kahunaburger

While you guys were out and about in the sunshine, I spent my late morning and early afternoon at the house, setting up the home theater equipment. The Onkyo TX-SR805 (see here) had arrived over a week ago and I needed to verify that it was working correctly (uhmm - I also wanted to *hear* it). Big ladder, 15ft ceilings, 2 pairs of Klipsch S2 surround speakers (I know, I know, but I got a really good deal on those) and a few hours were necessary to do all the wiring. Again I ignored the installation requirements saying that “2 people were required to do the installation” - huh, I am two people, at least far as the weight is concerned. I’m sure it would have been fun to watch me dangling from the ladder, balancing a speaker on one hand and trying to connect it to the mounting kit with the other hand - yes, that does not leave a hand to hold on to the ladder. It was a major break-through to discover the wrap-your-leg-around-the-ladder-technique as I arrived on speaker number three.

The front and center speakers (including the sub-woofer) came from the old house and I’m happy that I picked B&Ws when we did the installation there. Once I had all speakers connected, I used the Onkyo’s “test-signal” mode to make sure that everything was in the right place and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard white noise for all the speakers on the right connections.

Next came something that I’ve never experienced before: Most newer receivers feature an automatic setup mode that determines location and size of each speaker and the characteristics of the room. You connect a microphone to the receiver, place it in the preferred listening position and start the automatic Audyssey MultiEQ XT setup. Each speaker will emit a series of wide-range bleeps and the screen will tell you which speaker is being worked on. Once all 7.1 speakers have been tested, you’re being asked to move to the microphone to another position. The process continues for 3-6 listening positions and once you’re done with it a profile for your room, your speakers and your listening positions is being created. That’s a heck of a lot easier than doing it manually with a meter in your hand.

After the automated setup, I placed my tired butt in the preferred listening position and started to test some material. Holy poop on a stick! That Onkyo receiver sounds so much better than my old Denon. Half of the speakers are still the same, how come it’s that much better?

Onkyo in action

I tested some CDs, DVDs and some 5.1 Dolby Digital material from the Dish Network receiver. Everything sounded great, but I have to admit that I was overwhelmed, because of my exposure to the Denon over the last few years. My ears had adapted to it’s sound and everything new sounded un-natural. I guess this is something I have to get used to …

Things are not installed in it’s final place - I’m still getting a lot of furniture over the next few weeks (including a stand for the TV which will host all the ugly equipment and cables), but I’m more than happy with the way things are right now.

As the title mentions, there are some minor annoyances:

• This thing runs HOT!!!! - you can see it in the photo above: initially the Dish ViP-622 receiver was right on top of the Onkyo. After a test-run, I went to the Onkyo and it felt like I could fry some eggs on it. The Dish Network receiver was sweating and as a result the fans were going crazy. I had to find some “spacers” to separate the Dish-unit from the receiver - not very elegant, but, who cares, all the stuff is still sitting on the floor anyway. So, don’t put anything (except for raw eggs) on top of that thing.
• Extended frequency range - I’m getting old and the frequency range that I can hear at my age (28, yeah, I’m kidding) is probably 1/3-1/2 of what it used to be 10-20 years ago. Even considering that sign of aging, I can hear that the new unit has a much wider spectrum than the old one. It reproduces high- and low-frequency ranges better. Nice you say? Yes, I would agree with you, if all the source material had enough data to reproduce that range as well. There are some 160kBps and, ugh, 128kBps MP3 files that sound - what’s the word - awful. Those sounded nice on the older receiver, but now they just don’t have enough range. I’ll capture the ones where I have the source material with VBR in the next few weeks.