Well very pleased to report it all seems to be working fine. Watched the Matrix on DVD and was impressed with the sound quality; dialogue was always clear and the effects were stunning and the active sub really made itself heard (even just at 4/10 setting), making the Eltax one sound like an empty box with a speaker cable attached. I have watched the Matrix at the cinema and it was the first DVD I watched back in 1999 and out of all the systems, I have heard it on, I have never heard it sound so good.

I still have not even done any real set up yet either although I did need to reduce the volume of the Eltax (rear centre) speaker as it was noticeably louder than the Yamaha’s when running the test tone. However, I don’t think I heard anything out of it during the movie although I am pretty sure the Matrix is just a standard DD5.1 soundtrack. I will have to try out a proper 6.1 movie and see if there is a way of having 5.1 playing over the rear centre too.

I also briefly watched Sky+ through the amp though after a great DVD it didn’t quite sound as good though that is probably more a limitation of the source than the amp or speakers; I was only watching the music channels and it still fared better than the Eltax.

However strangely I noticed the optical connection to the Sky+ didn’t seem to sound as good as the normal (phono) analogue connection; it had a lower volume level and seemed to have less impact though it could have just been a side effect of the lower volume. In addition, every time I changed channel (on optical) it lost the signal briefly (unlock) accompanied by a (quiet) pop. Also even with pro-logic 2 enabled I could not detect much output from the sub whilst watching Sky; not sure whether the low frequencies just aren’t there, are lost in the MPEG compression or just aren’t so obvious as in a movie? In fact, I did not notice the sub on the amps FM tuner either though perhaps I need to orientate the length of aerial wire better as the reception was a bit iffy on some stations.

When you want to listen to the surround back you need to press the Dolby Digital EX/DTS ES button on the front panel, this should work on normally 5.1 DVD's. It will matrix the left/right surround, only on DTS ES discs will the channel be discrete.

Music channels do not broadcast in Dolby Digital, this is why it didn't sound as dynamic as the DVD you had just watched, the Movie channels are excellent however.

How were you listening to the music channel, Stereo, DPLII or DSP mode?

I prefer to listen to music in good old stereo, personally I don't think it sounds right any other way, especially with some of these DSP modes that are present on some amps.

DPLII is very good for stereo soundtracks, only movies IMO, but because the channels aren't discrete it can sound a little flat, still very good, just not as good as DD5.1.

DSP modes should be banned.

Pleased you are happy with the system, you should have many hours of enjoyment there.

I tend to switch my amp to five way stereo mode when listening to music programmes (FL, C = FL + FR, FR; RL = FL, RR = FR).

Do you know of any specific DTS ES DVDs released in the last year or two I could look for in my collection? A brief look at my DVD collection did not turn up any though I haven’t been through all of them yet. There was some Dolby Digital EX ones though I assume that’s something different? I do have plenty of DTS films though; I will have to try one as even on the old Eltax I found the DTS soundtracks had a bit more impact than the DD5.1.

Also I assume the matrixing of 5.1 to 6.1 is effectively a combination of the rear left and rear right surrounds i.e. 50% of each? Though I assume it is a bit more involved with that. Anyway providing it isn't harmful to the overall sound I will probably turn it on as otherwise the rear centre is probably going to be unused most of the time, at least until DTS ES becomes more common.

Is the use of the format more common in the newer disc formats; Blu-Ray/HD DVD?

Started listening in stereo but then switched to DPLII for a fuller soundstage, which I found worked ok, similar to how it functioned on the Eltax though better quality of course, but obviously cannot recreate the effect of proper DD5.1 material.

There are a few DTS ES discs I can recall but they are not recent - Blade 2, The Haunting (R1 SP ED), Rush Hour 2, Final Destination 3.

DVD Reviewer have a few more listed, a google search will no doubt bring up a few more.

DVD Reviewer

Bluray can easily support DTS ES but I haven't noticed any discs that carry this soundtrack as yet, I have only seen DD5.1/DTS accompanying the newer formats Dolby Digital True HD and DTS HD Master Audio where 7.1 is beginning to show itself, and very impressive it is to.

Well thanks for all the help and advice on choosing the right system and getting me up and running with it. Glad I paid a bit more and got a brand new, fully warrantied system from a reputable retailer and resisted the temptation to recycle bits off older systems and look for cheap deals on eBay.

Only other question I have now is whether it is necessary to use the flip switch on the back of the amp to turn it off before turning off at the mains as I do overnight or whether it is ok just to put it to standby before powering down. The same for the sub i.e. whether it is necessary to turn the subwoofer off with the power button at the back before I turn off at the mains. Just thought I should check in case either could be damaged by the power being supplied too suddenly when the mains is first switched on though I wouldn’t have thought so; everything is on surge protectors anyway.

That is quite an old version, CA are on to V3 now, which supports HDMI. I have a V2, which sounds great with my MA14 floorstanders and MA200 rear bookshelves and Ruark center front (I don't need a subwoofer).

With regard to the sub-woofer connection. Don't connect it to one of the speaker binding/banana plug posts as this is a powered output. Plug the single cable from the SW itself to the SC post in the 6.1 preamp out section. See the very comprehensive manual that comes with the reciever.

An active subwoofer is just that, active. That means it has an amplifier of it's own built in. There is NO provision for a passive sub-woofer on the Cambridge Audio 540Rs.

Be careful with the rather chunky remote control, it is heavy, but fragile. It has metal bars inside and if you drop it these are apt to come loose, and break of components on the RCs mainboard. I was lucky enough to get a replacement from Richer Sounds, but it isn't quite the same Navigator as the one supplied with the unit.

Don't worry about the on/off switch. But if you're electric bill/green conscious then get one of those One Click RC power strips [click]and plug the receiver into that, with any other peripherals plugged into "peripheral" sockets. Then program the strips RC to react to the Azur Navigator's on/off button. You'll need two presses of the on/off button to start the receiver, and only one to turn it off - after 30 seconds everything else will shut down too.

It is a lower volume because it isn't compressed, and has a much wider dynamic range. This keeps quiet bits quiet and loud bits loud. Compression is generally regarded as "a bad thing", as it keeps the volume generally higher with less impact where impact is supposed to be. What I'm saying is that there will be more detail in the Optical/Coax connection, while the analogue connections may have compression applied at the source (ie BBC Radio 1).

I suffer the same problem with the start of music tracks on my Azur too. I'm told it is something to do with the inputs not being made permanently to the output channel selected. How to fix that remains a mystery, but I believe it's possible. I usually only watch movies on that system, which have an uninterrupted audio signal, unlike the separation between tracks on CDs.

So pleased you are happy with the system.

I'd say it's down to personal choice.

Turning equipment off from the mains overnight is not necessary, leaving equipment in standby is perfectly safe.

There are various pieces of equipment that need to be left in standby as they sometimes receive updates overnight, Sky for example, Sky also needs to be left on for overnight recordings. Home cinema systems are not designed this way so they wouldn't be affected, but I have seen articles where they say repetitive switching on/off can put stress on certain components that can eventually lead to faults/failure, there could be some truth in this seeing my plasma has no off switch, designed this way for reliability or ease of use I couldn't say.

I always leave my equipment in standby, everything apart from Sky only gets switched off from the mains when we go on holiday.

Just had a go at measuring the speaker distances so that I can set up delay times for them. I have included my measurements below and what I believe to be the correct delay settings but just hoped you would be able to check over them make sure I am correct in my calculations before I actually enter them into the amp.

Sub is 9 FT away (100 inch, 250cm) = 0ms

Front Right is 9 FT away (110 inch, 280cm) = 0ms

Front left is 9 FT away (110 inch, 280cm) = 0ms

Front Centre is 8 FT away (98 inch, 248cm) = 1ms

Rear Left is 4FT away (48 inch, 125cm) = 5ms

Rear Right is 4FT away (54 inch, 137cm) = 5ms

Rear Centre is 1FT away (15 inch, 38cm) = 8ms

Thanks in advance

Delay times are set up perfectly.

On Cambridge Audio's website, I found this for the unlock problem. [Click]

Thanks to Richer Sounds for pointing me in the right direction.

Anyone any views on which speaker set is better, the yahama nsp 110s mentioned in this thread or the tannoy efx5.1s?

Considering buying either or and any steer on which are better would be great.

Cheers

They are both good packages, but I would have to say the Tannoy EFX5.1 is the better package.

Well almost got the delay times configured though for some reason the amp would only let me reduce the rear centre delay time to 15ms; still 7ms too much. Perhaps it expects this to be the minimum distance; my room is a bit small after all, unless I am doing something wrong though I was following the manual carefully. Also it didn’t actually let me set up delay for the left and right (front) speakers (or subwoofer) so will just have to hope their standard setting is zero.

In addition, I noticed that speaker size could be changed too. Initially this was set to large but I changed it to small as I didn’t want to overdrive the speakers; physically the Yamaha’s are small though in terms of power handling (100 watt) they are actually large so not completely sure what speaker size should be set at for my set up (Yamaha NS-P110 on Cambridge Audio 540R V1.0)?

The system continues to impress in terms of sonic performance; I watched Jet Li: War and King Kong over the last few days. I believe War had a dedicated 6.1 through Dolby Digital EX and sounded superb. I don’t think King Kong did (Region 1: Special Edition) but I set it to 6.1 anyway and the sound was superb throughout with the rear soundstage sounding highly convincing despite the movie not being recorded in 6.1; great movie for sound effects; really showed off the dynamic range.

On my Denon amp the Small / Large speaker setting is used depending on if you are using a sub-woofer or not. If you have one set the speaker size to Small, if not set the Speaker size to Large. This tells the amp whether to filter the low frequencies from the signal fed to the surround speakers or not.

The manual states that the delay can be set from 0-15ms in 5ms steps in Dolby Digital mode, in DPLII mode it's 15-30ms, make sure you have Dolby Digital selected.

The Cambridge only allows delay times for the centre speaker and surrounds, not a problem here as your fronts are equal distance away. You will only be able to adjust the surrounds to 5ms or 10ms, try both settings and select the one that sounds the best, 10ms would be my guess.

Large and small settings are referring to how well the speaker produces the lower frequencies, not how big or powerful they are.

The Yamaha speakers are rated at 100Hz so you should be selecting small.

When a speaker produces 40-50Hz then you could set them to large. Home cinema setup recommends a small setting regardless of speaker frequency, everything is controlled by the crossover which is generally set at 80Hz.

By the way, you won't damage anything by having them set to Large, the amp will only send full frequencies to the speakers, if the speakers can't produce them it makes no difference anyway. It may be worth trying both settings as the amp hasn't got a manual crossover setting and I have no idea what the internal crossover would be set too for large/small settings, if it's pre-set to 80Hz you will be losing frequencies from 80-100hz as your speakers only produce frequencies down to 100Hz.

I have War on Bluray and the soundtrack on this is 7.1 PCM and it sounds very impressive.

6.1 can sound really good with 5.1 discs, it just adds that little bit more.

One of the movies I mentioned that had a 6.1 soundtrack is well worth listening to if you can get hold of a copy, The Haunting, it's full bitrate DTS ES, still one of the best soundtracks going, it will certainly give your system a work out, not the best movie by miles but sounds brilliant.

Out of stock at Play USA at present.

http://www.playusa.com/DVD/Region_1/...t.html?cur=513

Lord Of the Rings special 4 disc ones in the book type packaging

Oldboy

Sympathy For Mr Vengence

Die Another Day - original DVD release

Titanic 2 disc special edition

are some of the ones that i have.

Qiute a few of the tartan world cinema relaeses are in DTS ES 6.1.

It is the same for the CA 540R.

It's about frequency response, not speaker size or power handling. If you don't have a sub, set as large.

thanks for the response above Deacon

Speakers should be set to small and then check that sub is set to on at the amp. If your dvd player has the option in the setup menu for speaker size try setting it to large thereby letting the amp look after the crossover.

I found the best way to set up the sub level was listening to 2 channel stereo and then adjusting the level on the back of the sub to get a nice balance of bass. The bass should not sound like it is coming from your sub,it should just blend with the main speakers.

If you can locate the position of the sub by sound it is probably set too high.

With regard to switching on and off,i prefer to switch on at the socket first and the amp,pc or whatever last. Opposite to switch off, eg,wall socket on then extension lead on then amp. I think this reduces the possibilities of spikes. sometimes when equipment is in standby and you switch the wall socket on/off you hear a pop in the speakers,this would not occur if the equipments on/off switch was switched off first. Surge protected socket banks are well worth buying.

Not all DD5.1ex soundtracks are correctly flagged on the dvd,i think one of the Lord of the rings in the boxset is an Ex soundtrack but does not automatically play as such,if you manually select it on the amp rather than leaving it in auto mode you get the full ex soundtrack.

I use the analogue out/in for stereo music and this prevents the cut off at the beginning of tracks on cds,sound quality will depend on the player you use,if you use the digtal connection the amps dac does the conversion,with analogue it is down to the player.

Somebody asked about the Tannoy efx 5.1 speakers,i use these and have found them to be very good for music and film.

I've found the haunting here for a fiver, well £7 inc delivery http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/The-Haunting-R...3286.m20.l1116 Just thought I'd make sure its the same one? do you think its worth getting at that price?

I saw one even cheaper, was R1 too but I noticed it was listed as only 5.1 so assume there must be different versions?

Looks correct from the cover, with DTS ES clearly marked.

You were right to dismiss the other R1, chances are it would have only been DD5.1, there are different versions about.

£7 is a good price, the cheapest I can find it for is £10-99 and it's out of stock.

I am still enjoying the amp a lot. However recently to further boost my home cinema set up I purchased a HD DVD player for my X Box 360 console and have been fortunate enough to build up a great HD movie collection in hardly any time at all thanks to all the clearout sales going on.

I don’t have a HD set yet (it’s the next thing I hope to upgrade ) so not getting anything like the full experience though even in SD I can see richer colours over DVD and of course the movies sound brilliant through the amp just like normal DVDs do. However unfortunately the X Box 360 itself doesn’t sound anything like a normal DVD player; even after as little as thirty minutes use the fans spin up, and stay quite loud, becoming very audible in quiet scenes, sometimes to the extent spoken dialogue is very difficult to hear.

Ideally, I suppose I should buy a dedicated HD DVD player as I imagine these are a lot quieter but funds don’t really allow that at the moment so I was thinking of changing the amps settings to make the dialogue louder so that it is still audible over the background noise of the X Box 360. As (I believe) most of the dialogue comes through the centre speaker I was thinking of simply turning its volume up by a few DB. Would this be effective or would I be better reducing the dynamic range settings?