Too Much Center Channel on CD

I'm sure there is a simple answer to this. My system is a 3.1. For now, that is meeting my needs for movies (I still have considerable upgrading to do). And while important, I am a bit more concerned with listening to audio CD's. I have a Denon 1930ci connected to my 1070 and find that most of the sound is coming from the center channel. The Denon, which I guess is a universal player is connected for audio with a digital coax cable. I think that may be the issue. If I connect the analog audio outs on the Denon to analog inputs on the 1070, would that take care of it?

The issue is the surround mode that you are using. I'd recomment that you set up the CD input to use the coaxial digital input that the Denon is connected to and set it up to play in stereo mode instead of Pro Logic II (which is probably what you are using for DVD's). This will take the center channel out of the mix.

Right on gonk!

Makes perfect sense Gonk. I guess I'm still having some difficulty thoroughly understanding all the connection options and what they will do. I was under the impression that the sound coming from a CD/DVD was digital and did not understand the need for analog connections...at least for the newer receivers, but the Denon has SACD out which are analog connections. I thought therefore that if I connected analog interconnects to the 1070 that the receiver would pick up that it is two channel and play in stereo. The Denon all has a Direct Pass connection which I thought might eliminate the processing of the Denon with a direct signal to the 1070. I guess either way I will have to make a switch on at least one component when I am watching DVD's or listening to CD's. I thought perhaps there would be a connection where the equipment would do all that autmatically based on the format of the media.

The issue here isn't actually analog vs. digital at all. You are exactly right that CD's and DVD's offer digital audio (as long as you don't run afoul of copy protection restrictions as found in SACD and DVD-Audio). The digital bitstream from a CD is PCM stereo. An analog connection would also be stereo, of course. In both cases, the 1070 recognizes the signal as two channel audio. What's happening is the 1070 is taking that two channel signal and applying surround processing. This could happen whether the signal was digital or analog (unless analog bypass were on play, since that bypasses the processing). You can simply use the "STEREO" button on the 1070's remote to change the surround processign mode to "Stereo" (no surround processing), and the center channel will cease to be involved.

My recommendation for setting up the CD input to use the same digital input as the DVD input comes from past experience and personal preference: I use stereo mode for CD listening and surround processing on DVD's, but I use the same transport for both. By setting up a second input, I don't have to manually adjust surround modes all the time - I just pick "CD" instead of "DVD" on my remote, and the CD input is set up to run in straight stereo with PCM stereo sources. Keeps life simple.

that's a great suggestion. Currently (but hopefully not for long, I use my Xbox for gaming, DVD playback, and music. I never really thought of assigning different input settings to the same device .

FWIW - I use "Stereo 5" for my CD's and find it much more to my liking - it spreads it out around the room that way.

I tried Stereo 6 w/ some new Bob Marley CD's I picked up. I also hooked up an older Raite AV715 AVPhile DVD player my father in law gave me so I can have a much quieter player in the room. The Xbox360 is way to loud for good music listening. It's temporary until I can look at a new marantz or comparible CD Player

Anyway, the 6 Stereo mode was pretty cool. I like both 2 channel and Stereo 6. Good stuff