Onkyo 876 lacking oomph....

Bigtent

My amp is just not cutting it. I have to have the volume up to nearly 3/4 to sound reasonable when watching /
listening to movies/music, eg on a scale of 1-99, start-up is 45, suitable music/movie has to be up around 70.
I am running RtiA9's, CSiA6, Proson surrounds and a couple of Sherwood subs.
Any ideas?

jeremymarcinko

Thats the way they all are on avr's. The volume is designed on a scale that relates to its mastered playback level. Most soundtracks are supposed to be played back at 85db. This is considered reference level. Your volume level at 85, if calibrated would be reference level.

rpf65

Your running a lot of speakers for that AVR. Those A9's will use all the power that your AVR can give, and still want more. You should really run at least a 2 channel amp with those speaker, 200 watts or more. You won't hurt the CSI A6 if you amp it either.

Big speakers need big power.

jeremymarcinko

Yes, a nice amp will improve sound quality. But the loudness will be the same at any given spot on the dial even at 200watts per channel.

zane77

I agree get an amp for the 9's. It won't increase the volume like jeremy says but they will sound like they are supposed to. You're expecting your AVR to drive a lot of speakers. Look for an amp, new or used, it will make a big difference. There was a nice Rotel here this past week that had a great price. Oops, sorry just saw your post count, but still look for an amp.

heartystatue

Welcome to CP. Is this a new set up? Is this before or after Audessy run. There are things you can tweak on the Onkyo to get more oomph. I have the TXNR809 that I had to do some tweaking on. Need a little more info on what you have done already.

cfrizz

Welcome to Club Polk Bigtent!

Welcome to the reality of the lack of power receivers have for more than 2 speakers. To have your speakers operate to their full potential get a 3-5 channel 200wpc amplifier.

Good bang for the buck new amps are Outlaw Audio & Emotiva XPA series. Or if you don't mind buying used check out Audiogon for Sunfire, Rotel, Parasound, Nad, B&K, Adcom.

Recalibrate all of your speakers then sit back and enjoy.

tonyb

An amp would help but first cover the obvious. Did you set up the receiver ? Crossover....speaker levels ? If your speaker levels are too low, boost them up to 0 or + 2 to see if that helps.

cnh

jeremymarcinko wrote: »

Thats the way they all are on avr's. The volume is designed on a scale that relates to its mastered playback level. Most soundtracks are supposed to be played back at 85db. This is considered reference level. Your volume level at 85, if calibrated would be reference level.

I have an 805 whose amp section is almost a clone of yours. And JMCinko is right. 70 or so is close to "reference" level and I'm running more efficient speakers in M-70s up front. These loudness scales are not linear--they don't increase the loudness in constant increments, as you get higher the dbs jump more and more till the amp clips. So That last 20-30 on the scale is more than you think.

That said. Rti towers can use more amplification, as noted above. Get a good power amp and you'll be fine. For me the 805 rocks the M series fine. But I do run it at 69-74 out of 99 on movies.

cnh

BlueFox

Since the SPL (sound pressure level; volume) is dependent on the speaker efficiency and room size, the volume settings on any device is only a reference for your eyes. Other than that, it means nothing. A setting of 40db on my system will give a completely different SPL than with your system. You need power to give high, distortion free volume, and speakers to handle that power. Buy a SPL meter to measure the actual volume. You will see that the actual volume (SPL) has no resemblance to the volume setting.

jeremymarcinko

BlueFox wrote: »

Since the SPL (sound pressure level; volume) is dependent on the speaker efficiency and room size, the volume settings on any device is only a reference for your eyes. Other than that, it means nothing. A setting of 40db on my system will give a completely different SPL than with your system. You need power to give high, distortion free volume, and speakers to handle that power. Buy a SPL meter to measure the actual volume. You will see that the actual volume (SPL) has no resemblance to the volume setting.

Not after calibration. His Onkyo uses audyssey to measure spl and sets the speaker levels to a pink noise equivalent of 75db at 85db on the dial. It is set 10db under 85 iirc because of a 10db gain in dolby soundtracks. Giving you an accurate mastered reproduction at 85db or reference level. If your system is calibrated it will be exactly the same spl as any other calibrated system despite room size, efficiency etc. That number on the dial isn't just a reference for your eye's it actually means something. It tells you how far under or over reference you are listening. If you go into the setting and choose the relative volume scale as I use. It will invert the scale with -85db being the quietest because its 85db's under reference and 0db being the loudest because it is 0db under or over reference. Go further +1 to +16db over reference. Now if you would measure the spl of a soundtrack it would not match the db on the dial because of the dynamics of the soundtrack very greatly, well under and over 85db. This of course does require the minimum power capabilities to be met, to avoid a clipping situation. So again more power means better sound quality, it won't be any louder unless it's setup wrong.

jeremymarcinko

This does not apply to music, there is no standard spl that music is recorded. You will notice newer cd's play much louder than older one's at the same spot on the dial.

Bigtent

Thanks for responding people. To start at the beginning, I had the use of my brothers old Sony amp. 140wpc. It used to make me want to turn the volume down as it worked the speakers how I wanted them too. It didn't however have HDMI, so I upgraded to the Onkyo. I will admit the sound is far cleaner, I can hear things previously unheard, eg the scrape of a piano key as it is moved down by the players fingers. That side of it is unreal. Have discussed things with my brother, gone over everything we can think of. He has a similar amp, a couple of models up and he doesn't have his over 20 or so to watch HT. I really want the best of both worlds, Sony and Onkyo together.

jon s

Actually, the Onkyo is more powerful than the Sony... Sonys run out of power when all channels are driven, they usually have only 60 wpc because of their small power supply. The Onkyo will deliver about 110wpc all channels driven.

I had a Onkyo TX-NR906, and my volume level was about the same as yours. BTW, the Onkyo volume control IS linear... So, 50 to 70 will be a 20dB difference. So going from 70-80 will be 10dB difference or about 10x the power.

Of course, a speaker's characteristics does not mean that 0 is 100% volume on one speaker vs. another. A lower impedance speaker may max out at a lower volume level because of current demands.

tonyb

I feel this has more to do with being a setup issue first and power second. You can't rely on the automatic calibration to get it right, you have to check the settings and adjust to your satisfaction.