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

[hugh]

See this thread
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=64766

There are others if you search.

As noted in this thread, the receiver is probably protecting itself by shutting down. Likely due to too much heat or improper wiring.

[swimmerken]

Before I posted my original message to the A/V receiver forum, I had done a Google research. All the results I found indicated that such intermittent shut-downs are caused either by a a defective speaker, short somewhere, usually in the speaker connections, or overheating of the receiver.

As for the speakers both had worked properly with other amplifiers, although not with an A/V receiver. Since attaching them to this A/V receiver I detected no discernable difference in their performance, except a boomy bass sound.

The only connections to/from the A/V receiver which are not HDMI or RCA connectors are those to the speakers. The speaker cables are 12 gauge stranded wire connected at both ends to binding posts. Careful visual examination revealed no stray strands of the wires which might cause an intermittent short.

As for possible overheating, the receiver has ample air space around it, especially the top, where there is nothing between it and the ceiling of the room. Besides, if the amplifier overheats the manual says (p. 108) that the display will say AMP OVERHEAT, and the blue pilot light will flash. These events have never happened in the two months I have owned the unit.

Having eliminated to my satisfaction the obvious possible causes of the shut-downs, over a period of several weeks I tried various adjustments to the receiver settings described, with one exception, decribed below. I had however noticed that the only time the receiver would shut down was when there were particularly loud bass sounds. If after a shut down I restarted the receiver and such loud bass sounds were still being broadcast the receiver would immediately shut down again. The receiver would continue to function after a restart either if I managed to turn the volume down on restarting or once such high level bass tones ceased.

The one thing I did but did not describe in my first post was prompted by an item on the "troubleshooting" section of the manual, page 1-7. The symptom is described as "During loud playback the power suddenly switches off." Three remedy options are given:

1) Turn down the volume. (This I tried, and works if the volume is turned down soon enough, but it is difficult to anticipate when it should be turned down.)

2) Lower the 63 Hz and 125 Hz equilizer levels in the Manual MCACC setup on page 69. (Since the amplifier always operates in stereo mode I assume changing these equilizer levels would be ineffective.)

3) Switch on the digital safety feature. There are three choices: Off, 1 and 2. Off is the default. 1 and 2 are presumably two "on" levels; but the manual does nto explain the difference. All it says is "If the power switches off even with 2 switched on, turn down the volume. With 1 or 2 on, some features may be unavailable."

Only two days ago did I discover this this symptom and remedy. I set it to 1; since then the power has switched off only once -- a time not long enough to determine the effectiveness of this remedy. It would be useful to know what this remedy does and the difference between 1 and 2.

So I am back to asking my original question amended: appreciate advice and comments on whether my understanding if the "digital safety feature" is correct, what the difference is between the 1 and 2 settings, and whether I am on the right track in improving the balance between the various frequency levels of the speakers.

[AFF]

Great, I just pick one up at Best Buy for around $300(open box item). I hope this doesn't happen to me.

[swimmerken]

Let us all know if you do.

Your are lucky on the price. For a closed box one I paid more than twice than the $300 you paid for an open box one.

Unfortunately my pre-purchase research was inadequate. When I discovered that it had an RJ-45 LAN connection I assumed that it would be DLNA ready, but it is only ready for internet radio. It is possible to tweak the computer software to allow it to play downloaded music files from a PC, but not video. So at this stage I am not sure whether I want to keep it.

[AFF]

Damn, I just spent 2 hours rewiring it up and I get the amp overheat too. I can't even completely finish set-up before it shuts down. There is no way the guys at Best Buy didn't know this was a faulty avr. My biggest problem is that Best Buy is over 1400kms away.
I'm choked.

I'm gonna try it with nothing connected and see what happens.

Edit: even with nothing connected it overheated in 5 minutes.

[Nutrino]

i got the same issue, swimmerken did you found any solution? the only thing suspecting is that my original setup with MCACC FULL AUTOMATIC was done with a poor quality mic, i didn't have the original calibrating mic, since then i did not check them again (trusting the auto setup calculation of speakers distance and response, since i'm using different sets of speakers)