Onkyo receiver and RTi speakers

blacklab

I'm looking at getting a new receiver. Currently I'm running a yam RXV-1500 that I find too bright for music with my RTi speaker setup (RTi6, RTi4, Csi3, RC80i). This receiver will be used in my kitchen now. I've read that some people think that the Onkyo's are just as "bright" with the RTi speakers as the Yamaha's are. I've also read that the Onkyo's offer a "warm/neutral sound" but this was not when tested directly on a Polk RTi speaker. For you Onkyo/RTi owners, what is your opinion? I'm looking at getting the TX-SR805, mainly because of the price and features.

Serendipity

blacklab wrote: »

I'm looking at getting a new receiver. Currently I'm running a yam RXV-1500 that I find too bright for music with my RTi speaker setup (RTi6, RTi4, Csi3, RC80i). This receiver will be used in my kitchen now. I've read that some people think that the Onkyo's are just as "bright" with the RTi speakers as the Yamaha's are. I've also read that the Onkyo's offer a "warm/neutral sound" but this was not when tested directly on a Polk RTi speaker. For you Onkyo/RTi owners, what is your opinion? I'm looking at getting the TX-SR805, mainly because of the price and features.

I think the combination would be great with RTi's!

J_Kennedy

I'm finishing up making all my jumper cable's and about to start pulling cable for surrounds. SO far with all new speakers, set up badly, the 805 with RTi8's and CSi A6 center sound great. Can't wait to get the FXi3's hung and connected as well as the good cables connecting everything else including bi-amping the RTi8's then finally let Audessy do it's thing.

Wish now I would have already ordered the sub.

bopicasso

I love mine. Im running a 805 with rti8s, csi3 and a svs pci 25-31. Not to bright at all. If anything the bass from the sub is overwhelming!

kuntasensei

I'm running a 705 with RTi70, CSi40, and RTi28s, with a SVS 20-39CS+ sub and Buttkicker running off a Samson 1,000w amp. The Audyssey MultEQ does a great job of taming some of the slight harshness my Polks had with some instruments (especially violins), making it absolutely worth every penny.

If you want some tips on proper Audyssey setup, hit my section of the 705 FAQ over here. And definitely get a tripod for proper setup with that mic. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

BIZILL

sounds pretty good. sounded like **** until i ran audyssey. still a tad bright though. if i manually cut out any more highs, it just sounds very unnatural. basically, i'm pretty happy. i am one of the sufferers of lip sync issues, though.

kuntasensei

There are a few things to be careful of when running Audyssey, which can affect the sound.

1) As far as the highs go, be careful that you place the mic on a tripod with the mic sitting JUST ABOVE your seating's headrests. The headrest can play hell with the readings, making Audyssey try to filter its way around that.

2) For low frequencies, make sure you don't place the Audyssey mic within 12-18" of any walls unless you absolutely have to. In my room, I had to move the mic placements slightly forward on the couch to avoid boundary gain in the inital readings. Also, make sure you run ALL EIGHT of the mic positions to give it a good analysis of the effect your room has on bass. I did the first three positions on the couch, the next three a 12-18" further into the room (to give it data further away from room boundaries), then the next two in between those two rows of readings. Doing this will give you the best overall response.

3) The mic with the Onkyos is calibrated for grazing incidence, meaning it is meant to take readings off-angle from the mic. If your surrounds are mounted high, they may be grazing the mic at less of an angle than your mains, which will affect their equalization. A good way of mitigating this (and smoothing out the highs in my experience) is to angle the mic toward the mains slightly to bring the angle to all speakers closer to being similar at each mic position. This will give you a better overall soundstage, and may well help even out the brightness you're hearing.

4) After running Audyssey, don't mess with the 7-band EQ. Doing so disables Audyssey's filters, taking you from hundreds of adjustments on each channel down to a simple 7-band parametric EQ. The Onkyos use the Audyssey target curve (similar to the THX rolloff of highs), so the sound shouldn't be excessively bright. The only adjustment you can make post-Audyssey that will maintain the settings is to back the treble control down, though this will only cut highs in the mains.

Hit the aforementioned (and linked) 705 FAQ for some in-depth advice on using Audyssey MultEQ XT, which should apply to both the 705 and 805/875. I can almost guarantee you will get better results by following these simple logical steps and advice.