Onkyo/Denon - who designs this junk? - Page 2

dany · 05-15-2008, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert bartsch

Thanks....

I finally got the sub to work after much reading. One frustrating part is that the screen shots in the Onkyo user manual do not match the text display on the receiver. Yeh, I checked the documentation manual and it is for an SR805 Onkyo receiver.

I think they must have changed the chip set or something because these do not match at all.

Anyway, the screen shots for many of the set-up functions do not match. I spent at least one hour this AM trying to use the automated speaker set up. Once again the screen shots in the manual do not match the text in the receiver.

Don'y use the manual.

robert bartsch · 05-15-2008, 04:16 PM

Dave:

What do you think of these for less than $600?

JBL Professional 3677 at Performance Audio

My busted Denon is coming home from the repair shop and I may throw it inthe living room with a set of these. They seem like a real bargan to me.

Dave Moritz · 05-15-2008, 06:37 PM

I would see if you can find a place to listen to them first. Some of those speakers need a EQ to sound right. I was trying to find the minimum power requirements but did to find them. Those look like what I should be using for surrounds with my Altec A-7's.

What Denon do you have?

What is the power rating of your receiver?

There is a good chance those could sound really good but to be honest I have not heard them in a home enviroment, only in the theater and not up close. And they where being used as surround speakers so I have no idea how they would work out for mains channels.

Now if I was living back in California still in the place I was living before I would purchase 2 pair of these for surrounds in a 7.1 configuration. But of course I would do some critical listening first before buying.

Thanks for providing the link, I am going to have to look into these in depth.

robert bartsch · 05-18-2008, 06:53 PM

The Denon is old - 10 years. Just replaced it with a Onkyo 805 (130W @ .05% THD)

Anyway, for The Denon is rated at 105 watts x 5 at .05% THD. The repair shop said it is a good unit, but it has been back to Denon twice and now needed repair for a third time.

What is the sensativity rating of your A7's? ...my VOTTs would crank with a few watts of power, so I'm thinking the JBLs at 99DB sensativity would be fine with 105 watts.

robert bartsch · 05-18-2008, 07:05 PM

One other thing....

Some folks in the speaker forum here have the view that VOTT speakers are not accurate and are only designed for soundstages, etc.

IMO, my old VOTT from 35 years ago out perform my set of high end Klipsch floors I have in my main system now.

Do you beleive the VOTT outperform any home speakers you have tested? I suspect the JBLs would be very similar but don;t know anywhere that I could test them.

Dave Moritz · 05-18-2008, 08:01 PM

Quote:

What is the sensativity rating of your A7's? ...my VOTTs would crank with a few watts of power, so I'm thinking the JBLs at 99DB sensativity would be fine with 105 watts.

To my knowledge I belive the are rated at 97db. These have been the best speaker I have ever owned and I doubt I would ever part with them. I hope to get around to refinishing them some time soon. I kinda jumped the gun a few years ago a stripped most of the paint off of them. But 1 watt is all it takes to bring them to life. They are very efficient and that is one of the reasons I love them, and they sound great no matter what I am playing through them. When my father owned them I watched him put 300 watts continuous into them and they handled it. My father used to use a commercial grade Yamaha power amp and at the time he had two pair of A-7's and a pair of 18" subwoofers and had 1 300 watt Yamaha for each pair of speakers.

Quote:

Some folks in the speaker forum here have the view that VOTT speakers are not accurate and are only designed for soundstages, etc.

I am sure there are some people here that would think that. I am not sure I could find anything to match them under $5k a pair. And I hear the reissues of the A-7's are going for $8k each.

Here is what the decal looked like exactly and the same color.

robert bartsch · 05-19-2008, 04:00 AM

I've hunted around a bit and, apparently, Altec is not making professional components anymore.

The JBLs seem close and cheap at under $600. My Klipsch's are $800 or so and they can"t touch the old Altecs. At 92DB you need to feed them moderate power to get any sound and that could be one significant difference. There is a lot less distortion at lower power levels.

My wife moans about big speaker in the house so the JBLs are not real big which is a +.

chuckg · 05-19-2008, 03:33 PM

SO far off topic, but....
I worked at a stage theater where we needed a big old subwoofer for an avalanche effect. After the run of that show, this behemoth Altec sat under the seating, quietly gathering dust. One day, or it might have been night, someone needed a bit of extra light and so they plugged in the stage plug that they thought was connected to a stage light down there.

Big mistake. That plug was actually connected to the subwoofer, which is a 18" speaker in a cabinet about seven feet wide, four feet tall, and 2.5 feet deep - it's a folded horn, and frighteningly efficient.

The subwoofer just sat there, cranking out 150 dB of pure 60 Hz. Man, was that ever hilarious!

Douglas Monce · 05-19-2008, 09:20 PM

The biggest problem I have with user manuals is when they are obviously written by someone for whom English is not their first language.

Doug

robert bartsch · 05-20-2008, 10:02 AM

Yikes! ...those old drivers are pretty rare and I would have thought they could be damaged with 120 volt current.

What ever happened to the old horn?

chuckg · 05-20-2008, 12:36 PM

Last time I saw that monstrous old folded-horn subwoofer, it was doing duty as a low-frequency-effects unit in a theme park...the audio company I worked for at the time installed it there, way back in 1987 or so.

Those old drivers are tougher than you might think. We commonly ran each VOTT cabinet at 800 watts for rock music, and we had stacks of them.