"Jeff Roberts" wrote in message
news:09zRb.37867$U%5.214783@attbi_s03...
I'm hoping some of the guru's here can help me with a setup issue with
my Marantz SR-18 and my Denon DVD-2900. I've purchased the
required cables to connect the 2900 to my SR-18 along with a few SACD
and DVD-A discs. I'm sitting here with manuals, remotes, sound meter,
and a big "?" above my head cuz I can't get multi channel music to
delite me!

I'm pretty certain I have the 2900 configured properly, I've gone through
the
steps and when I play the DVD-A disc the display indicates output to
all channels and that it's in DVD-A mode. Same goes for SACD - all
indications are that the player is doing its thing properly.

I've connected the appropriate cables from the 2900 to the SR-18 as
follows:

FL1 and FR1 are connected to the L/R CD input on the SR-18 and I've
enabled 6-CH Direct for the CD input. The remaining channels from the
2900 are connected to the appropriate Direct inputs on the SR-18, l/r
surround, center, and sub. This makes up the 6 individual channels, as
I understand it from the (less than adequate) manual.

The coax digital output from the 2900 is connected to Dig-4 on the
SR-18 and assigned to the DVD input. I get awesome DTS and DD through
this input.

-------------------

So, I crank things up and I'm playing a DVD-A disc and all I get is
stereo output from the front left and right speakers. The SR-18 does
not indicate that it is receiving input to the other channels. I can
toggle the "Direct" button, same deal, no output from the other
channels.

I've got the same problem with SACD. I only have output from the 2
front stereo channels.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks in advance!


Jeff, a couple of possibilities come to mind.

1) The receiver may want to take in FL1 and FL2 into some other "front"
input. It may be when the receiver is tuned to the CD input, it shuts off
the surround, center, and sub channels.

2) Another possible situation is that the receiver has an "either/or" on the
audio, so you might have to use the internal decoders on the 2900 for *all*
output, and do away with the coax digital input, instead running the video
output to an auxiliary input on your tv.

3) A third possibility is that the 2900 is set to output its multichannel
via digital coax and you will have to switch it to analog multichannel when
you want to play SACD (and possibly DVD-A as well, at least in high-res
96/24 or 192/24.

Hope this helps. These things are complicated and the manuals almost
uniformly incomplete, confusing, or both. Certainly true of both my Sony
and Toshiba manuals.