After making up all the connections, I spent some time perusing the manual. I was curious about the remote control and how best to utilize it for the next part of the setup. Since one of the HDMI outputs goes right to the monitor, simply pressing the remote's "Set Up" button took me right to the menu.
My choices were:
Input setup
Video setup
Zone setup
Preferences
Speaker size
Level calibration
Speaker Distance
Crossovers
Sub Level
Equalizer
Also included is a selection called "System Status" which shows which zones are active, what the Record Out source is and the version numbers for your current firmware.
I started with Input setups. There are inputs to set up, which are reflected by your choice of HDMI or any other input you have selected for a component.
The manual indicates that you can customize the input level by 0.5dB increments but I left all input levels at 0 for now. If I find that one input (cable box, DVD, streamer, etc...) has a higher input volume I'll match the others to it and not have to do much, if any, volume adjustments as I switch sources.
Much like other processors and AVR's, you can title your input, identify the audio source/input, the video source/input and to set a default sound field for each input. The sound field settings are pretty versatile and a good range of types are present including Dolby PLII (my TV setting), Dolby 3 Stereo, 5 or 7 channel stereo, DTS Neo:6, and PCM 2 CH.
It is here in this menu that a couple of cool and handy features can be set. One is the "Triggers Active" feature in which you can customize which amp or combinations of amps will be triggered for this input.
For instance, when I select "TV", all triggers are active except #3, which turns the DAC On or Off. That trigger is active only when I select "Music". When I select "Music", the amps that trigger the center and surround channels are not used, the trigger for the DAC turns on and off I go into 2 channel land.
The other nice feature is that each input has a "Lip Sync" feature that allows you to add milliseconds of time to catch up with the video synch. All of my inputs appear to be fine at this time but I have yet to try streaming via the Oppo to see if it syncs OK. If not, I can always fix it.
One annoying feature on audio is that at times when a commercial ends and the designated program comes back on, there may be a second or two or three of silence before the processor catches up with the audio input. It's a known issue but I have it on good authority that Sherbourn is working on it.
The video setup allows you to set the lowest resolution, which is handy for older video games. I have one of the early Wii's with analog audio/video input. This feature allows me to upscale the Wii video to 720p which looks a lot better than the default Wii setting on a 65" monitor. Of course, an instant improvement in audio and video quality I could pass through would be a new game machine. In any event, this is a set it and forget it feature. You can also designate the HDMI audio path. Your choices are "To Amplifier" and "To TV". Since I run all my audio and video through the processor, this is a no brainer.
I set up the speaker size (all "Large") and since I ran a 7.2 balanced output to my subwoofer, selected "Yes" for this setting to insure that my sub gets a signal regardless of what input is on, be it DVD, cable or the music streamer.
I mentioned earlier that this is a no frills unit and this is confirmed by the fact that there is no automatic room calibration system included in the processor. So, I did an initial set of the levels by speaker using a borrowed SPL meter, input my speaker distances, then did a bit of listening. I did adjust one main speaker up by 2 dB's, then adjusted it down by 1 to level out the front. I still have some work to do for 7.1 channel source material and will do a bit of that tomorrow.
I did do some crossover settings for the front, center and rear speakers but expect I'll be doing more as I delve into the 7.1 source settings.
I have yet to touch the sub levels feature and probably won't as I can manually tune the levels at the subwoofer. I may try the MAX setting in the speaker size menu for the sub and go from there if I feel I need to make a change.
Lastly, but by no means least, is the Equalizer menu. I have not touched it and will be spending some time reading the manual on how this menu works. It will lead to more fine tuning of the audio output for all sources, however, I will focus mostly on the best mix for 2 channel music. It is handy to have a full parametric equalizer function where I can tweak any and all of my speakers to my liking. Another nice function is that you can set the equalizer to Global (one setting applies to all speakers) or you can set it to Individual where you can fine tune each speaker. I think this may come in handy for me given the architecture, shape and furnishings in my room.
While I still have a bit of work to do on the rest of the settings, I don't think I am going to mess with what I have now too much as I have planned an entire interconnect upgrade which is sure to change how things will sound.
Oh, and about how it sounds...well, more on that in the next installment.
