[gemery]

Love the new Pandora app on my HR24-100, except the audio as compared to the tv audio is wicked loud and sounds overmodulated.

Turned it on last night and scared the heck out of the cat, had to pry her out of the ceiling..

Is it just me?

0x59c

 

[jes]

Pandora is ~ 10 db louder than the average audio. I've never heard anything on Pandora that sounds remotely over-modulated... on the contrary, the audio quality and separation appears significantly better than the SonicTap channels...

When switching to Pandora, my cats don't care, but I have had to pry the wife off the ceiling...

 

[Laxguy]

How does the over-modulation you experience manifest? I.e., what does it sound like?

 

[shmengie]

i was pleasantly surprised at the audio quality. indeed, much better than sonic tap.

and yes, please: describe over modulation. never heard that term before.

 

[Davenlr]

and yes, please: describe over modulation. never heard that term before.

Technically, it is driving the modulation of an FM transmitter past its 100% range, i.e. outside of its given bandwidth. This sounds to a listener as distortion, since the receiver is clipping off the out of bounds signal.

On audio, and not a transmitter, I would be more prone to think he means it is being sent at well over the average spec limits for the input rating. If the amp/tv/etc has a 1V peak to peak input level, and the DirecTv box on Pandora is outputting 1.5V peak to peak, the limiter inside the amp is going to cut off the extra .5 volts to prevent damage to itself, and that will result in clipping the high volume passages.

While it is true Pandora is outputting louder signal than regular programming, I havent heard any clipping. YOu would really need to run to output of the Directv box through an O-scope to tell if it was or not, for sure.

Since Pandora is stereo 2+0, its going to be a different signal than normal TV, so the OP might have to change his amp to match the setting of the music, be it Stereo, or using one of the amps DSP modes to simulate surround.

I simply turn off my rear speakers, and just use the front L,R and Sub when listening to Pandora. Leaving my amp on Surround just does not sound right to me, since the music isnt encoded for surround. YMMV.

 

[jes]

as Davenlr mentioned, when you overdrive a signal, you get clipping. The downside of clipping is it squares off the signal and results in harmonics. On an audio signal, that's sometimes described as a harsh sound characteristic. The problem is that depending on your listening volume, the harmonics can sometimes have sufficient energy to blow tweeters.

When the music is too loud and you don't have enough power, you blow tweeters.
When the music is too loud and you have too much power, you blow woofers.
When the music is not loud enough and you blow speakers, you just have cheap speakers.

 

[Laxguy]

Thanks for the expos..... still hoping to hear what gemery means by it; what it sounds like to him.

 

[gemery]

Thanks for the expos..... still hoping to hear what gemery means by it; what it sounds like to him.

I have the audio from my recieved fed into a stereo system, nothing fancy, you can see on the equalizer meter that the audio is topping out, like someone elae added about 10db higher.

The audio imho sounds worse than the sonic channels do.

I cant describe it right, but to me it sounds like the audio from Pandora overdrives the audio reciever, which you can see by looking at the unscientific meters..

 

[gemery]

Technically, it is driving the modulation of an FM transmitter past its 100% range, i.e. outside of its given bandwidth. This sounds to a listener as distortion, since the receiver is clipping off the out of bounds signal.

On audio, and not a transmitter, I would be more prone to think he means it is being sent at well over the average spec limits for the input rating. If the amp/tv/etc has a 1V peak to peak input level, and the DirecTv box on Pandora is outputting 1.5V peak to peak, the limiter inside the amp is going to cut off the extra .5 volts to prevent damage to itself, and that will result in clipping the high volume passages.

While it is true Pandora is outputting louder signal than regular programming, I havent heard any clipping. YOu would really need to run to output of the Directv box through an O-scope to tell if it was or not, for sure.

Since Pandora is stereo 2+0, its going to be a different signal than normal TV, so the OP might have to change his amp to match the setting of the music, be it Stereo, or using one of the amps DSP modes to simulate surround.

I simply turn off my rear speakers, and just use the front L,R and Sub when listening to Pandora. Leaving my amp on Surround just does not sound right to me, since the music isnt encoded for surround. YMMV.

This is what it is doing, probably overdriving the input to my audio reciever, causing it to sound distorted, which it is.

 

[Davenlr]

What equalizer are you using? Most have a master gain control to turn the input down. If its built into the amp, what model are you using? What type input (RCA or digital)? Might just need an attenuator if the amp doesnt have a gain control. If its got meters on it, you would think it would.

 

[Podkayne]

I had an issue with no audio at all on Pandora through the optical out to my Denon AVR 4800, and after fussing with it a bit, switched back to TV and the sound came through fine. Thus isolated to Pandora, I went back to Pandora, had the same problem, shrugged and switched to the TV speakers, which were fine (so audio through the HDMI cable, but not the optical to receiver?). I nevertheless was enjoying the background music, when after about 15 minutes, the receiver audio kicked in! Now this HR20-100 has been beyond painfully slow since the upgrade to the HDGUI, but 15 minutes?? I'm hoping it was a fluke...

 

[Laxguy]

I had an issue with no audio at all on Pandora through the optical out to my Denon AVR 4800, and after fussing with it a bit, switched back to TV and the sound came through fine. Thus isolated to Pandora, I went back to Pandora, had the same problem, shrugged and switched to the TV speakers, which were fine (so audio through the HDMI cable, but not the optical to receiver?). I nevertheless was enjoying the background music, when after about 15 minutes, the receiver audio kicked in! Now this HR20-100 has been beyond painfully slow since the upgrade to the HDGUI, but 15 minutes?? I'm hoping it was a fluke...

I suspect that's more of a function of the Amp-receiver than the HR20!

Have you tried wired from DVR to Amp?

 

[chevyguy559]

I've found the audio quality quite nice on Pandora, I really like the feature and the ability to put a basketball game on and have music in the background. I have noticed that any Ads that come on Pandora (I only have a free account) are considerably louder than the music and I have to turn it down a bit when the ads come on.....

 

[jes]

I had an issue with no audio at all on Pandora through the optical out to my Denon AVR 4800, and after fussing with it a bit, switched back to TV and the sound came through fine. Thus isolated to Pandora, I went back to Pandora, had the same problem, shrugged and switched to the TV speakers, which were fine (so audio through the HDMI cable, but not the optical to receiver?). I nevertheless was enjoying the background music, when after about 15 minutes, the receiver audio kicked in! Now this HR20-100 has been beyond painfully slow since the upgrade to the HDGUI, but 15 minutes?? I'm hoping it was a fluke...

I suspect that's more of a function of the Amp-receiver than the HR20!

Have you tried wired from DVR to Amp?

I've also have audio problems with Pandora. After a song ends in Pandora there is sometimes a digital chirp. Sometimes at a song end, the digital audio drops out and doesn't return until a second or 2 into the next song. (like slow squelch...) Sometimes there is no digital audio output at all (TOSlink or HDMI). Analog output OK. IMHO it's not the HR20 or the A/V equipment, it's something in the signal...

 

[TomCat]

Love the new Pandora app on my HR24-100, except the audio as compared to the tv audio is wicked loud and sounds overmodulated.

Turned it on last night and scared the heck out of the cat, had to pry her out of the ceiling..

Is it just me?

"Wicked" overmodulated? Pretty easy to guess what market you are in.

 

[gemery]

"Wicked" overmodulated? Pretty easy to guess what market you are in.

Yea thats the Massachusetts coming out..

 

[Davenlr]

I just checked the Pandora app on my Tivo Premier, and it is actually louder than the HR24-500. I have to turn the volume of the amp down another 6db for comfortable listening from the Tivo as compared to the HR24. So apparently its not just a Directv app thing.

 

[Shades228]

Volume differences between sources is not uncommon. The difference is that TV signals are limited federally to be what the loudest sound can be.

If you're using an AVR make sure you don't have it set to a pro logic codec or something. Stereo is the optimal and even multi-channel stereo can sound wierd in a room that's not designed for audio. Seperating 2 channel stereo into multiple channels can have effects people don't realise.

If it's just volume level turn it down prior to starting Pandora as it will be higher normally than your receiver.

 

[TBlazer07]

Love the new Pandora app on my HR24-100, except the audio as compared to the tv audio is wicked loud and sounds overmodulated.

Turned it on last night and scared the heck out of the cat, had to pry her out of the ceiling..

Is it just me?

0x59c

Yes, I noticed that as well the 1 time I used Pandora. I also have Pandora as an app on my TV and my Xbox and my BluRay and it doesn't sound a heck of a lot better.

Without even reading your message how could I have possibly known where you were from? I guess DirecTV "dropped the ball" on that one <pun intended>. :lol:

 

[Davenlr]

My Denon has a setting to equalize the volume between Dolby Digital (most D* channels) and PCM (some SD channels, and Pandora). Setting it to -10db, has both at the same volume now. Might see if your AVR has a similar setting.