chuckears Posted March 20, 2002 Share Posted March 20, 2002 Got this beauty from one-call for $599 (list $999); arrived a day earlier than scheduled... packaging was excellent (double boxed with peanuts, no crushing or dents). Hooked it up after a 12-hour workday (yikes); and have a few first impressions: 1) This sucker is big! 2) The ability to associate the input sources with a particular digital or analogue input is nice, if a little confusing (maybe it was the 12-hour day). 3) I REALLY need surrounds. Like right now. (The Mrs. gritted her teeth when my 9-year old daughter made this declaration twice in as many minutes). Maybe for Father's Day... 4) I am using the pre-outs on the receiver for the left and right mains, and running it through my two channel system: the level on these is way too low... I have them set to +10 dB, and the center (which is being driven by the new receiver) is set at -10db, and it barely balances out. This really surprises me, given the horsepower of my two-channel McCormack set-up; like I indicated, I think those pre-outs on the new receiver just don't put out. 5) It's going to take a while to find a good balance; my kid is on Spring Break next week, and she is not very patient when I have the OSD up while she is trying to watch something... 6) The back of my stereo cabinet looks like 5 or 6 octopuses got in a fight... can't wait to add a couple more speakers wires for the surrounds... (Oops, looks like I need to edit the sig again...) ------------------ Klipsch Fortes, Oiled Oak Klipsch KLF-C7 Center Channel McCormack DNA-1 Power Amp McCormack TLC Pre-Amp Sony 5-disc changer NHT SA3 Subwoofer Amp Hsu TN1220 Subwoofer Old Akai cassette Deck Akai AAR22 used as tuner Nordost Solar Wind interconnects Kimber 4TC Speaker Cable (Future upgrades to include): Klipsch RS-3 Surrounds Harman Kardon AV520 Receiver This message has been edited by chuckears on 03-20-2002 at 10:57 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eq_shadimar Posted March 21, 2002 Share Posted March 21, 2002 Congrats on the purchase!! I have had my HK510 for some time now and I love it! In regards to the pre-amp outs. I would double check everything there. I have run the pre-amp outs to several different types of amps (tube receiver, other HK receiver, pro amps) and I have never had the type of imbalance that your are describing. Where is the volume (or gain) set on the amp that you are trying to drive? EDIT: Also what is the dB level on the HK520 that you are using to calibrate? The manual for the HK510 recommends -15dB but to get acceptable levels on my HK510 I calibrate at -10dB. Laters, ------------------ ...wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world... My Home Theater Page This message has been edited by eq_shadimar on 03-21-2002 at 01:32 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckears Posted March 21, 2002 Author Share Posted March 21, 2002 EQ, I am running the pre-outs through the video input on my McCormack TLC-1 preamp... I have the volume set at "9:00", which usually produces live-level music from my other sources. BTW, I have the H\K volume set at -15 dB for the test phase, but increase it to about -8 dB for listening. One very disappointing thing I have discovered with this receiver is the inability to use spades with the speaker terminals; what I assumed was standard 5-ways have a plastic enclosure around the screw that does not allow for spades to be used... the worst part of that is that a $90 Kimber 4TC with factory terminated spades for my KLF-C7 is arriving tomorrow. I can use the spades on the speaker, but it looks like I'm going to have to cut one end and install bananas myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eq_shadimar Posted March 22, 2002 Share Posted March 22, 2002 Yikes with my HK510 calibrated at -10 and the settings carried over to the other inputs (I assume that you know that each input has different settings) it is loud I mean concert level loud. Maybe your pre-amp has really high impedence on the inputs. Very strange. I guess I don't have any answer for you other then trying to recalibrate with the main HK volume set higher like -10 or -5 db. The volume setting goes to +10 so I think that you will still have plenty of headroom. In reguards to the binding posts I have been able to hook up spade terminals to them. however you need to unscrew the binding posts out past the plastic shiled and of course your spade lugs would need to fit inside the plastic rings (my fit ok but they are not what you would call "high end"). Maybe you can file or hacksaw the plastic rings off? That looks like it would be easier then trying to re-crimp your cables. Laters, ------------------ ...wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world... My Home Theater Page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wata Posted March 22, 2002 Share Posted March 22, 2002 Harman Kardon AVR520 has Mp3 decoding have you tried this yet and can you play it in stereo and Pro Logic II.Sound difference? This message has been edited by wata on 03-22-2002 at 11:57 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seb Posted March 22, 2002 Share Posted March 22, 2002 I'm wondering how you could pass the signal to the receiver to play mp3s... spdif digital through the computer sound card, or simply digital through an mp3-compatible cd or dvd player? ------------------ http://members.fortunecity.com/sebdavid - go laugh at my crappy website/equipment http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mc.asp?alias=Sebdavid - go laugh at my puny little DVD collection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckears Posted March 22, 2002 Author Share Posted March 22, 2002 wata, My DVD player decodes mp3, so I don't have a reason to try an alternate source to check the receiver... I think you are supposed to hook your computer soundcard or portable mp3 player through it. I was able to procur a better balance of the center and fronts by turning off my DVD players dialogue enhancement feature... I am still configuring and figuring this thing out... it allows for different settings based on what it is reading from the digital source (such as bitstream vs. PCM), and every time I try changing something on my DVD player, the receiver likes to reset to the default settings... my kid is getting ticked off at my messing around with it... need a day off by myself to play . ------------------ Klipsch Fortes, Oiled Oak Klipsch KLF-C7 Center Channel McCormack DNA-1 Power Amp McCormack TLC Pre-Amp Harmon Kardon AVR520 Receiver Sony 5-disc changer NHT SA3 Subwoofer Amp Hsu TN1220 Subwoofer Old Akai cassette Deck Nordost Solar Wind interconnects Nordost Moonglo Digital Coax Kimber 4TC Speaker Cable (Future upgrades to include): Klipsch RS-3 Surrounds A big-*** HDTV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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