Denon AVR987 Dolby Digital trouble

[cravnsn]

A buddy of mine at work has a Denon AVR 987. He originally set it up with Audessy, and had great results. This past weekend, he said it seemed as if one side (right?) front & surround was noticeably quieter than before while decoding Dolby Digital. Other codecs seemed fine.

He checked his settings & levels, and everything looked OK. He checked al the connections & speaker wire. He checked the manual, and it said to do a reset, which he did, and it solved the problem.

He’s concerned though that he may have a faulty receiver. Anyone else have any experience with this model, or some other Denon receiver with a similar problem?

Thanks

Craig

[the Bass Mechanic]

Originally Posted by cravnsn

A buddy of mine at work has a Denon AVR 987. He originally set it up with Audessy, and had great results. This past weekend, he said it seemed as if one side (right?) front & surround was noticeably quieter than before while decoding Dolby Digital. Other codecs seemed fine.

He checked his settings & levels, and everything looked OK. He checked al the connections & speaker wire. He checked the manual, and it said to do a reset, which he did, and it solved the problem.

He?s concerned though that he may have a faulty receiver. Anyone else have any experience with this model, or some other Denon receiver with a similar problem?

Thanks

Craig

I have the Denon AVR 988, but a friend of mine has the AVR 987 (which I gave him last Chrismahankwanza) and I will check with him to see if he has encountered a similar problem. I do know that he had issues with the Audessy and other settings not being global (not applying to all inputs unless we manualy set them for each input) and ocasional reseting to the factory default settings for no apparent reason. I have not had any such problems with the AVR 988 (perhaps because it is the newer model, and all/most the bugs of the AVR987 were adressed and fixed in the newer model) but I will have him try the system reset thing too. They don't sound like the same problem on the surface, but may be similar bugs in the older DSP chips.

It just occured to me, did the problems begin only recently, durring the summer? It might be a thermal issue, as I noticed that my friends AVR987 was fine at first (after we finally got all the settings reset to 'default', as the unit was a marked down display model and had the settings all mixed up) but only became 'buggy' since it got warmer (outside and inside, they live in an old house and can't afford to run the AC all the time). I know it can get hot in my upstairs flat, even with the AC on, and that's when my PS3 needs the extra fans to stay cool or else it gets 'buggy' and locks up periodicaly.

I will be going over to my friends this weekend, and will check with him then and get back to you with any additional info. Beyond that, I'd contact Denon technical support, and/or customer service, especialy if the unit is still under (extended?) waranty. I usually don't get extended waranties, especialy if it's a quality unit like Denon (did not get it for mine) but I did get one on my friend's, as it was a display unit. Denon may tell you to make sure the unit is well ventilated; i.e. NOT in an entertainment center with a (mostly) closed back and/or closed glass front, or if it is; to make sure that there is forced air (fans) ventilation! Even if most of the components can handle it, one of the DSP chips may not like too much heat!

[cravnsn]

Thanks Bass Mechanic – I’ll pass this on to him.

[crackinhedz]

he probably had some form of 'dynamic range control' engaged.

not sure what term Denon uses, but this would account for lower levels with dolby digital.