Help with Denon 2900 DVD-A Issue

I recently purchased the 2900 for 2-channel listening and 5.1 headphone listening. (This unit replaced my Pioneer dv-563a.) Overall I am very pleased with the 2900's SACD performance. However, I am having issues with DVD-A. The sound is decibel's lower than SACD. I would describe it as weak - no punch, no life, etc...like the SACD discs. I have checked all the settings and everything seems to be set-up correctly for 2-channel DVD-A. Interestingly, this issue also occurs with movies as well. I have to turn the volume up considerably and afterwards when I switch to regular TV...watch out - blaring loud!!! Any ideas to correct this DVD-A issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

Wish I could help you out, but on my 2900 I do not have the problem you are describing. Both SACD and DVD-Audio are output at the same decibel level on my machine at least.

 

Is it possible that the DVD-A and DVD settings on your player or receiver are set for multichannel and, thus, you are hearing only the portion of the multichannel output meant for your front two speakers? This would explain the low volume levels, because much of the multichannel sound in DVD-A and DVD is often directed to the center speaker (which would obviously not be heard in your arrangement). If the vocal portion of the DVD-As/DVDs is even lower than the instrumental, this is a likely cause.

Check out the "Denon 2900 owners question..." by boead in this forum. I think you are having the same problem that he is.

 

First off - in the Audio Setup menu, do you have have "Audio Channel" set to "2 Channel" or "Multi Channel?" If you only have 2 speakers in your system, make sure it is set to 2 Channel. This could be the problem.

If you have more than 2 speakers in your system, then you should select Multi Channel. In this case, under the Audio Setup Speaker Configuration menu - do you have "Filter" set to "On?" If so, this is the likely culprit. Turning the filter off will result in the full frequencies being output to all speakers.

When setting up my 2900, I read that some people didn't like the DVD-A performance with the filter on so it was recommended that they turn it off. I am reluctant to tell you to turn the filter off as you are defeating the bass management functions when doing so. If you have some small speakers (center channel or rears) in your setup, they could be damaged by the lower bass frequencies.

 

what is 5.1 headphone listening? you must be a very interesting looking fellow!!!!

 

I finally got it to work

Thanks everyone for your help! Actually even though I only have a 2-speaker system, I set "audio channel" to "multi channel" as before it was set to "2 channel." Then I set the DVD-A to play the high resolution stereo versions and everything came into focus. It now sounds absolutely gorgeous!!!

 

That is mighty counterintuitive. Denon should clarify its menu.