Receiver Setup & MCACC Room EQ
Touring the Menu System
The setup on this receiver is accomplished through the System Setup activated by the remote control or front panel of the unit. In either case, the LCD panel will give you abbreviated guidance and indication of where you are in the process and what available options you will have access to. It may take a few times to get used to the menu system. Basically you use the up and down (tune) controls to get to new options, and the left and right controls to effect changes to the system. Backing out is accomplished by pressing the 'Return' button. As the options are brief, let's explore the main items in enough detail to help you through the process:
SB.SYSTEM
This enables you to set the Surround Back amplifiers
to control either the Surround Back speakers (the default), ZONE 2 (which sends the program material
currently selected for the main speakers to another Zone), and BIAMP which makes good use of the two
unused amplifiers in a 5.1 system.
Editor's Note on Biamping Receivers:
We get asked about passive biamping in receivers all the time and it is important to have realistic expectations when attempting it (not to mention taking care to do it properly). When considering the finite output impedance of most AV receivers, the question remains whether there is real benefit for passively biamping a low impedance loudspeaker system when the receiver in question offers such an ability. The idea of passively biamping a speaker system is not so much for added headroom, but for minimizing frequency response variations in amps with finite output impedances offering better system control and smoother frequency response. The best advice here is to try it and determine if it works for your situation. This of course assumes you will be running a 5.1 system, otherwise you will need those two extra amplifiers to power the back channels in a 7.1 configuration
If you want to biamp your main speakers using this feature, there are a couple of requirements:
-
Your main loudspeakers must have a set of "high" and "low"
binding post terminals.
Note: Check with the manufacturerdealer of your loudspeakers to make sure your speakers are in fact biampable and not just biwireable.
- You must remove the jumper which normally connects the "high" and "low" speaker terminals.
- You will need an extra pair of speaker cables (bi-wire cables will not work and will actually damage your receiver.)
To passively bi-amp your Pioneer VSX-815, simply follow these steps:
- Remove the jumpers that join the "hi" and "low" binding post inputs on your main speakers
- Connect the Front Left & Front Right outputs to the "high" binding post inputs of each of the respective loudspeakers
- Connect the Surround Back speaker outputs to the "low" binding post inputs of each of the respective loudspeakers
- Se the SB.SYSTEM setting to "BIAMP"
A. MCACC (Automatic MCACC Setup and Room
Correction)
On the surface, Auto MCACC was impressive in that it
spent significantly more time configuring the system with various bursts and snaps than either the
Yamaha RX-V2500's YPAO or the Denon AV-3805's setup and room EQ systems. In the end, however, it set
both my RBH Sound 1266-LSEs and 61-LSEs to Large (the latter are not full range speakers). This was
likely due to the 61-LSEs being positioned against the back wall which must have produced enough
boundary gain to trip up the system. It nailed the distances, including the subwoofer, which correctly
showed as 10.5 feet. Levels varied quite a bit from my findings; however this may also have to do with
the application of MCACC's 5-band EQ room correction feature.
|
Settings - Manual vs. MCACC |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Speaker |
Size
|
Size
|
dB SPL
|
dB SPL
|
|
Front Left |
Small |
Large |
0 |
0 |
|
Front Right |
0 |
+1.0 |
||
|
Center |
Small |
Large |
0 |
0 |
|
Surround Left |
Small |
Large |
+2.0 |
-0.5 |
|
Surround Right |
+2.5 |
+1.0 |
||
|
Subwoofer |
Yes |
Yes |
+3.5 |
-2.0 |
|
Crossover Setting: 80 Hz |
||||
|
Manual Reference Level Calibration to 75 dB SPL |
||||
In terms of Room EQ, here is what the system did using its 5-band equalizer:
|
Settings -MCACC 5-band EQ |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Speaker |
40Hz |
125Hz |
250Hz |
4kHz |
13kHz |
|
Front Left |
-5 |
-5 |
+1 |
-2 |
0 |
|
Front Right |
-6 |
+2 |
+1 |
-4 |
-2 |
|
Center |
-5 |
0 |
+3 |
-1 |
0 |
|
Surround Left |
-6 |
-2 |
+6 |
-1 |
0 |
|
Surround Right |
-6 |
-4 |
+6 |
+1 |
+1 |
|
Crossover Setting 80 Hz |
|||||
As you can see, the Room EQ seems to be doing something; the question is whether or not it is helpful. That answer would need to be addressed in several ways. First of all, I began listening to Diana Krall's Love Scenes DVD.
