Onkyo SC5508 Surround processor [No Price Talk] - Page 39

Originally Posted by mjf_uk

Turning off Audyssey makes it sound awful. XT32 does amazing things with both movies and music.

I was never a fan of what XT used to do for music, but XT32 really is a big step forward - giving far superior results. I believe that with XT32 being such a huge improvement, it now means that Pure Audio is no longer required, as it allows your room and system to manipulate the sound.

It will obviously be your preference though, so I look forward to hearing your thoughts and which you prefer.

Sorry for the long post.

Originally Posted by turnne1

Its a much "cheaper" fence...makes it a lot easier to lean..
Economic realities can often define decisions

I made an offer on a used Denon Avp-A1hdci....significantly more than I paying for the 5008, I might add....the owner declined

So anyway..I went back to reality and ordered the 5508

I am already expecting the clicking...I knew that from the Onkyo receiver 3007/5007 forums a while back
I also know it bugs the heck out of some
Should be minimal with me ...since I only watch Direc TV HD sources about 80% of the time...the only change I can see are commercials that may bring on the clicking

The other 20% is blu ray...and after the credits the movie soundtrack typically does not change
I already have the expectation that it will take a little longer to lock onto the signal just as the Onkyo receivers do

But again...economically..this was an easy upgrade from the 885
I believe I have the right expectations for thus unit...based on my 10-15 minutes of listening to the 80.2 the other day


Warren

Originally Posted by smf

Downloaded iPad app for sc-5508 which works well but now can't control from front panel or remote. Tried unplugging but still same. Before I controlled via iPad...front panel and ir worked fine...any advise

Originally Posted by mjf_uk

I'm running 7.2, no front wide or height speakers. It was with 2 channel music from CD, so it was making use of the front left and right and the 2 subs - which sit under the front left and right speakers. I never use surround modes for music.

The way I see it is that Audyssey XT32 didn't add anything, it just allowed me to hear it closer to how it should be - which is what it was designed to do. I never got anywhere near the same kind of results from an Onkyo 906 and XT. I also wasn't really a fan of what the Audyssey Sound EQ used to do for music in between the Arcam AV9 and P7 - although for movies it made wortwhile and noticeable improvements.

I actually avoided Onkyo's because I never liked any of the ones I heard (when I used to sell them). The only reason for buying the 3008 was to replace a Yamaha Z7 and an Audyssey Sub EQ - as I needed something with Sub EQ HT to properly calibrate 2 Subwoofers.

Obviously everyone's expectations differ. I admit that over the years I had lost interest in music, but I think one of the main factors has been not having a system that will do both really well, so I was compromising on music and concentrating on movies. The Onkyo is the first Receiver I've heard that I have actually wanted to listen to music on.

Maybe some would think that talking about the 3008 in this thread is a little off topic. But after hearing that the 3008 was such a big step towards having decent music performance (while having the best movie performance I have ever heard) I'm sure that the 5008 is a bit better, with the 5508 and a decent Power Amp being another big upgrade.

Originally Posted by mjf_uk


Maybe some would think that talking about the 3008 in this thread is a little off topic. But after hearing that the 3008 was such a big step towards having decent music performance (while having the best movie performance I have ever heard) I'm sure that the 5008 is a bit better, with the 5508 and a decent Power Amp being another big upgrade.

Originally Posted by turnne1

You are right...we have traded posts in the Yamaha forum
You know I am a fan of their A3000 receiver...but you also know I benefited $$ from a warranty payout of a dead Onkyo receiver, that gave me several hundred toward the purchase of one at MHT
It replaced the Onkyo 875...and that is saying a lot for me
Not as powerful as the Onkyo...but more musical and detailed sounding

I have never heard a Onkyo 3008...but the price difference between the two has been around $400-600 lower than the Yamaha

I have heard many good things, about it, and it can be purchased at 40-45% below retail price

As you probably know Yamaha and Denon products.on the higher end of spectrum...are not discounted heavily until they the fall into discontinued status.

Onkyo products are a another situation..the receivers especially
I think the Integra line probably sells closer to retail pricing

I am still VERY anxious to do this 885 to 5508 comparison

I was also pondering the question....could I have bought( and used a s a preamp) the 3008 receiver( for about $450 less) and gotten 98% of the performance of the 5508?

Especially when I know it seems to be all about diminishing returns for $$ spent vs increased performance with electronics


Warren

Originally Posted by pepar

Run your "familiar" clips and music after the Pro cal and comment on any differences you hear.

Jeff

Originally Posted by mjaudio

Got my 5508 today.

So far only a few movies and music clips that I am very familiar with. I did play the same clips on the 886 before swapping out the cables and can say musically the 5508 is better, easy to hear. The bass is better for movies as well, the sub eq really did it's job. With the 886 and normal XT I still had to make some tweaks to my subs with my SMS-1 as I still had a big spike in the 30hz range. With the XT32 and SubEQ I get a much nicer sub graph so the SMS-1 was left alone but I did get a little lower in the 15hz range were the XT32 rolls off sooner. I haven't done any tweaking so far as I wanted to switch back to the 886 which is sitting below the 5508 for easy swapping back and forth.

I will say that from memory the 5508 is just as good or better than the Marantz AV7005 for music and much better for movies. I am using the 886 as my benchmark as it was what I used for comparison to the Marantz. The Marantz was better musically than the 886 but for movies every time I went back to the 886 I found it hard to listen to the Marantz.

I also had the Denon 4311 in my system for about a month while I compared it to the 886. This was my first experience with XT32 and the Denon's implementation was a bit simpler than Onkyo's. The funny thing about the Denon and XT32 SubEQ was it didn't do as good a job as the 886 for my subs, had 2 peaks I had to tame. The Denon was also not as dynamic for movies as the 886 but had a smoother musical presentation.

I am thinking maybe the Marantz and it's sibling Denon have placed more importance on having a warmer, smooth sound which is why they are good music performers. I liked both of them better than the 886 for music. A warm sound can be rather dull for action movies though so this could be the reason I preferred the 886 so much more.

Now I can say with certainty that the 5508 is better for music than the 886, I had a hard time listening to my favorite music clips with the 886. I just sat and listened for more than an hour to the 5508 and from the first clip could tell it was more refined musically than the 886. I only demoed a couple of movie clips so far before turning to music but liked what I heard.

I am going to listen to the 5508 for a week or 2 then go back to the 886 for comparison. I do plan on running a Pro calibration on the 5508 but not until after I am convinced since I never did a Pro cal. on the 886.

As far as clicks they are tame compared to the Interga 80.1 I had for a couple of weeks. I haven't tried DirecTv yet though so I am crossing my fingers it doesn't go click happy on me. Even the clicks I get with BD is slight compared to the loud clicks I got with the 80.1.

Originally Posted by bneiderman

Just had a professional theater install performed with the SC5508 surround processor. I have a few issues with it and was wondering if I could get some help.