An AV receiver can be the heart of a home theater, but just plugging in speakers and cranking the volume won’t automatically give you the best sound. To get the most out of your AV receiver, you’ll need to do several things, from tweaking the settings to picking the right cables. It’s also one of the home theater devices you should buy new to ensure you gain access to the most current audio technology. As such, some tweaks to your setup can make a rather big difference, possibly even more than cashing out for pricey devices.
For the AV receiver itself, the best thing you can do at first is to calibrate your system. Most AV receivers have an auto-calibration feature that measures your room’s acoustics and then sets your speakers for the optimal audio quality. Do remember that there can be some mistakes, so you should verify the configuration afterwards and listen to the result. To do so, take a look at your speaker levels, and if any of them are at +10dB or -10dB, that’s a sign something didn’t go right during setup.
Another thing you can do is to take a look at whether the Eco mode feature is on, and turn it off. While it has its merits like saving energy, the other side of the eco coin is that it also reduces the audio quality. You’ll likely experience lower volumes and generally worse performance with the feature turned on.
Additional tips for best audio quality
An AV receiver has several other features that are useful, and just like the Eco mode, they can reduce the audio quality in some circumstances. For instance, turning DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) on is good for action movies, but it can fall flat when listening to music where there are noticeable volume changes. Also, turn on your AV receiver about half an hour before you start using it. This way, you’ll give it time to warm up (which can make a tangible difference), and it will sound much better compared to playing it right away. Interestingly, turning off the display can give you a slight improvement in sound quality as well.
Outside of the AV receiver, placement of your speakers plays a role as well. Properly positioning your speakers will help a lot (usually the starting point of most guides on surround sound). Play some music and start experimenting with the placement to see where it sounds the best. Try to put both your left and right speakers somewhere elevated and not close to each other.
Additionally, subpar cable quality and poor cable management are some of the mistakes you can make when configuring your surround sound system. Though not directly related to the AV receiver, poor-quality cables can influence the audio quality. Hence, it will do you good to invest in some RCA or HDMI cables of better quality.