"Official" Onkyo TX-NR809 Thread - Page 38

Well the game is coming on soon and I have some Brats to throw on the grill which is only fitting for this season opener.

As I mentioned earlier I called Onkyo tech support this afternoon. To my surprise I was speaking with Sal in tech support within 1 minute. Amazing. Sal spoke good english with no accent and seemed knowledgable. That is the end of the good news for now. Once I described my problem Sal made some suggestions but his overall opinion was that I have a faulty unit and should try the suggestions but in all likelihood will need to make a warranty claim. Yep, that involves taking it or sending it to an authorized service center. I let that go for now because this thing is 2 months new to me and be damned that I want a repair for something that shipped faulty let alone pay shipping for that.

Now to what he suggested:
1. How long is the HDMI cable? It was a 6 footer so next.
2. Can you try a new cable? I will but it does work after some time.
3. Try using menu and setting output to 1080i instead of 1080p.
4. Disable and bypass the video section of the AVR.
5. Do a hard factory reset.
6. Call us after you do all of those things because I think you have a faulty unit. Handshake should take less than 20 seconds most.

Well I spent some quality time messing with the picture options in the menu. For the most part no change. Occasionally it comes on like it should but no pattern. Of course I swapped cables first. Anyway, the thing works, it just takes a while most of the time and now I have the big screen down in prep for the game so end of story for tonight. Obviously I am not doing a factory reset because I do not want to rerun audyssey right now. So it is somewhat annoying but everthing seems to work and I am going to watch football in 1080p with surround on a 120" screen tonight.

I replaced my Denon 989 with the Onkyo 809. The difference in room correction is surprising considering both avrs have audio xt. The Onkyo sounds much better in this regard. Onkuo TV Logic mode for tv is great! No more uneven and boomy audio from tv programs. Movies are much improved too

Yeah TV Logic definitely levels all channels and commercials out. Too bad it sounds like arse for listening to todays properly delivered content.

Funny how results vary. My 809 did a lousy job setting the EQ up...it did get the distances right though. I'm also peeved that we can't SEE what the auto setup did in regard to EQ. It just sounds 'flat'...very little bass..in fact the PURE audio with Auydussey disabled sounds better. I just got a Pioneer 1121 to try. It's auto setup seemed to work much better and now movies have some real impact on loud scenes. The auto setup mode sounds MUCH better than the default mode. The Onkyo has too many sound options that cancel each other out too..the Pioneer seems a bit more straightforward. Onkyo's remote is more user friendly, and I wish the Pioneer had on screen displays of volume and sounds modes like the 809 has. Onkyo's customer service peeved me too...2 times I called and was on hold 30 minutes and never spoke to anyone. Also e mailed them and no response for 6 days. After I posted on Facebook though they answered my e mail right away..lol In the end sound quality wins...the Onkyo went back last night and I am keeping the Pioneer, and pocketing about $230.00 as well. (partly due to no sales tax from Amazon). Good luck on your 809's.

I have finally got round to looking at the video output differences between the various video modes. I used my Bluray player, AVSHD Test Patterns disc, HCFR software and Xrite Display 2. There are more accurate methods out there, but as this is a comparative test, it should be sufficient. I believe it shows in numbers what I, and others, have reported.

My summary:
Direct is my reference - and shown to make no difference to signal when passing through Amp.
Custom/ISF Day & ISF Night - ALL show a reduction in light output (From 115 down to ~96) - but calibration is otherwise unaffected. This was irrespective of Resolution setting - 1080i, 1080P and Auto.it
Through and Streaming - drastic reduction in light output (from 115 to ~87/89) - with a massive shift in greyscale positioning and Delta Errors (shift of +10).
Game and Cinema - even more reduction in light output (115 to 76/7) - Cinema in one test showed a corresponding shift in Delta E, and nothing in a different test, so inclusive. Game shift by +10 Delta error too.

	Y(cd/m.sq)	Delta E
Through	87	18
Direct	115	8
Custom	96	8
ISF Day	96	7
ISF Night	96	7
Cinema	76	7
Game	77	18
Streaming	89	18

Here are the siginifcant graphs from HCFR - for Direct Mode and Through mode.

Not everyone will understand the difference, but it is vast, and Onkyo need to respond.

I will try and find a way into their technical department.......

Just unboxed my 809 and am getting it set up. Today I noticed an intermittent clicking / popping sound when I am playing from an ipod or iphone connected via the front USB port. I tried swapping USB cables and it didn't make any difference. When I connect an iphone or ipod using RCA cables to the aux input the sound goes away. Any thoughts? I have not run the firmware update.

run the firmware update

I had to run Audessy about 4 times before it sounded the way it should!!! The first few times, bass output was lacking, dialogue was flat, on heavy bass scenes (Battle Los Angeles & GI Joe) the bass was soooo screwed up it made my Elemental Designs sub bottom out. On BOTH my Pioneer Elites (23 and 94) those movies sounded fantastic. I wish you would have rerun Audessy to see if it fixed your problems. Now my 809 sounds great and is full off feature my old Elites don't have. They have since been moved to a family room and my bedroom.....

What did you do differently on the 4th time that made it sound better? My 809 arrived today and don't want to have to run it 4 times. Anyone have any quick simple tips on running Audessy? (I know there is a thread on this but it is HUGE).

Sad part is that I did nothing different! That is what was so frustrating with this unit. My Pioneers got the room acoustics right each time. All I ever had to tweak on them was the distances by 1-3' if I remember correctly.

With the Onkyo 809 (my first Onkyo ever) it asks at the beginning of the calibration to set the sub output to 75db (shows the db on screen) after that you run the calibration and let it run it's course. I had to also adjust my distances 1-3' with the 809 as well. For some unknown reason, on the final attempt before I was going to say this unit is either broken or just $ucks, it finally sounds GREAT!

Now I'm afraid to do the current firmware update in case it wipes out my current sound. It isn't supposed to, but who knows. BTW, I did the initial firmware update as soon as I unboxed it and plugged my RJ45 into it. So it wasn't the firmware update that was messing with my setup. Calibrations were done after the firmware update that installed successfully on the first try.

Good luck!!!!

I don't know why anyone would need to run it more than once unless somehow the settings were not saved (which they have to be at the end of procedure or you do lose it.)
I have an Anti-Mode 8033 bass calibrator I run first, then the Audyssey treats the sub and the AM as one unit. I can't really tell much difference between running Audyssey with AM or having it out of the circuit. Or just running the AM and not the Audyssey.
Between the two I think Audyssey is better but together they seem just fine also.

I have run a couple of different combinations, and so have run Audyssey more than once, but have not noticed much difference between different times if as long as I had the mic set up right, etc.
Audyssey is not really that hard to run IMO. I don't have a very big listening area, so I don't use more than 4 or 5 mike locations. Sometimes it tells me different crossover settings. I often tweak those to what I think they should be. The very last time I ran Audyssey it maintained the same xover settings I made.
I am quite happy with the sound overall. It is not much better than I thought it would be, but it is not worse either. I might still add another amp at some point in the future. For now it is a very capable receiver.
In all fairness, my speakers were placed by the retailer I bought them from using an electronic audio analyzer to determine room response. So the corrections made by Audyssey have more to do with trimming the receiver to the existing locations. But there's always room for improvement. I think it's a great feature.

I agree with you videoaddikt, it should not be needed to run multiple times. But this was not only my experience. If you read through the entire thread, there are a few others complaining about bass management being way off like mine WAS. I reran Audessy exactly the same way each time. Same locations, on a tripod, and saved the settings every time. Like I stated in my posts when troubleshooting my bass issues, I think there is something wrong with some of these units because the inconsistencies were obvious for multiple people. Just glad it is working now and I hope my experience helps others; especially those less experienced in these types of receivers.

Like I said, I did run mine multiple times for various reasons. Are you only talking about different xover settings when you say 'bass management' was way off?

My understanding is Audyssey will allow you change xover settings without affecting your saved profile. Of course the xovers will be changed, but the rest of the calibration remains the same. Only changes to the room require a rerun.

If I am wrong, I am sure someone will correct me. If it does change the entire profile, I was lucky this last time I ran it because they were still the same settings I had made based on the results of the previous run. Sadly, the manual was not written more clearly about some of these things.

By way off, I mean that bass was lacking and flat on earlier Audessy runs. If was almost non existent during normal listening (music, and in movies when say a door slams or a bullet from a tank or helicopter goes off) When a true LFE signal was sent from blueray-receiver-sub, my sub would makes horrible popping sounds. It drove me nuts to the point I lugged my other identical sub into this run to rule out if this sub was bad...same exact results.

I then thought maybe the receiver was bad because BOTH my subs worked flawlessly in the other rooms running off my Pioneer Elite receivers. Problem was that I had past my return policy at the local store where I bought it and getting this receiver repaired would be a bishhhh. SO I said, F it, let me rerun Audessy again since a few people on here were having similar problems. Low and behold, this last time the unit sounds as I expected it would. GREAT bass during music (Blues, Rap, Salsa, and Latin Jazz) and movies (retested scenes in Battle LA and GI Joe where I was having HUGE issues initially) All is fine now.

As a side note, this is probably my 12 or 13 full fledged AVR. From my first Marantz rack system about 15-17 years ago to Sony (yuck), Yamaha 3800, Pioneer elites 23,32,94 HK 2700, Arcam 300, Marantz 6002, and now this 805. This is the ONLY one where I experienced anything like this. So I truly believe something in up with this model line OR there are a few where Audessy is not working correctly every single time. Not sure, but as of right now, this unit is staying until I find something else to try......

Issue solved -

I purchased a NVidia GT 430 based card and I now have no problems getting DTS HD MA and Dolby True HD from my HTPC using MPC-HC and TMT5. I guess it's something about the Intel Core i5 integrated graphics hardware and/or drivers that doesn't work well with the Onkyo 809. I just love HDMI!

Tim

Thanks for the explanation. I don't seem to get that. The big difference is that my Pioneer plasma is 720p. I tried it with a non-HD channel to make sure the Onkyo was up-converting. The Onkyo does take longer to go from passthrough to processing (10-12 seconds) than did the Yamaha 765 that it replaced (4-5 seconds).

USB firmware update is less risky. Just make sure you use a newer USB stick! I was using an old 128MB stick and it gave me fits with my Onkyo and Computer. I had problems with the Onkyo finding the firmware file and my computer BIOS update kept stalling. Luckily I didn't brick my Onkyo or MB - Everything worked great once I switch to a newer USB stick.

Tim

I finally got to hook up my 809 last night and have been tinkering. I need advice on the Audyssey setup.

I have Athena AS-F2 fronts that are rated to 35Hz. My surrounds are four bi-polar AS-R1's that are rated to 80Hz. My sub is an Athena AS-P400 that has two low level input choices: "Sub" and "Direct In."

I read the instructions directly from the Audyssey website. The web site stated that I should use the Direct In input to my subwoofer. That input completely by-passes control of volume and cross-over to the receiver. The web-site said to set large front speakers to "small," so bass from the smaller surrounds would pass to the subwoofer. I therefore left all the speakers at the default setting of 80Hz, matching the rating of the surrounds. After running Audessey, I noticed that the bass was lacking. I checked the settings and Audyssey knocked the sub down -12dB! In fact all the speakers were negative.

Anyone have a suggestion? The one oddity in the Audyssey set-up was when it asked me to set the subwoofer level to 75dB. Since I was in 'Direct In" mode, the volume knob on the subwoofer was inoperable, forcing me to leave the setting at 88dB. One thing I thought of was to ignore the Audyssey web site and use the "Sub" input on the subwoofer. Another was to boost the loudest speaker to 0dB, and then boost all the others by the same amount, followed by boosting the subwoofer incrementally until it sounds good to me. I am shocked that Audyssey didn't do a better job with my subwoofer, especially since I have the Direct In input available.

I purchased a UWF-1 USB wireless network dongle. I can confirm that it works in the rear USB port, despite what it says on the Onkyo web-site. While testing in my computer room, right next to the router, all network functions (including Pandora and Napster) worked flawlessly (they should since I got a 100% signal strength). My Onkyo is on a shelf in my TV stand about 45 feet from the router. I still get 65% signal strength, even with the dongle in the back. Unfortunately, that is not enough to keep DNLA streams, Pandora and Napster from rebuffering constantly. Not acceptable. I really don't want to use the front USB port because I don't want to keep the door open all the time, and I want to be able to use the front port for iPod music from time to time.

I seriously doubt that plugging a USB hub into the back USB port would work (the Onkyo would have to recognize it and load drivers). But, I am going to get a male to female USB extender cord to see if that works and helps. I will report back.

I bought an ASUS WL-330gE, which can be used for several purposes. I use it to receive a wireless signal from my router and convert it to a wired connection to the ethernet port on the back of the 809. This seems to work fine. The unit has a short (6-12"?) ethernet cable and another short cable that has a USB connection on one end (plugs into the USB port on the back of the 809) and a power connection (for the ASUS unit) on the other end. The cables are not so long that they get in the way, but long enough that they allow some distance from the back of the 809. This unit was on sale for $15 after rebate and seems to work fine. It is fairly small, maybe about 4"x3"x1".

Gregg

Wow, that's a bummer. Sorry I did not catch this earlier in the thread. Seems odd Audyssey would work differently each time if nothing else has changed.
No I am wondering if the crossovers I selected last time are the same because Audyssey failed to 'correct' them, or it is just a coincidence all three values have not changed. Initially, it always set the fronts to 40 Hz and I would change it each time. ...hmm. does not make much sense either way since I have not physically changed any location or the equipment itself.

UPDATE: I ran it again this morning and the bass seems much fuller. I guess I am one of that crowd now...
Onkyo has been implementing Audyssey for a long time now. Maybe it was something that got overlooked when they did some changes on the new model. Discouraging...hopefully a fix will be coming.
This time the only thing Audyssey did different was bump my xover for my surrounds (I am 5.1). That would not explain the much stronger bass.
I wonder if Audyssey 'learns' if you dial in some different values each time. I am grabbing at straws now, but it does sound very good and I am not changing anything at this point. This is the most balanced it has sounded. I am coming from an Arcam 350...talk about set it and forget it.
Yes, I missed the digital switching, net tuning, and of course Audyssey...got rid of a lot of cables too. I've had nothing but analog receiver before so this is new ground for me. I like to learn, but expect certain things to stay the same each time.

When calibrating audessy leave everything alone after audessy does its thing
don't adjustspeaker levels. I do this method, rather than raising individual speaker crossovers leave them alone but raise only surround speaker crossover to 60the hz and everything soumds powerful and amazing like theater should. Give the set it and forget it method a try!

You see, I'm not going crazy!!!! As long as it sounds good, leave it alone is my modo....

Anyone figured out a way to use one of the 12v triggers for the main pre-outs instead of zone 2/3? I have a pair of Rotel amps I"m fond of and didn't realize when I purchased my 809 that the 12v triggers were not assignable.

-Skip

I just received my receiver and hooked up all my components through hdmi, including my PC. However I am having a slight problem.

When my computer is set output to both my monitor and my tv through the receiver, all the audio is routed to the receiver and my surround system. This is what I would like to happen so no problems there.

With my old receiver however, the hdmi port wasn't enabled unless I specifically chose that input. With this receiver however, it seems to be enabled all the time, so even if I am using a different input like the tv or dvd player, the audio from my pc is cut off because it is being output to the receiver all the time. Is there any way to change this so it only activates the port if I have the input selected?

If you don't plan on using Zone 2 or 3, you should be able to get the same result desired by turning on either Zone.

That's exactly what I did each time, and only had the 'weak bass' issue one time. It is a random thing from what I (and others) observed and you don't have touch anything between cal runs for it to happen.

At this point, as long as the bass does not drop out on it's own or when the unit is power cycled, I am not sending it back to Onkyo. But I am certainly going to keep track of this.

Yesterday I finally got around to re-doing the auyssey setup. Because myself like a few other have had the bad bass calibration.

I noticed that the sound was better afterwards, but I do still hear the bottoming out. I will run it a few more times until it stops...And music isn't that great sounding.

But let me ask you this, after Audyssey has you put the sub output to 75db, do you all leave it there or adjust it afterwards? I turned it up the dial a bit to where I know others do on my Mythos STS's.

Hey Fanta, I'm one of the ones that had this same issue. Once I set it to 75db, and reran Audessy, no matter how I tweaked the sub's level, or receiver's sub level, I never got rid of the bottoming out on my sub. This was even with Audessy setting my sub level to -8.0db and my sub's knob set to ~9 o'clock position! This would have been WAY too low with any of my Pioneer elites. I would have my sub set to the 11/12 o'clock position with them and it sounded fantastic!

Only thing that worked for me was the last Audessy calibration I did (same mic, same mic posiitons, same 75bd setting per receiver, same sub position, and with my sub's knob set to 10/11 o'clock) Now it sounds awesome and the bass is nice and full. And it really moves some air like it has in the past. My sub's port is facing my seating position about 13' away. I actually feel my pant's leg move on big LFE scenes!! Simply awesome.

As a side not, I'm running Mythos Ones, Mythos Eight, and BPX rears in a 5.1 setup and it sounds great. Good to see another Mythos fan running this same AVR. Keep at it and post when you finally get the sound the way it should be.

So I ordered my nr809 late last week and got the NewEgg deal at $699. I am coming from a Pioneer VSX-1015 that I have had since 2005.

I have a modest system, that consists of:

• Klipsch Synergy F3/C2/S2 and 12 Inch Klipsch sub
• Comcast HD DVR (non HDMI)
• United Audio 1257 Turntable with Ortofon cartridge (imaculate condition)
• Sony Dual Head Cassette Deck (I can't bring myself to throw away)
• Sony BDP-S380
• Sony 42' Hi-Def LCD

So I spent a bit of time yesterday getting the old Pioneer out and the Onkyo in and getting my system connected. I did the Audyessy quick start and then the MultiEQ set up with my 4 main listening positions. All of this has been pretty straightforward.

I also purchased the USB network dongle as getting my home ethernet hardwired isn't real practical from my listening room to my home office. I think it's set up okay but haven't actually tried to use it yet. (The hardware>network settings seem to be there.)

I did the USB firmware upgrade and it "Completed" and then I powered down and the unit restarted.

First impressions

• The sound and soundstage it perceptibly better than my Pioneer.
• The on screen user interface is pretty good, better than the VSX-1015
• This unit has some "grunt" and when I turn up the volume the Klipsch come alive.
• The User Manual is typical Japan, difficult to translate and lots of pointers that force (or require to a new user) reference to other sections that aren't easy to find. Especially with the CD software version of the manual.
• I haven't done any Video tuning, or even using yet. That's probably for next week as I'm on a plane at EOD today and have lot's else to do.

My daughter inherited the VSX-1015 and she is a happy camper compared to the toy she was using.

I'm currently listening to the new America CD (of Horse with No Name fame) and this album is a beautiful recording of others hits.. Woodstock, some older James Taylor stuff.. soft rock.. it's got great texture and soundstage. My guess is it's because of great clean power AND Audyessy has done a better job than my admittedly dated version of MCACC.

I'm sure I'll have numerous questions. I hope you all will have some patience with my naive and sometimes very basic Blu-ray and video questions.