Denon AVR-1600 AV-receiver
The Denon AVR-1600 receiver is very traditional both in external design and in the ideology of the organization of management. The DSP mode is selected by a direct call from the front panel, and then the parameters are adjusted from the remote control. Along with modes for music videos (ROCK ARENA and JAZZ CLUB), there is also a mode for scoring video games (GAME), which is rare for a modern AV receiver. Of the traditional notions, the automatic storage mode has been preserved when all received FM stations are turned on.
System tuning began, of course, with setting the levels of all channels and the necessary delays. There are no explicit delay values; instead, you need to enter the distance to the loudspeakers, which is much more convenient. Everything is much simpler here. When switching from test settings to a "combat" soundtrack, the sound picture turned out to be noticeably simplified: in the frontal plane, the depth of space turned out to be small. On a number of quiet fragments, there was a feeling of "losing the rear", which could simply be corrected by increasing the level of the rear channels, however, in the episodes passing in the plane of the screen, the rear seemed to be highlighted more than necessary. A typical situation that requires paying more attention to delay adjustment. By reducing the parameter "set distance to the rear speakers", it was possible to significantly improve the situation. Moreover, an acceptable fusion of the image appeared when the distance was more than a third less than the real one. To expand the stereo panorama and frontal space, we raised the level of the main speakers by a couple of decibels (fortunately, this is possible here) and slightly corrected the "center" delay (30 cm is approximately 1 ms). With an increased distance, the image formed reluctantly, with a reduced one, pressure from the "front" arose. So the optimum is in the middle. With the rise of the level of the "center" you have to be careful: a couple of decibels plus - and there are signs of contraction of space. Therefore, the level control was left in the zero position, and the distance was also increased (in fact, the delay decreased). As a result, the depth in the frontal direction became more natural.
When choosing acoustics for this model, it is advisable to pay attention to the speaker pattern: the wider, the better. Since with a high directivity, criticality to installations can be more pronounced.
