Awhile back I set my sister up with a NR717 THX Onkyo receiver with 7.1 speakers including two ceiling speakers. The "Listening Mode Presets" are mostly all set to PLIIx Movie, to insure all 7 speakers produce sound.

Watching movies, most sound comes from the center speaker. If she listens to music, she then cranks it way up - she blew the center speaker last weekend. Source is mostly ROKU.

During music, does that center speaker still take the brunt of punishment like with movies? Should she be pressing a button on the remote to switch to a "music" mode? I'm unclear on the operations of Onkyo. I would need to give her very simple steps "Do this Mary when you listen to Music".

PLII movie center gets a huge amount of the sound yes, PLII music sends more to the rest also compared to movie one.
5(7) channel/all channel stereo could be the best one for a lot of sound with music, it sends left channel to left front and surround and some to center and right channel to right front and surround and some of it to the center. It has very even sound in all speakers and sounds big! Still causion with the volume knob is always a good idea with any mode.


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When playing in HT, the center does most of the work, the fronts the next most, and the surrounds/Atmos do very little. When playing music, with all seven channels involved, every speaker is drawing power to reproduce the full range of the entire signal. This sucks the power reserves of the receiver far easier than a movie, where each speaker is only reproducing a small part of the overall sound. So, even though the receiver has a boatload of stated power, it is probably rated with only two channels driven, not seven. At high enough volumes, that could lead to clipping, which is a sure way to fry your speakers.

A couple of options for you to consider:

- Set up a volume limiter on the receiver, so drunk fools cannot crank it past it's ability to power the speakers.

- Make sure all speakers are set to small. No "Double Bass" or engagement of any mode that pumps up the sound, i.e. "Dynamic Whatever". These result in more power being used, lessening the receiver's ability to drive all the speakers adequately.

- Change the way the sound is distributed by forcing stereo mode when listening to music. This will allow the full power to be used, as rated, into just two channels. Depending on the speakers, you could still get them fried if somebody cranks it to 11.

- Get yourself a separate amplifier to power the front 2 or 3 channels. This will relieve the receiver of those channels, allowing it to drive the rest of the speakers adequately.

It's your sister, your job to rein her in, as best you can ... and DON'T buy the new center for her. Let her foot the bill. She broke it, she should fix it.

Thanks lee & ray.


I remember a setting that will limit max volume, I will configure that. I provided her a custom configured Harmony One remote. The bitch is that I need to load the HOne software to learn how each key on the remote is programmed - to find listening mode button, allow her to quickly change to PLIIx music.

I already gave her the Harman kardon case number and part number for the center speaker ($111), she can purchase it. These are their top of the line flat-diaphragm drivers made with carbon fiber, pretty good sound.

The TV is installed on the wall with expensive swivel bracket. I pulled it out about a foot and set an 20 year old KLH bookshelf speaker on the scissor hinges as a temp center channel - sounds like crap (perfect).
I'll bet 6 months from now she's still using this KLH.

Bottom line - she probably uses 5% of the capability of this theater system. Never played a game on the PS3, rarely ever a Blueray, watches B&W over the air TV shows.

Making sure that the center channel is crossed over at 80 or 100 without double bass enabled on that speaker will definitely lighten the load on that speaker. Which driver blew? You really have to be cranking stuff into distortion to blow speakers.

I bet you are right! Petticoat Junction probably sounds great to her (and women are supposed to have BETTER hearing?). Meh, you can lead a horse to water ....

It was the center channel speaker that blew, rated for 120w, has two 3" flat diaphram carbon fiber midrange drivers, neither of which are working, dome tweeter sounds Ok. Its part of Harman Kardon's HKTS-60BQ top of the line surround kit. They didn't sell many or even promote these "60/65" kits. They mostly promoted the lower end 5.1 kits HKTS-16 or HKTS-9 that look similar, and 1/2 the price at $399 or so.


CEN-Ts60


HKTS-60

Did it have anything to do with using the 'Dolby Movie' mode to play music? Maybe. Maybe not. That mode probably sends a summed and then halved front L/R signal to the center channel when listening to 2-channel material. Were it configured for 'Dolby Music" mode or just stereo reproduction it might have been one of the front speakers that blew. Or not. Any speaker will blow if the system is pushed too hard to the point of clipping and distortion. In this case it happened to be the center speaker.



It is possible that one of those drivers is simply a passive radiator.

No passive rads, all 5 units in this Harman kardon 5.1 "kit" are 3-way. These flat-diaphragm midrange drivers are Hk's highest end most advanced speaker - and they look cool too. They look like radiators but they are not.

Both drivers of this center speaker crackle with inaudible low db sound. Back when I was a kid (early 80's) I worked for a music vending company. I'm pretty familiar with blown speakers - we fixed in bars, restaurants, halls, jukes, etc. We ordered the replacement center speaker - it's sold only by Harmon and must be done over the phone, $110.