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Onkyo HT-S9400THX 7.1 - Not too loud?

post #1 of 4
1/7/13 at 7:22am
Thread Starter 
Hi guys,

I just got the Onkyo HT-S9400THX 7.1 Channel Home Theater-in-a-Box System as they had a good deal on Amazon during the year-end sale. This is my first home theater system so I am still a newbie in this field. I finished setting it up this weekend and I am using the 5.1 setup for now ( had 100 feet of 16 gauge wire and it wasn't enough for the back surround speakers so need to get more wire). I have it setup in a great room which is a decent sized room and the kitchen is behind the living area. It would be around 15 feet to 25 feet. The tv is against the 15 feet wall and the couch is setup exactly opposite the TV at about 12 feet or so. I did the Auddysey 2 EQ calibration and calculated the room acoustics using the microphone.

After doing that I see that the sound from the PS3 and my DirectTV HD DVR is not as loud as I would have liked. At volume level 50 it sounds about average. I can turn it as high as 75 and it doesn't sound too loud. I am not sure if I have the setup the speakers right. I connected my USB player and it sounded a lot louder ( I think) . So I am not sure if it is a HDMI connection setup issue that I need to do.
My current setup is - PS3 going in to GAME HDMI, DirectTV going in to the CBL/SAT HDMI and the HDMI OUT going to the TV. I also have an optical audio cable going from the TV to the TV/CD audio input ( I am not sure if I need this - I can probably take this out and try). I have an old Philps DVD player connected to the VCR/DVR component input. Should I try connecting the PS3 and DirectTV box to HDMI1 and HDMI2 instead of HDMI3 and HDMI4? ...Will that change anything?

I have all the speakers (5.1) connected with a RCA 16 gauge wire using Sewell deadlock banana plugs. For the subwoofer, I am using the supplied cable for now. Do I need to upgrade the subwoofer cable too?

I also noticed that my IPOD classic ( click wheel) color screen 80 GB did not get recognized when I plug it in the USB port. Does anyone use this older IPOD with the Onkyo 9400? I could not find it stated anywhere that it is not supported. I tried a USB harddrive and I can play the music from that just fine.

Thanks for the help!
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post #2 of 4
1/18/13 at 11:54am
Nope I'm with ya man. Similar setup. Honestly the quality is high enough you don't hear the distortion you'd expect from lesser systems (sometimes can mistaken for being 'louder'). But yeah, for the reviews, size and price I expected this thing to make my ears bleed - and frankly while it can get pretty loud, it's not the same experience as being in front of a nice set of floor standers, or frankly my old panasonic 6-ohm bookshelf 50w speakers. My old Onkyo HT-S580 (why I decided to buy the HTIB instead of build) feels like it gets louder. And the sad thing is it's probably true (I don't have a db meter to test).

Couple factors here:
* Power output is 130w @ 6-Ohm load, only 80w at 8-Ohm which is what the speakers are rated at.
* Speaker sensitivity is 83db - that's reasonably inefficient, especially driven at the 80w. Need mor-powa!
* Speakers are acoustically sealed - meaning they lack porting. That makes them specifically more accurate to sounds reproduction at the cost of requiring more power to achieve the same amount of sound energy.

So to me - the receiver is matched with the wrong speakers, or the speakers are matched with the wrong receiver.

My old onkyo 5.1 setup is actually 100w RMS per channel, which does make a difference (speakers are same sensitivity). In effect my 2005 low(er) tech onkyo receiver has more power to drive the speakers than the included receiver. Also the HT-S580 system's speakers are ported plastic enclosures - very loud for what they are.

All that said - I'm perfectly happy with it, but the combo of low sensitivity speakers and lower than I expected power output left my a bit disappointed... except until I heard the subwoofer :-) Man that thing can shake the walls biggrin.gif
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post #3 of 4
1/19/13 at 9:20am
aarondr,

So on a scale of 1-10 how do rate you purchase and the quality of the product you have in the 9400THX ? Should I ever get one, it will be used strictly for BD Movie and TV playback. I wont need to shake anything off the walls, but I do want something that puts out enough sound for Theater type sounds ect...
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post #4 of 4
1/19/13 at 5:57pm
Depends on the size of the room. I'd say 9 if you have a small enough space. If you get this for a good deal its totally worth it. The quality of reproduction is high, it just doesn't blow your ears away. The sub is strong and smooth - hits the lows really well. The speakers can handle more power, I do wish the receiver could push more power, but its more than enough for small/medium sized home theaters.
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