ASW610 Help

[fhsun]

Hello, I am trying to hook my new ASW610 sub to my system properly.

I am using an old Pioneer AVR with pre-outs as my pre/pro right now, hooked up to Rotel RMB 1075 and 683's.

Although having pre-outs for front, center, rear, the Pioneer does not have a pre-out for a sub.

I have the sub hooked up to the Rotel amp from the sub's speaker line in (left & right) to the front left & right on the amp, sharing the connections with the 683 front left and right speaker wires at the amp. This is one of the options listed in the B&W manual.

Is this connection safe for the equipment? Isn't this considered hooking up speakers in parallel and I read that this is bad?

Thanks!

[hifiguymi]

You will be fine. It won't damage anything. It's not the preferred method but you don't have many options other than using speaker level by the way it sounds. It sounds like the Pioneer receiver is pretty old. Does it even have Dolby Digital? I don't know if I've ever seen a receiver that has Dolby Digital and no subwoofer output.

Eric

[fhsun]

Right you are! The Pioneer receiver is around 10-15 years old. No Dolby digital. Dolby Prologic only.

It has output for: 2 front, 2 center, 2 rear, but preouts for the same except only 1 center.

My other option is Monitor line out but then I can't control the sub's volume with the receiver volume.

I noticed the sub volume seems to be lower using the speaker level compared to the line level inputs on the sub.

I recently bought a whole new HT set of 683/HTM61/M1/ASW610 plus a Rotel RMB-1075 amp. The old Pioneer is there to tie me over until the new round of pre/pro's with HD codecs to come out soon.

Frank

[htsteve]

Right you are! The Pioneer receiver is around 10-15 years old. No Dolby digital. Dolby Prologic only.

It has output for: 2 front, 2 center, 2 rear, but preouts for the same except only 1 center.

My other option is Monitor line out but then I can't control the sub's volume with the receiver volume.

I noticed the sub volume seems to be lower using the speaker level compared to the line level inputs on the sub.

I recently bought a whole new HT set of 683/HTM61/M1/ASW610 plus a Rotel RMB-1075 amp. The old Pioneer is there to tie me over until the new round of pre/pro's with HD codecs to come out soon.

Frank

Frank,

Very nice setup. You are definitely ready for a new processor. Fortunately for you, the new pre-amps are out with the current audio codecs. Even better from an integration perspective, is that Rotel now has the new 15 series due to ship very soon. It would be the perfect fit for your system. List is $2300, but you should be able to get some discount on that.
Here is a link.

http://www.rotel.com/NA/Products/ProductDetails.htm?Id=474

This would certainly solve your hook up issue and be a QUANTUM leap forward in performance. You would be quite happy with that solution.


Hope this helps.

[fhsun]

Frank,

Very nice setup. You are definitely ready for a new processor. Fortunately for you, the new pre-amps are out with the current audio codecs. Even better from an integration perspective, is that Rotel now has the new 15 series due to ship very soon. It would be the perfect fit for your system. List is $2300, but you should be able to get some discount on that.
Here is a link.

http://www.rotel.com/NA/Products/ProductDetails.htm?Id=474

This would certainly solve your hook up issue and be a QUANTUM leap forward in performance. You would be quite happy with that solution.


Hope this helps.

Thank you! Yes, I think my timing is pretty good since lots of new pre/pro's are being updated in the next few months.

The new RSP-1570 would fit the bill very well indeed with all the new codecs and HDMI hookups.

I would like to do some homework in advance and go listen to the Rotel pre/pro and amp combination. Can I assume the existing 1069 or 1098 pre/pro's would sound very similar to the new RSP-1570?

[htsteve]

Thank you! Yes, I think my timing is pretty good since lots of new pre/pro's are being updated in the next few months.

The new RSP-1570 would fit the bill very well indeed with all the new codecs and HDMI hookups.

I would like to do some homework in advance and go listen to the Rotel pre/pro and amp combination. Can I assume the existing 1069 or 1098 pre/pro's would sound very similar to the new RSP-1570?

Frank,

Very good idea in going to see and hear the new pre-pros. Your assessment is always the best indicator.

I would think the new 1570 would be similar sounding, in general, to the 1069 and 1098. However, newer chips and implementation hopefully mean better overall sound. Also, the 1570 will have one nice advantage over the others: ability to process the uncompressed audio formats on Blu Rays. Uncompressed audio is noticeably better than regular DD and DTS. It is great in my system.

I'm sure there will be some people/dealers who will get them soon and will report out here in the forum on how they perform.

Plus there is current HDMI capability including scaling. Overall, the 1570 is a more complete package that the other two for today's world.



Hope this helps.

[fhsun]

Steve,

I see that 1570 will decode Dolby True HD and dtc HD MA.

Are dts HD MA and dts HD the same (interchangeable terminology) or are they two different codec's?

I usually see receivers spec both Dolby True HD and dts HD MA but sometimes I'll see Dolby True HD, dts HD, and dts HD MA.

One thing the 1570 seems to be missing is the mic/room equalization function.

Thanks.

Frank

[htsteve]

Frank,

Dolby True HD and DTS MA are best formats (uncompressed). DTS HD is compressed, but much less so than 'regular' DTS. The bitrate of DTS HD is much better than DTS, but significantly lower than DTS MA. Also, DTS MA requires HDMI 1.3, DTS HD can go on the lower versions.

Go to dts.com and look at the DTS HD white papers. They do a good job in showing the differences (nice graphs).

Dolby also has a HD format between Dolby digital and Dolby True HD. Look at Dolby.com in the Technologies section.


As for room equalization, that is a nice feature. My sub has it (Velodyne DD series) and it worked out very, very nicely. I'm not surprised that Rotel doesn't have that. They tend to be conservative in adding extra features like this. But, their products are quite good value for the money.

Part of the fun of having such nice systems is the setting up of them and occasional tweaking them to see if things improve.


Steve