot of things. I would still like to understand why the HDMI set up doesn't seem to work, but this is good enough for now. I appreciate the help!
     
    IllinoisCheesehead likes this.
  16. riskylogic

    riskylogic Forum Resident

    I think someone might be in the market for a new AVR pretty soon.
     
    McLover likes this.
  17. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    You don't need to reset your receiver to any condition, simply turn input selector switch to the HDMI input or analog input according to desire for receiver, or player to convert digital to analog.
     
  18. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Does your Arcam have the latest firmware?

    Personally, I always have been of the opinion that since I'm aware of my limitations, that I employ pros to do what I can't. If you can't figure it out, hire an audio guy to set it up for you.
     
  19. riskylogic

    riskylogic Forum Resident

    One more thought - try the other HDMI input.
     
  20. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    I'm going to demonstrate my ignorance--I'm not entirely sure what you mean here. There's no obvious way for me to go into HDMI through my front receiver panel. Of course, I can select different modes on my AVR: DVD, AUX, CD, etc. The DVD-A button puts it into "Direct"/Analog mode and this is what I use with my Oppo. I still can hear music this way but I can't get a video signal at the same time anymore (I could before I reconfigured things with the new player.) When listening to the Sony, I have it in DVD mode and my readout indicates PCM Digital (and I changed the settings on Sony for this), but this is with the coax connection. I do have the HDMI hooked into the DVD input on my AVR (the video signal is going directly into the TV), but it's not carrying the sound. I have been able to transmit the video signal with HDMI through my AVR, which is what I did in the past with my Oppo, but it was always analog sound.

    Honestly, I've been underwhelmed with the sound quality using the coax so far. Would it be much better if I got the HDMI working? I wasn't expecting this new player to surpass my old set up, but I was hoping for better than this. I guess the analog outs on my Oppo make a big difference. I may have to return the Sony if I can't do better than this. I know that they have a more expensive model that's supposed to be more comparable to what the Oppo delivers.
     
  21. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    Yeah, I tried every different configuration imaginable both in terms of the physical inputs and the settings on the Sony. Somehow I could never get the HDMI running for audio.
     
  22. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Do this: connect one HDMI cable from Player's HDMI audio/video out to BD/DVD HDMI input on Receiver. Connect another HDMI cable from ARC HDMI on Receiver to ARC HDMI on TV. That's it. Be sure the receiver can decode DVD before setting the Player to output DVD rather than PCM, since outputting DSD to a Receiver that cannot decode it means no audio.
     
  23. IllinoisCheesehead

    IllinoisCheesehead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Illinois
    My guess is it's the Sony. I remember trying one a few years ago and being totally underwhelmed all the way around. It was (relatively) cheap, so I ended up moving it to my RV. Replaced it with a Panasonic in my HT.
     
  24. riskylogic

    riskylogic Forum Resident

    I think maybe you've got it. My new Yamaha won't play HDMI audio unless is connected to a TV via HDMI and the TV is on.
     
  25. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense Thread Starter

    Location:
    MI
    I'm thinking maybe the Sony X1100ES with its analog outs might come closer to competing with my Oppo on my current AVR. At $600, that was a little more than I wanted to spend right now, but I don't see why I should force myself to accept a serious downgrade in quality with this thing. (The video picture looks fine, but I'm more concerned about the audio here.)

    It was pretty frustrating to listen to the Van Der Graaf surround mixes--and the mixes themselves sounded cool--in substandard quality. All of this grief could have been avoided if they'd just included the DVDs with this set along the the BRs, like King Crimson does with their sets. I'm sure that even a lossy DVD format would sound better on my Oppo than the BR does on the Sony.
     
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