Can you guys pls help me out? I got the s790 after a year worth of waiting and reading reviews. I finally took that plunge. At first I was "wowed" and thrilled by the system. I had the volume at 50. This got considerably loud when actions pick up (bombs blowing up, guns firing, etc.). But for the rest of the scenes, this volume was what I needed to listen to the dialogues at decent level. I assumed the max was at 100 so I wasn't too alarmed. And then I found that the max only go up to 80. Can all you owners please let me know what volume level you're using the system at? I have the set-up in the bedroom ( about 12' x 13') so it's upsurd that I'd have to be using about 2/3 capacity.

Thank you for your time
I really need to kniow if this is the norm.

BTW, I definitely have the correct setup. I'm currently using the stock wires but even if that would not explain my problem, if indeed it is a problem.

Give me your inputs!

I'm having the same problem which is strange because I have the S-770 in my living room, and that one rocks the house, and has reasonable center channel levels. I'm going to try and reverse the polarity on the center speaker, I wonder if internally it is wired backwards. I think this speaker is 180deg out of phase with the rest of the system, also I want to try other speakers. Another thing I will try is turning of the rear back speakers and opting for the natural 5.1 sound. These are the things I'm going to try. I have good 12 ga speaker wire, and carefully observed polarity of the wires during installation, but I have the same problem you have.

XYZVECTOR,

So are you using the volume setting around 50? Right now, we both dont know if this is a normal thing, or if we have problems. For my particular case, I would think it is the receiver that is low on gain, rather than a particular speaker (since all speakers are approximately the same volume as the rest). We need other owners to let us know if this is what they see too.

Don't own the 790 but I did experience the same thing your talking about. I purchased the Onkyo HT-S80 in January and noiticed I also had to run around 50 for normal listening. I didn't think anything about it until I upgraded my speakers and sub then I notced I was around 30 for the same listening level, not to metion the amzing increase in the quality of the overall sound but that was expected, the volume change wasn't. 50 blew me out of the house after the upgrade. After investigating I found out the speakers that are included with htibs are cheap, very inefficent speakers that take more of the amplifiers power to run them.

I wouldn't worry about it if you have the levels set to each speaker and are happy with the overall voume of the speakers in comparison to each other.

I had the volume at 50. This got considerably loud when actions pick up (bombs blowing up, guns firing, etc.). But for the rest of the scenes, this volume was what I needed to listen to the dialogues at decent level.

the problem is that the onkyo speakers are junk. unintelligible dialogue at normal volumes is a classic sign of a speaker producing a muddy sound. you're either going to have to boost the level of the center speaker about +5-8dB above your mains, or buy some new L/C/R speakers that can actually survive on their own merits in the A/V market.

own the 780 onkyo system and can tell you 50 on the volume is not normal.
i use 20 to 30 range and 30 is really loud...does sound like speakers are wired
wrong...i now have different speakers and a setting of 18 is pretty darn loud for
listening to music...

reman

Reman,

Thanks for your input. Can anyone else tell me what range of volume they're using for the 780/790? (with stock speakers)

I've tripled checked my speaker connections and can assure you that they are wired correctly.

xjebussx, did you go in speaker setup on your onkyo receiver and set your speaker
volumes ?

reman

Volume information from other people will not help you all that much for a couple reasons: everyone has different sources (depending on if I am listening to my DVD player or satellite I listen to different values) and also people like to listen at different volume levels (compared to most around here I listen at real quiet levels).

Anyways as mentioned earlier HTIB speakers tend to be very poor and nondiscernable dialog is definitely a result of this (although even with good speakers there are movies where the loud action just overwhelms the dialog). You have a couple options. Make sure all your speakers are wired correctly and in phase with each other. Make sure all your individual speakers are volume balanced with each other using you receiver internal test tones. If they already are then bump up the center channel a few notches. Also, I believe your receiver has something like night mode or its equivalent. This reduces the dynamic range of disks and should make the loud sections less loud.

Reman,

Yes I did. My center ranges from +4 to +7. My Front left and right are at +3. Surrounds are similar. I also went into distance calibration and set them up accordingly. These speakers are within a few feet from me. With the front (L+R+C) being furthest away at about 6 ft. I don't get it. Must be something with the receiver, but I'm not getting enough feedback from the actual owners to know for sure. One thing is I'm using uncut stock wires and they runn pretty long. Trimming might boost it a dB or two, but that would be it IMO.

Any other actual owners with input?

Thanks
xjebussx

The stock speaker wires that come with that system are best used for dental floss

Definitely too thin

when i upgraded my speaker wires i noticed i needed to turn the volume down about 10~20 depending upon the input source and the surround mode that i was using

The stock speaker wires that come with that system are best used for dental floss

Definitely too thin

when i upgraded my speaker wires i noticed i needed to turn the volume down about 10~20 depending upon the input source and the surround mode that i was usingYeah, but if you have the S590, you can't upgrade the speaker wire because it will buzz like hell.

Ok, I spent the two hours re-wiring using 16gauge. I gotta tell you, I didn't get the +10~20dB jump that you did. I dont even think I got a 2dB jump. The music does sound alot fuller. However, I'm still operating around 36dB to listen to FM station. And if I wanna play it loud, it would be around 48. And if I wanna play it really loud, it would be around 55dB. I still think that is very high considering max is only at 79.

Seeing how I didn't have enough inputs from people here, I went to CC myself and checked out their setup. It was pretty much the same as mine. SO I guess I'll just keep it. I already spent the $50 bucks for the wires and optical cable.

I like the sound quality, but alarmed and disappointed that speakers aren't more efficient. Somewhat more relieved though now that I am pretty sure I don't have a lemon system in my house.

take care.

oh yea transam, if you're still having problems with the humming people here are saying to loosen the screws at the speaker terminals. That took care of humming for them. FYI.

xjebussx, i still dont think its right...with your 790 system, did it come with a 530
receiver,thats what my 780 system came with...i am listening to fm radio right now at @ 15
volume setting and its pretty loud..

reman

p.s. i cant believe you didnt get more responses from the thousands of people
who own these systems about there volume on their systems..

Ok, I spent the two hours re-wiring using 16gauge. I gotta tell you, I didn't get the +10~20dB jump that you did. I dont even think I got a 2dB jump. The music does sound alot fuller. However, I'm still operating around 36dB to listen to FM station. And if I wanna play it loud, it would be around 48. And if I wanna play it really loud, it would be around 55dB. I still think that is very high considering max is only at 79.

Seeing how I didn't have enough inputs from people here, I went to CC myself and checked out their setup. It was pretty much the same as mine. SO I guess I'll just keep it. I already spent the $50 bucks for the wires and optical cable.

I like the sound quality, but alarmed and disappointed that speakers aren't more efficient. Somewhat more relieved though now that I am pretty sure I don't have a lemon system in my house.

take care.

oh yea transam, if you're still having problems with the humming people here are saying to loosen the screws at the speaker terminals. That took care of humming for them. FYI.The thing is, I'm not going to loosen screws to take care of the problem. I want something that works without me having to do some BS workaround.

I replaced my 780 speakers with LR Polk M40 / C CSM and I went from listening 38 to 25-28. My wife was complaining about the samething having to crank it up to hear the dialogue and then being blown away by action scenes. The change in clarity is amazing.

Reman,

You have to be kidding! Boy, do I want your receiver instead of mine. Yes, I have the same 530 as you. I turn my fm station to 15, and I tell you. It's just back ground music. Not loud at all.

Have you upgraded your speakers? Is this the reason? What settings do you have for your individual speakers? Mine is

Left: + 7dB
Center: + 1db
Right: + 5db
surround left : +1
surroung back L: +4
surround back r: +2
surround R : +1
sub +2db

reason my left and right is so much higher is because its placed lower relative to others. I don;t know. Maybe all your settings are set at like +100? Or maybe you upgraded to polks like the other guy. aigh yai yai ya yai. Should I return this piece of crap???

Reman,

When I go to level cal, and listen to one speaker at a time, when I get to the sub, it is faint compare to the rest of the speakers. You know how the purpose of this calibration is try to make sure all the speakers are at about the same sound level? Does that include the sub? Because mine is faint, even if I tweak it up to max at 12.

Try to let me know. You seem to be the most helpful in this thread. I have you saying something is wrong with my system. And then I have another who says its normal and accept that the speakers are crap. So either way, this system seems like crap to me.

p.s I'm surprised too that I didnt get much response. Supposedly, there's tons of people who love this system. All those rave reviews from enthusiats surely didn't show up for this thread.


Thanks for your help.
xjebussx

i did replace all the speakers as follows:

fronts: fs2.2 athena
center c1.2 athena
sub ps4000 athena
4 surrounds polk r15

i listen to the stereo in all channel stereo...
i do have to turn up volume to around 30 when watching movies in dolby for some
reason...in fact if we forget to turn down the volume after watching a movie
and go back to fm stereo it sounds like it going to blow out the speakers..

p.s even tho i replaced speakers(system is 6 months old) i dont ever remember having
to crank it that far up with the original speakers with the exception of movies..

reman

Reman,

Wow. It sucks that you spent $$ on a whole system, only to end up forking more money to replace all the speakers. I still have two weeks to return the system. Maybe I should stop being a lazy ass and carry the 100lb of lard back to circuit city. If I just get an onkyo receiver with athena speakers, how much do you think it would cost me? Seems to be that people here are recommending athenas. What are you opinions?

xjebussx

sold the original speaker package for $150.00, so it wasnt a total loss and
i really like my the onkyo receiver,plenty of inputs...spent just a tad over $800
for the entire speaker setup delivered,so with receiver i have just a little over
a grand total...now i am happy with what i got..

reman

Reman,

That's good you weren't at a total loss. Getting $150 isn't too bad. I think I'll try to just accept the system the way it is. 800 is a little too steep for me.

Take care
xjebussx

xjebussx,

You could probably get a better setup than the 790 for far less then $800. The Onkyo 503 or HK AVR235 can both be had for around $200 and if you hurry, you can still get an Athena Point 5 system on ebay for ~$200(being discontinued). Pair that with an Athena AS-P4000 sub for $150 and your sitting at $550 + shipping for a system that would kill the 790. Granted, I havent heard these componants myself so this is all from what I've gathered reading this forum over the past few months.

xjebussx,

didn't really have to replace anything,i thought as a surround sound it really sounded good.
but i listen to alot of music and that to me was where it was lacking.wife watches the movies..so if your using it mainly for tv it will be fine...least your not having the buzzing problems like the people with the 509 systems...reman

35 to 40 is the maximum I use.

Should I set all three front speakers as large so I can use the double bass setting?

Which buttons on the remote operate the am/fm radio?

Turned up loud I have it at about 40, normal is about 25-30

I'm quite happy listening to music at between 25 and 35. 45 is loud and I get looks from my wife - the baby loves it loud.

I would think if you need to turn it up past 35 watching a movie just to hear dialogue, you have a technical issue, and should exercise your warranty.

I think you guys may have the wrong idea about this HTIB. In general, dolby digital receivers have to be turned up to what most would think is considerably loud on the volume gauge compared to older stereo receivers. On these newer receivers when you have it turned up that loud on the volume dial or louder, it's less likely to have distortions mixed with the sound. Older stereo receivers most of the time with the same input (dvd, cable box, etc.) will start having noticeable distortion just barely over the halfway mark. I've had stereo receivers that, once you get past the halfway mark, it does get louder, but the sound is horrible because of all the distortions.

Point is, none of you should worry about where your volume dial is sitting, so long as it still sounds good. And if you're worried about the extreme dynamics of your system, most new receivers have a dynamic range control or night time listening mode that help tame those extremes.

The volume setting on my 790 system really depends on the input source. Some OTA TV channels fed to the receiver via Optical cable are so soft that I have to turn the volume up to 30. Turn the TV to another channel and the increase in volume can be trully frightening. With DVDs, again, it depends on the disk and ambient noise. If the furnace or dishwasher are not runing, then I can comfortably follow dialogue on most movies with the volume set in the 18-22 range (sitting @12 feet from the fronts and center speakers). Granted, in some scenes, I might need to turn it up some to hear indistinct dialogue. On action movies I like to turn it up more: The Lord of the Rings will shake the house at 50, when there is a lot of LFE going on. Setting it to 40, lets me experience the LFE sounds without making the cats flee the room.

For music, I find that a setting of around 16-20 is good for background music while I am reading. If I am wanting just to listen to music, I usually set it to around 25-30, or even 40 (some classical music has some very quiet sections that simply require more volume).

I Hope this helps.

Kevin

I use the TV logic setting for over the air broadcasts and this setting outputs sound to all seven speakers and setting the volume at 32 gives you good sound.

The beauty of the 790 is that you DON'T have to turn the volume real high on ANY setting. Just go into the menu and turn up each speaker halfway.

Ummm, isn't halfway 0? I'm assuming you're writing about the db setting.

The beauty of the 790 is that you DON'T have to turn the volume real high on ANY setting. Just go into the menu and turn up each speaker halfway.

hey genius, that's an option on virtually ALL modern receivers...and not to mention a bad method of boosting volume. the idea is to use those adjustments to balance the sound from all speakers to equal levels at your listening position. use the master volume to make it louder.

Ummm, isn't halfway 0? I'm assuming you're writing about the db setting.

Halfway is 6

hey genius, that's an option on virtually ALL modern receivers...and not to mention a bad method of boosting volume. the idea is to use those adjustments to balance the sound from all speakers to equal levels at your listening position. use the master volume to make it louder.

If it works for you then do it. No problem. Sometimes you just have to do a little thinking to solve a problem.

Halfway is 6
So that would be halfway on the + side.

Halfway is 6

Halfway is 0db. The range is from -12db to +12db.