Pioneer shuts itself off intermittently

[swimmerken]

The Pioneer VSX-1020-K receiver which I purchased last June intermittently switches off. It seems to happen when a given sound level increases beyond a level unknown to me.

I am still using -- and intend to continue to use -- a pair of Whafedale Dovedale acoustic suspension 4-8 ohm impedance three way speakers connected to the receiver by monster 12 gauge cable. (I could not find in the Pioneer manual any indication as to the impedance the speakers connected to it should have; so I assume the Pioneer is indifferent as to speaker impedance.)

I am consequently not using the surround sound capabilities of the amplifier; so in the speaker manual connections menu I have disabled all the other speaker ports except front left and right and selected the following speaker settings specified on page 100-102 of the manual: "Normal(SB/FH)", "Large" because the woofer in these speakers is 300 mm in diameter, and set the crossover frequency at 50 Hz, the lowest possible. (Setting the crossover frequency in this way may be ineffective if no separate woofer is used; the manual is not clear on this point.)

The foregoing sets the speakers in "stereo" mode. In this mode I assume -- but do not know for a fact as the manual does not say so -- that the Pioneer MCACC system to adjust the surround sound is inoperative.

I have made the following other settings changes in the "other setup menu" (pages 67-70 of the manual) in order not only to eliminate the intermittent shut off but also to make the bass sounds less boomy. In the audio options section I have turned off the acoustic calibration EQ, turned on the tone control and lowered the bass level to the maximum -6 dB, and set the LFE attenuation to -5 dB. (I am not exactly sure what LFE does; the attenuation could be set as low as -20 dB in 5 dB steps.) I have also disabled the "control function" whereby the receiver will only be on when the monitor is on.

Finally I have set the crossover switches on the back of the speakers to maximum gain for the mid and high range speakers, in the hope that I can use a lower volume level and thereby in an inverse fashion effectively lessen the bass level.

I would appreciate advice and comments on whether I am doing the right things to eliminate not only the switch problem but also to balance better the various frequency levels of the speakers.

Other information about my system: the monitor is a Samsung Plasma TV model PN50B850Y1FZXA; the inputs are an unlocked DVD player and a Bell decoder. The connections between the receiver and the monitor and between the receiver and the Bell decoder are HDMI. The connections between the DVD player and the receiver are "component".

Swimmerken