TOPIC: What volume knob to use? AVR or DDRC-88

Hi,

I just set up my brand new DDRC-88BM between a Denon 3400h and Emotiva BasX A-700 with 1 active Sub. After setting up everything I enabled Dirac Live and heard nothing. Then I figured out that I have to crank up the DDRC-88 volume all the way up to get satisfying volume. Usually I control my system volume by using the knob on the AVR. I also have the impression that after implementing the DDRC my maximum volume (AVR and DDRC both cranked up all the way) is way lower than it was without the DDRC. Before playing around with the gain structure, I would ask some questions.

I read the manual and several forums but there is one big problem in understanding the volume structure, which I finally don’t understand.

On powering up the AVR it starts with volume -25dB. I left this setting unchanged when I set up the DDRC. Was that the correct way or did I have to adjust the setting differently?

After finishing the setup do I control the volume by using the knob on the AVR or the DDRC?

Somehow there are too many places to control volume, gain and whatsoever Can somebody help me here?

Thanks a lot
Michael

@Michael

The first comment is to make sure that you indeed set the volume back to normal once you drag&drop a filter into Dirac. See the user manual in that section. It's the last stage when you drag a filter (p41 of manual). By default, we automatically lower the level of a new filter. You need to use the master volume fader to drag the level back to normal.

Did you check out our user manual for the gain structure question? We did spend a lot of times to explain in great details.

DevTeam

Hi Mike . As we have all been down that road setting up our 88BM a few suggestions .. After you have successfully made your first Dirac Measurement and setup the filter in slot #1 , make sure to drag the Master Volume to -2db or so. This will not need to change once you have set it...
The "gain structure" ( volume levels per channel ) does take some experimenting and getting used to... so some time spent setting your gain levels per channel and then using your Denon for system volume control will eventually get your system levels where you want them to be...

Also I suggest in your Denon settings to have all channel levels set to 0 and distance set to 0 as well - do not use Audessy settings AND Dirac together....If your still lacking overall system volume , increase Denon speaker settings to +3db

Be certain NOT to over drive the input signals while setting up Dirac measurement in an effort to get more gain per channel - ie using the TEST signal per channel the input should be about -12db in the green bar....
Hope this helps

Thanks for all your input. After finding some time I reset the unit back to factory defaults and started over again. Although I thought that I had disabled all Audyssee stuff in the AVR I overlooked the individual channel level setting, which is buried somewhere in the Denon setup. The previous Audyssee measurements must have adjusted them and although I disabled Audyssee they were still not all 0

After having reset ALL Audyssee remains in the AVR I thoroughly read the „A Guide to Bass Management Using the MiniDSP 88A Bass Management Plug-In“ (thanks 1000x for this work) which is a challenge when being no native English speaker. I then followed the Gain-Structure-Chapter step by step and finally was able to set up the DDRC-88BM so that everything seems fine now. Only thing I did not understand was the Voltage-Dezibel-Calculation part, however in the LFE-Mgt tab I set all channels to -20dm except the front L+R which I didn’t want to be mixed to the LFE (speakers are capable enough for low frequencies).

So finally it seems to work. There is just a very random popping noise from the left front, which was discussed here some time ago. It happens randomly every 60+ minutes or so and I will investigate this when I find the time to do some measurements again. I think it started after using the BM plugin, however, not sure about this.