Video Asylum

Posted by Klootzak (A) on June 06, 2006 at 09:14:35

I have a problem.

Various components are feeding highly variable sound levels into my Sharp Aquos lcd televison -- which then is feeding an audio input to a Musical Fidelity 250 Watt/Channel integrated amp.

A Panasonic VCR with a very high level audio output
A Toshiba Tivo DVR/DVD with a very low level output
and An Adelphia digital cablebox/DVR with a low/medium output

constantly require readjusting to normalize sound output levels when switching between components.

Last night I managed to damage the woofer on an expensive speaker, since the audio level coming from the Panasonic VCR was much louder than the audio level coming from my Toshiba Tivo player. When I swithed between the two the amp was turned up and damaged my woofer in my expensive Linn Espeks speaker (luckily it is repairable, I just need to have an outside rubber ring reglued).

Basically, I need to turn the volume way up on the musicla fidelity amp to get a loud enough sound from the Toshiba DVR to fill a 700 square foot oopen space.

Is there a component that will automatically normalize the sound output levels between my three video devices when it is fed into the Sharp televison?

Since the Toshiba Tivo dvr seems to have a low output level, should I consider getting something like a phono premap as an audio booster?

Is the problem the size of my listening area? I am sitting relatively close to the speakers when listening?

Does it sound like the Toshiba dvr is simply not putting out enough wattage?

How can I turn the volume output level on my Panasonic VHS player down to avoid this happening in the future?

Any other advice?