AVR and Speaker Setup Question

[akshatp]

I bought an Onkyo TX-NR807 AVR 2.5 years ago from Amazon, and I finally opened the box this week. LOL i know i know, why buy it and sit on it for that long? It was an impulse buy (Daily deal for $750) and I really had no use for it in our small apartment and was too lazy to return it; anyway now that we moved and have a finished basement I finally got around to buying speakers, a new TV, etc etc. to set up our home theater.

I know the AVR has alot of bad reviews that say it dies due to excessive heat after 1 year or so of use, but there is nothing I can do about it now except throw a couple of fans on it to keep it as cool as possible and hope the HDMI board doesn't melt/fail too soon.

Moving on. Bought a beautiful 65" Panasonic 65ST50 TV, Polk Monitor 70's for fronts, Monitor 60's for the rear and a CS2 center channel to pair with the amp.

I have everything wired up now, and I am ready to go through the set up in the AVR as far as speaker types, frequencies, etc.

My question is, since I am using tower speakers for both front and rear, should I set them both to full range? At this point I don't plan on buying a sub. Should I just leave the front's at full range and set the rear's to 80 khz like the center?

In the setup menu, their is an option for 8 ohms or 6 ohms. What should I set this at?

Any real advantage to bi-amping the fronts?

Where should I position the fronts -- in the corners of the room or closer to the TV?

Also, I am using a TOSlink cable to return audio from the TV apps to the AVR (no ARC port on the NR807) -- will this degrade the sound at all as opposed to HDMI? (Can you tell I am looking for a reason to sell the 807 and upgrade the AVR even though it is brand new?)

Last question, will setting the monitor out port to "Passthrough" enable me to send 3D content from my DirecTV DVR through the HDMI 1.3 AVR port to the TV, or will I have to run an extra HDMI cable from the DVR to one of the ports on the TV and swap it out when I want to watch 3D?

Any thoughts about the setup or answers to my questions are appreciated.

 

[sdifox]

we need room layout to figure out optimum placement. Do a sketch or something. Generally speaking you want the speakers as far from walls as space allow.

As to sound from tv, toslink is fine.

HDMI pass through is used when your avr is off. speaker set to 8 ohms.

Elevate the onkyo with small blocks of whatever you have, wood, stone, metal, doesn't matter. Place the blocks below the feets of avr. Idea is to increase breathing area below the avr so it can draw more air through convection.

I don't see a sub listed, in which case you would set the 70s as large and rest as small. Cross over will be something you have to play with, start with 80Hz and go lower if you can.

does your avr handle bi-amp? If so, it might help since you have no sub. Typical avr would have the mains deliver more power than the surrounds so if you can biamp, use the surround amp to drive the mid and highs and the main to drive the low. Remember to remove the bridge on your speaker. You will have to figure out how to set xover and such. My understanding is it is a waste of time in an avr. Issue is you will need to set crossover between the 2 parts of the signal and most avr don't really handle that.

 

[akshatp]

we need room layout to figure out optimum placement. Do a sketch or something. Generally speaking you want the speakers as far from walls as space allow.

As to sound from tv, toslink is fine.

HDMI pass through is used when your avr is off. speaker set to 8 ohms.

Elevate the onkyo with small blocks of whatever you have, wood, stone, metal, doesn't matter. Place the blocks below the feets of avr. Idea is to increase breathing area below the avr so it can draw more air through convection.

I don't see a sub listed, in which case you would set the 70s as large and rest as small. Cross over will be something you have to play with, start with 80Hz and go lower if you can.

does your avr handle bi-amp? If so, it might help since you have no sub. Typical avr would have the mains deliver more power than the surrounds so if you can biamp, use the surround amp to drive the mid and highs and the main to drive the low. Remember to remove the bridge on your speaker. You will have to figure out how to set xover and such. My understanding is it is a waste of time in an avr. Issue is you will need to set crossover between the 2 parts of the signal and most avr don't really handle that.

I think it does handle bi-amp, is this something I should look into doing?

Thanks for the suggestion on making the amp higher, I hope the shelf in the stand I ordered has enough room.

Ill do a quick sketch and post it up later tonight.,

Thanks!

 

[sdifox]

I think it does handle bi-amp, is this something I should look into doing?

Thanks for the suggestion on making the amp higher, I hope the shelf in the stand I ordered has enough room.

Ill do a quick sketch and post it up later tonight.,

Thanks!

most of the time with an avr it is a waste of time. you need to include furniture, bookshelves etc in your sketch.

 

[blackangst1]

I bought an Onkyo TX-NR807 AVR 2.5 years ago from Amazon, and I finally opened the box this week. LOL i know i know, why buy it and sit on it for that long? It was an impulse buy (Daily deal for $750) and I really had no use for it in our small apartment and was too lazy to return it; anyway now that we moved and have a finished basement I finally got around to buying speakers, a new TV, etc etc. to set up our home theater.

I know the AVR has alot of bad reviews that say it dies due to excessive heat after 1 year or so of use, but there is nothing I can do about it now except throw a couple of fans on it to keep it as cool as possible and hope the HDMI board doesn't melt/fail too soon.

Moving on. Bought a beautiful 65" Panasonic 65ST50 TV, Polk Monitor 70's for fronts, Monitor 60's for the rear and a CS2 center channel to pair with the amp.

I have everything wired up now, and I am ready to go through the set up in the AVR as far as speaker types, frequencies, etc.

My question is, since I am using tower speakers for both front and rear, should I set them both to full range? At this point I don't plan on buying a sub. Should I just leave the front's at full range and set the rear's to 80 khz like the center?

No. I would set them to full range/large in your setup. Surround can have some bass.

In the setup menu, their is an option for 8 ohms or 6 ohms. What should I set this at?

8ohms.

Any real advantage to bi-amping the fronts?

Not really. There are a ton of debate threads on this at AVSforum, and IMHO the difference, if any, is negligible.

Where should I position the fronts -- in the corners of the room or closer to the TV?

Not quite in the corner, but a some ways away (a foot if you have the room). Also, you dont want them square against the back wall. Try and pull them out a bit. Much better acoustics.

Also, I am using a TOSlink cable to return audio from the TV apps to the AVR (no ARC port on the NR807) -- will this degrade the sound at all as opposed to HDMI? (Can you tell I am looking for a reason to sell the 807 and upgrade the AVR even though it is brand new?)

No. TOSlink will handle everything up to DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD.

Last question, will setting the monitor out port to "Passthrough" enable me to send 3D content from my DirecTV DVR through the HDMI 1.3 AVR port to the TV, or will I have to run an extra HDMI cable from the DVR to one of the ports on the TV and swap it out when I want to watch 3D?

Any thoughts about the setup or answers to my questions are appreciated.

Without getting too technical, there are several variations on 3D encoding. HDMI 1.3 supports some, but not all. 3D in 1080p24 is pretty bandwidth intensive. If I were you, Id get a switchbox (you can get one with remote) that supports HDMI 1.4.

Also, you should check the owner's thread over at AVSforum for your receiver. Its almost 200 pages long, but I suggest reading it over the next few weeks and familiarize yourself with your receiver.

 

[Auric]

No. TOSlink will handle everything up to DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD.

Well, no TOSLink and coaxial S/PDIF are limited to ye olde timey Dolby Digital and DTS. However, so-called apps, cable/SAT, and OTA are likewise so it remains okay.

 

[blackangst1]

Well, no TOSLink and coaxial S/PDIF are limited to ye olde timey Dolby Digital and DTS. However, so-called apps, cable/SAT, and OTA are likewise so it remains okay.

My bad, youre right. TOSlink maximum throughput is DTS. :$

That said, IMHO unless youre running a super high end system, DTS is fine. When you get into DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD its usually 7.1 native, of which there are less than 400 titles recorded.

 

[sdifox]

My bad, youre right. TOSlink maximum throughput is DTS. :$

That said, IMHO unless youre running a super high end system, DTS is fine. When you get into DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD its usually 7.1 native, of which there are less than 400 titles recorded.

you don't need a super high end system to hear the difference. Whether the difference is worth the cost is a different matter.

 

[Phanuel]

Yes, but what is he using the TOSlink for? Just random applications that run natively on the TV? He'll be fine. Probably be better if he can run them from something else, not sure what apps he's running on the TV in the first place that aren't probably duplicated in a modern BD (blu ray) player.

If he's trying to hook a BD player up to his speakers using TOSlink, then yes, do something else.

Bi-amping is a bunch of extra cabling you don't really need. The lows-mids are what consume the majority of the amp power in moving the cones, highs consume barely any watts to move. You'll definitely get way louder than you want off of just 1 pair of 16awg cable.