DENON AVR 1603

[abhi2143]

Hello,
I have a Denon 1603 which is running great and has good sound quality.
Recently, I tested it on a pair of 12" vintage speakers and I had to crank the volume to max to achieve normal loudness.
Is this normal??
or the power output has decreased ??
The volume control has become dodgy and also it will go down to -45 and upto +15.

 

[the skipper]

two questions

1) what speakers are they?

2) is there a volume disparity when using other speakers?

 

[whoaru99]

With AVR/HT receiver it's perfectly normal to need to turn the volume knob a lot more than you are accustomed to if your experience is primarily 2-ch gear, especially vintage receivers.

It's just a matter of totally different gain structure.

If you actually had to turn it all the way up to where the display numbers stopped changing (+15 sounds plausible for all the way) just for normal volume then I think either you have really low input signal or perhaps you have not properly reconfigured the unit for (presumably) 2-channel only operation. If it sounds decent but just not loud as you expect then I doubt it is broken, per se, other than perhaps flakey volume control if it jumps on its own.

Did you/have you done a factory reset and configured it for 2-ch only, full range ("large" speakers and no subwoofer) operation?

 

[abhi2143]

two questions

1) what speakers are they?

2) is there a volume disparity when using other speakers?

They are an Indian make from the eighties called WOODSTOCK. Very popular in those days. It belongs to my Uncle. He's using a locally made stereo amplifier (most probably Chinese) and it sounds great. The Denon's performance was very disappointing.

At home, I've connected it to my PC via optical cable ( my motherboard supports DTS and Dolby 5.1) and the speakers are 4" Philips bookshelf (front) and 3" satellites (rear) and a sub. Earlier it was running a pair of Yamaha NS-7900's without any problems.

 

[abhi2143]

With AVR/HT receiver it's perfectly normal to need to turn the volume knob a lot more than you are accustomed to if your experience is primarily 2-ch gear, especially vintage receivers.

It's just a matter of totally different gain structure.

If you actually had to turn it all the way up to where the display numbers stopped changing (+15 sounds plausible for all the way) just for normal volume then I think either you have really low input signal or perhaps you have not properly reconfigured the unit for (presumably) 2-channel only operation. If it sounds decent but just not loud as you expect then I doubt it is broken, per se, other than perhaps flakey volume control if it jumps on its own.

Did you/have you done a factory reset and configured it for 2-ch only, full range ("large" speakers and no subwoofer) operation?

I was usng it in stereo mode with the bass and treble at full.

 

[the skipper]

I've been in this hobby since the mid 60's and have never heard of them. Since you say your stuff works well with other speakers, I'd be suspicious of them.

 

[abhi2143]

I forgot to mention

Sometimes, while conected to PC, the volume cuts out and comes back again.

I have opened it up and plan to change the volume control and the tactile switches. No visible damage or swollen caps.

 

[abhi2143]

I've been in this hobby since the mid 60's and have never heard of them. Since you say your stuff works well with other speakers, I'd be suspicious of them.

I can understand the fact that you never heard of them beacuse they were popular only in India.

I have no idea of the actual specs of the speakers. Never opened them.

 

[the skipper]

I'll repeat this once: Since you say your stuff works well with other speakers, I'd be suspicious of them.

 

[abhi2143]

I'll repeat this once: Since you say your stuff works well with other speakers, I'd be suspicious of them.

Totally agree with you

 

[abhi2143]

This is the WOODSTOCK speaker in question.

 

[whoaru99]

I was usng it in stereo mode with the bass and treble at full.

But did you redo the speaker configuration setup? Bass and treble settings are a competely separate topic from speaker & bass management configuration.

If it had previously been used with sub and satellite speakers for surround, that speaker configuration won't work well for the larger speakers and no sub in 2-ch mode.

 

[abhi2143]

You may be right, the speaker configuration might have been on small. I don't remember about the latest settings, but the last time they were connected to the Yamahas, it was on large setting.
Anyways, now I have changed all the tactile switches and cleaned the volume control mechanism.
There was too much grease on the contacts. I cleaned the volume control contacts using 2500 grit emery paper.
It's working perfectly now.
I could reset the system now because the AB buttons are working and the volume control now has the correct range of -70 to +18.