setup hifi - no sound

Hi guys

After finally finishing the decorating in our lounge I've got around to setting up the hifi. Porblem is I'm not getting any sound out of it.

Its not a straightforward setup, its a av setup comprising of.

Yamaha AX1 AV Amp
Audiolab 8000s (going to be used as a pre)
DAC20 Dac
Pioneer DV717, to be both CD and DVD player.

I've connected dvd to dac, dac to pre then then pre to AV.

I've confirmed that the source gets to the pre (using headphones), but its not getting any further.

Must admint I've not tried this before, I've onnected the pre and av, from Pre (Pre-Out) to av (main in). 8000S set to pre.

I've got to have missed something simple.

Put me out of my missery, please !

 

OK a bit more investigation, plugged the cd player directly into the yammy, I get sound, so the problem has to be the pre, or at least the way I've connected it.

Any ideas?

 

is the dvd player outputting pcm (which the dac would understand) as opposed to dolby digital / dts whcih it would interpret as gibberish and probably go all mutey on you.
cheers


julian

 

Hi Julian, so there is life here then
Yes the dvd is outputing pcm, the dac is getting a lock, don't think that is the problem, I can't get any sources to work, vcr, sat, or cd. The problem has to be the way I hocked it up to the yammy, the manual doesn't really say much about attaching a pre other than there are sockets for it, ya very helpful, so I don't know if I have to select something ont the amp, I'm thinking maybe I can't hock it up in this way, might be time for a rethink.

 

usually it's the other way round - you'll get the output of the av amp going into the stereo pre / amp / integrated to allow integration. it sounds like you are trying to use your a/v amp as a power amp which it may not be capable of. do you have a power amp for stereo only?
usual setup is.....
dvd dd/dts -> av amp
pcm -> dac -> stereo.
av amp rear output -> speakers
av amp front pre-OUTS -> stereo tape loop or unity gain input.
stereo -> (power amp if you don't have an integrated amp) -> front stereo pair.

or do i have the wrong end of the stick?

 

Thanks Jules, No I think you are right, that was what I was trying to do, use the pre for my sources and then feed that in to the AV amp, power amps, but I think you maybe right in saying that my av may not be compatable with this config. So you are suggesting using the AV amp as a processor for centre and rears and everything else, put though the 8000s, This complicates things and I'm also worried about that, I shall be having words with Dom / Harry (when he gets back) who told me this was possible !!!

 

Hmm I just tried to do a similar thing over the weeknd. My Dads surround system is based around an old, but very good Yamaha DSP-A1000 amp, but it doesn't sound that great for stereo. I took the pre-amp out of the AV amp and put it through an old Chapmen 306 valve amp we have. I didn't make any sound! ...turned out the pre-amp section of the amp was buggered so I had to fix that first lol! After that though it worked quite nicely. The stereo sound is really pretty decent now for what the system is! Had to re-calibrate the surround and sub levels but it sounds damn nice now. Vintage valve surround sound

 

Hi Tenson, that's cool, are you saying though that what I'm trying to do IS possible, but maybe the pre in the 8000s could be suspect? (it shouldn't be as its already been for repair), but yes that is what i'm trying to do, replace the stereo part of my av with the pre.

 

It should be possible but it is not what I am doing. I am using the AV amp as a pre-amp for the main channels and sending it to the valve amp for power amplification and then to the speakers.

I'm not sure why you want to do it the way you are. Surely the 8000S is a better power amp than the AX1? Also I'm not quite sure how you will use the system for surround if the DVD/DAC goes in to the 8000S for pre-amp'ing then on to the AX1 for power-amp'ing. This way the 8000S will control the volume of the front channels but the AX1 will still control the volume for the surround channels. That sounds hard to control!

Presuming the DVD player has separate audio outputs for the surround channels and the the AX1 can accept surround inputs on separate RCA's... I would suggest taking the surround channels to the AX1 via separate phono wires. Then using the digital out of the DVD in to the DAC. Take the DAC's output for the stereo channels and connect that to the front channel inputs on the AX1. You can then take the pre-outs of the AX1 for main channels and pump that in to the 8000S to be power-amped.

Its a bit complicated but it is the only way I can see of getting the DAC integrated in to your AV system for stereo duties.

Otherwise you will just have to ditch the DAC and take the digital DTS in to the AX1 then use the pre-outs of the AX1 in to the 8000S for power-amp’ing.

 

Ok well the reason for my idea was the split the souces away from the av amps pre stage but to use the amps, power amps, so all the speakers connected to one up, no messing around with setting up the levels and other faffing about, but this obviously isn't going to work. I was looking for a pre-power setup.

so I guess I have 3 choices.
1, don't bother with the 8000s and stick to what I had.
2, user the 8000s as an ingetrated / power for front speakers, all stereo souces connected to the 8000s
3, the the 8000s purely as a power amp all sources connected to the av amp.

This is turning out to be far more complicated that I had imagined, going to need to draw a wiring diagram for this one.

 

I get what you're trying to do. For movies, the DVD plugs straight into the AX1 for surround - for music, the DVD plugs into the DAC20->8000s->AX1. Thing is, the 8000s will probably do a better job as an integrated.

"2" is, pretty much, the de facto config for this kind of HiFi/AV melding.

 

Thanks mike, I'm coming around to that way of thinking, when I get back from the in-laws I'll have a go at setting it up like that, yes everyone is saying the Audiolab will do a better job then the AX1, which is probably true but a little disheartening