My sub "overloads"?

Hello,
Thanks for posting on the Forum. I'll try and offer an opinion. I believe your receiver is reacting to the peak demands of the movie. During loud dynamic sections of the movie your receiver has to produce fairly high amounts of signal current (think of signal current as gallons per minute of water being pumped through a water pipe). The output transistors, in your receiver, are working to conduct these current peak demands. However, one of the byproducts of producing current is heat. As the receiver works to produce more current it also begins producing more heat. There is probably a device, in your receiver, that detects current flow or the temperature of the output devices. When the current flow (or the temperature, or both) reaches a certain level the "protection" LED comes on and the receiver goes into standby.
It sounds as though you have your speakers connected properly to give the most accurate frequency response. I believe you've just reached the limits of the receiver. Like any device it can only produce a certain amount of energy and some of today's wide dynamic range program material can easily require lots of power. I can remember a demonstration, given by Bob Carver, showing that to accurately reproduce the sound of a large pair of scissors, (using a closely placed microphone played back through moderate efficiency speakers), snapping together required more than 500 Watts. Imagine what some of the special effects, in movies, can require! You might want to consider another receiver manufacturer that produces "high current" output capability and better dynamic headroom (dynamic headroom is the ability of an amplifier to reproduce transient peaks without severe distortion) . I'm sure fellow Forum members will be happy to make recommendations?
I hope this is helpful information.
Regards, Ken

Ken gave a very good and through description of what is probably going on with your receiver. I would instead run the sub from the sub pre out and see if that helps. any load that you can lighten from the receiver is a good thing. How old is your receiver? Maybe there is more going on than just heat or current overload.

But yeah.. Ken is right... most of todays current receivers are high current.. that's important since like Ken said.. movies put a huge demand on a receiver..

Ken.. i learned some things I didn't know about too. WTG!

Al

well as stupid as this may sound... you may want to check all your speaker connections..

back in my day... when the pos and neg speaker wires were touching each other or something metal like the chassis.. it would send the receiver in shut down or protect mode.. so just for sh*ts and giggles.. check your speaker wires.

Also, maybe you did get a lemon receiver that has some problems.. not all electronics are 100% perfect.. if it's still under warranty... take it back to the store or call Pioneer and see where that leads.

good luck.

I'm going to check the specs on your Pioneer.

Hate to say it, but it might just be the receiver..The non elite Pioneers are decent at best..And yes I own one and are a HUGE pioneer fan.

Iv'e got a 810s(little older) and it just simply could not handle the demands of the bass of some dvds.It drove me crazy!!! The way i solved it was by going to seperate amplification.I just use it as a pre/pro now. From the reviews,i know Polk speakers can be very diffulcult to drive,and dip down into the 4ohm and below range.

brickie

I had a Pioneer Elite receiver before making the jump to seperates. I hate to say it but i was never impressed with the non-Elite receivers. Not what you want to hear, but looks like your receiver just isn't up to the task the way you got it set up.

I'd try hooking up the sub via the LFE out, crank up the receivers crossover to 150 and turn the sub's crossover as high as it will go (no need to double filter the lfe signal), and then see how everything sounds and performs. Not everyone likes the "Polk Method" for hooking up smaller systems, or larger systems for that matter.

Originally posted by 1sctrojan
This is incredible. I got a 2 sentence reply saying, i can't believe this, " your receiver can't handle all that power, please get a subwoofer with an RCA jack". Hello? So a Pioneer receiver can't handle a $500 speaker system? Is Pioneer admitting their receivers are of inferior quality? So what now? Should i hook up a monster sub cable from my unfiltered LFE out on my sub to the sub preout on my receiver? Or should i trade it in for a HK230 and pay the extra $100? The HK230 only has 1 digital coaxial, i really need 2 unless someone can tell me another way to hook up my PC to the receiver.

1. Sorry but the Pioneer guy was accurate. It's not that good of a receiver. They're still relying on their name for sales. I have them at my shop and unless someone just walks up and says "Give me that," none of us ever sell them. They're honestly no better than Sony and even JVC is an upgrade.

2. The H/K has 2 coax in on the back and a third up front. Same with Optical. Trade in your Pioneer for the H/K and be happy. It will handle the output just fine. Pioneer is not high current, no matter what they say. H/K is. The 230 has +-30amps of power vs. Pioneer's 5-8. 'Nuff said.

Originally posted by Kenneth Swauger
snapping together required more than 500 Watts. Imagine what some of the special effects, in movies, can require!

My outlaw 770 is more than 3dB down... Good God where does it end?:rolleyes:

at least my subs have a seperate amp. The Sampson has done well in reproduction; however, the fan noise makes me crazy at low volumes.:(

ohhhhh wellllllll

Looks like mono blocks in the future. My wife will scold me:eek:

Twin

Originally posted by 1sctrojan
I forgot to take the plastic film off the front panel, LOL.

DOH!!!