Onkyo 875 set-up help!

[admin_exported]

I just got an Onkyo 875 at the weekend. I ran the auto set-up. The sound seems very thin with no real bass. I have altered the crossover for LFE to 90Hz on all channels and this has inproved things slightly. Also if I use the THX optimiser on monsters Inc. the test tone on the rears seems far quieter than the front. My speakers are Kef KHT 2005.2 with the sub set at half volume and crossover at full. Has anyone got any advice on setting it up? Should I ignore Audyssey and have no EQ with manual settings?

At the mo' my old Sony 925 sounds far better.

 

[professorhat]

If it sounds better to you on your manual setup of the levels etc., ignore the Audyssey and use your setup.

 

[Anonymous]

I set my Onkyo up on the weekend and it pretty much was just "plug and play". I am only runing a 5.1 system and so the biggest problems I faced was ensuring I plugged the rear speakers in to the "surround left and right" and not the "rear surrounds...." and plugging the subwoofer into the "sub-out" and not "sub-in". I am running bose speakers and the bass thunders. The Audyssey also did a great job at sorting levels and distances. Sorry this may not be of much use if you have all the cables in the right connections but from reading the various reviews this is a simple mistake to make.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, will have a play around this evening.

All the cables seem to be OK. The THX optimiser sounds like everything is in phase. I can feel the sub speaker moving so I know it's connected and working. The distance is being shown as 9.00m when it is really 3.2m and at -12dB.

 

[Anonymous]

So prof are you say just get the tape measure out for distances and start off with levels at 0dB. Adjust levels using something like the THX Optimser. Then have no EQ on?

 

[professorhat]

Well, double check everything first as mentioned above as the Audyssey worked fine for me on my 905 as well. Definitely worth re-running it after the double check on connections as well as if it picked up your sub as being 9m away, then something is definitely wrong there. Did you run it from several different positions?
My original post was really meant to say, the Audyssey set up is a good system, but if you disagree with it, what your ears tell you is more important than what it says!
EDIT - I'd also say, there's no harm in setting the system up manually either - it was what I had to do with my old Denon amp as it didn't have any of this fancy auto-setup stuff! It just takes quite a bit longer (as you say, get the tape measure out etc.).

 

[Anonymous]

Yes tried 3 different positions. all quite near each other. I could hear the sub making the tone. Just wondering if I have been listening to an inferior system for so long which might have been set up incorrectly that I trying to re-create it's sound. So doing missing out. The stereo seperation does seem far superior though.

I have seen something on another which says run Audyssey then manually set the crossover as stated by speaker manufacturer. Then listen to some music and make manual adjustments to the sub.

Will try these things tonight if I get chance. Hard to get time the when the wife is watching some 'change your clothes whilst getting thin doing a house up' type programme on 4.

 

[Anonymous]

Great to know I am not the only one in this boat then!. I too got mine the other day and I have been going through the maze of set-up menu's tweaking and trying to get it right.
I didn't have a prob with the reciever finding my sub as I put the volume up a bit before starting the Audyssey. I too have got a few probs with the crossover's, levels etc. My rears are kicking out sound like the fronts even though the levels are down? hmmmm
My two Subs together sounds awesome though and stuff was coming off my shelves. think i need to sort out the right volumes, frequencies and phase a bit as it was creeping in to dialogue in 'Star Wars'. My old amp was so much easier to set-up, granted it didn't sound as good but it did not split my head setting it!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Ran the Audyssey last night. Did 8 tests in same position. Said my sub was 5.5m away which was better. Showed -12dB for level though. The crossovers were all over the place so changed them to 90Hz. This has improved things. The surround levels seem ok for DVD but watching Sky movies on Sky+ (just in analogue) the Dolby Pro II seemed quiet. Will experiment with these and adjust the sub using music. See how that goes.

Only bummer thing is I found out that my firmware is 1.02 so will have to send amp back to Onkyo for update.

 

[Anonymous]

Have had my 875 for 3 months now and I understand what you are going through!
This is what I did to get my perfect settings........After using the Audyssey which put everything 'in the ball park' I adjusted the individual sound levels manually from my main seating position. (I found the sub too light, along with the rears (5:1 system)). Speakers set to the THX setting, and then pulled back the bass on the fronts and let the sub do more of the work.
I did find initially the sound to be quite 'closed in', it took around 40hrs for my system to free up and bed in with major improvements on all fronts.

Hope this helps

 

[Anonymous]

I had another crack at getting the settings right last night. I ran the Audyssey then did what what what most of you did and tweaked the crossover to 90hz which is much better for me too. I lowered the the 3 rears to -5db plus lowered the bass and treble and put the fronts and center up to +1db lowering the bass on center and the sub at +1db.
This is a revelation over the original settings that the Audyssey came up with and the sound field is really accurate now.
Just need to get hold of a sound pressure metre to top it off. By the way I love the '875' which is easily worth the premium over the '606' and this and my Pana px70 are the best things I have ever bought! Good stuff

 

[Anonymous]

trevor79:Have had my 875 for 3 months now and I understand what you are going through! This is what I did to get my perfect settings........After using the Audyssey which put everything 'in the ball park' I adjusted the individual sound levels manually from my main seating position. (I found the sub too light, along with the rears (5:1 system)). Speakers set to the THX setting, and then pulled back the bass on the fronts and let the sub do more of the work. I did find initially the sound to be quite 'closed in', it took around 40hrs for my system to free up and bed in with major improvements on all fronts. Hope this helps

Just noticed from your signature that you're using RS8's as your fronts (presumably because you wanted them for your stereo hi-fi as well, as I notice you have them bi-amped). As this effectively means "more bass" from your fronts, did this help to cause your problem with the sub sounding "light". Just wondered if you had saved yourself a few bob and got RS6's instead, whether you would still have had this prob.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry Paul you lost me a little. Are rears now set to -5dB and the front/centre/sub to +1dB on the speaker set up menu, with the bass ane treble turned down on the tone menu?. My surrounds were at -5dB right and -4dB left. These seemed quiet so lifted them up by 1.5dB. I'm only using DVD and X-box 360 games for the digital sound formats. Not got into Blu-ray just yet.

 

[tommyb]

As far as I'm aware, the db level is somewhat irrelevant.

The most important thing is to make sure that the speakers 'sound the same volume' from your main listening position, so relatively, they could in theory all have different db levels to accomplish this. So you need to adjust them for this end, not just to make them sound louder.

I hope I'm right in what I'm saying. I appreciate that I've somewhat oversimplified, but that's how I understand it.

Also, the distance on the sub is an 'accoustic' distance rater than a 'physical' distance, and so it may well look a little strange when Audessy sets it.

In my 875, I've found that the Audessy sets the equaliser really well, and so no need to mess around with tone controls.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it's what i'vebeen told by others as I've gone through this process myself.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Mark
Bought the RS8's for my stereo listening pleasure. Initially I did find the whole system 'tight' out of the box, and understood the need for a burning/bedding in period. Found the bass boomy and in your face, mid range closed, treble OK. Very hard to drive, the volume was turned up to 90%! Lots of Inductance to get rid of! By cutting back on the bass to the fronts the mid range came to life more, I counted this by adjusting the Sub to balance the weight. Ended up with an OK for now setting whilst I sorted out a Mains spur, cables, conditioner etc.
Coming up to today now the 875 purrs along on a 60% vol setting, have upped the bass on the fronts by 2db (now have tuneful detail), clarity to the mids and the system sings. Now run my music off the Sony 970 hard drive (which I have put in Schottky diodes/ os-con caps for decoupling) giving amazing detail to the signal. The 875 is a great amp, it needs around 40hrs to run in and will keep improving further after that as well.

 

[Anonymous]

trevor79:Hi Mark Bought the RS8's for my stereo listening pleasure. Initially I did find the whole system 'tight' out of the box, and understood the need for a burning/bedding in period. Found the bass boomy and in your face, mid range closed, treble OK. Very hard to drive, the volume was turned up to 90%! Lots of Inductance to get rid of! By cutting back on the bass to the fronts the mid range came to life more, I counted this by adjusting the Sub to balance the weight. Ended up with an OK for now setting whilst I sorted out a Mains spur, cables, conditioner etc. Coming up to today now the 875 purrs along on a 60% vol setting, have upped the bass on the fronts by 2db (now have tuneful detail), clarity to the mids and the system sings. Now run my music off the Sony 970 hard drive (which I have put in Schottky diodes/ os-con caps for decoupling) giving amazing detail to the signal. The 875 is a great amp, it needs around 40hrs to run in and will keep improving further after that as well.

Thanks for the reply. I did consider opting for the RS8's over the RS6's but thought that it would be a bit of bass overkill - I also tend not to listen to that much music in the living room. I do more of that in the kitchen/dining room when I'm cooking, so I can make do with playing the odd CD through the Onk using either my DVD or Blu-ray (although this is an area I may revisit..).

Should be getting my new system delivered either on Friday or early next week. I feel like I used to on 24 December when I was a child...

 

[Anonymous]

NSYGrinner, I agree mostly with what Tommyb says that no speaker should really sound louder than the other unless you want the center to make voices a tad more clear for heavy vocal laden films.
You basically just have to tweak til you get the desired results. I found that the Audessy was a decent starting point but as you may understand not all of us have perfect shaped listenning rooms so you have to compromise with a little/or a lot of tweaking ie.Db levels, to get things right.
So what works for me may not work for you. Just make sure that your rears are kicking out too much like mine were. I had to lower them on everything form the db level to treble and bass as they are smaller bi-polar speakers and I do not want to damage them. Good Luck.

 

[Anonymous]

sorry thats rear speakers NOT kicking out too much loud sound.

 

[Anonymous]

Thnaks to all the comments and advice.

Had another play around last night. Left the distances and levels that Audyssey gave for the front/centres. Played some CD's and set the sub level using the Onkyo amp rather than the subs amp. Sounds great now. The guess the sound quality is also improving as it runs in, if the 40+ hour run in is correct. Just need to set the rear levels now. I'll use a THX optimiser.

I used a X-Box 360 and when the display shouwed the Dolby Digital signal it also briefly showed up 'Dialogue +4'. Does anyone know what this means, and if it can be adjusted?

 

[Anonymous]

I also used the Audyssey as a starting point. Had the sub cross over set to 90 and all speakers set to full band. Then sat in the main seat and tweaked whenever I felt things weren't quite right. Now it sounds excellent. I'm running RS6 fronts, LCR centre, FX rears and W12 sub.

I'm not sure what the "dialogue" means. But it does flash up a lot when you give it a DD signal. I don't think its adjustable, possibly it's the figure the dialogue was recorded at????