Hk Avr 630 (1 Viewer)

I brought this receiver home Friday and I must say I'm a bit disappointed. I can run it full throttle and IT IS NOT THAT LOUD!!!!
Since I haven't broken in my new Athena's I've only cranked it with my old speakers (don't even know what they are).
The sound quality is great, but why isn't it loud?
My old Pioneer would overload and shut down at -20.
I can get right up to 0 with the HK. -30 seems "quiet". I went back to the store today and had a listen to the 630......the volume went beyond 0 into +dB levels. I must have something wrong, but I don't know where to begin.
My fronts are Athena AS F2....but I haven't went above -20 with these......not loud at all.
Sony centre and surround (not even sure which they are......came as a set)
Bose bookshelf back surround.
12" sub.
I came home with the Athena AS C1 today because it was on sale.......have yet to hook it up.
I know it will take some tweaking, but I was expecting more right out of the box for 2 ch stereo.
Defective unit maybe or just defective operator? LOL
Would love to hear from other 630 owners.
And just out of curiosity........why does the volume scale start at -85 and go down as you go up in volume??

Really?

I previously owned a 230 which I only had up to volume -9 and it was far too loud for me.....

I now have the 630 and never need to trun it past - 30.

I can't even imagine hitting baseline or + volume.....

I think you need a more powerful receiver for your speakers....

Anytime a receiver shuts down or clips that means there is something wrong....In this case I would say your receiver is not powerful enough for your speakers.....

I can hear voices from -50 on the 630.....

Double check your connections...But I think the problems lies within your speaker power handling.....

an HK 630, not powerful enough, you've gotta be joking. Sorry im really new to this forum, and for my sake I sure hope Kris is way out to lunch. I plan on powering a similar setup with a HK AVR 230. If I were you Wendy, I'd start off by Calibrating my speakers per your instructions, using the EZ-set remote, following your instructions in the manual (its actually pretty easy). Theres a mic in your remote, so basically you sit where you plan on listening, press a couple buttons, it sends tones through all your speakers, making it all nice and equal adjusting volume lvls up and down. Usually the settings make it sound crappy(quiet) if you havent adjusted it. People say to buy a SPL meter from Radio shack, but why not just use your remote, I bet it would help big time, if you had not tried calibrating them already. Id also be checking how they were hooked up, quality wire, if i made good conections. Id bet money on the Calibration thing, Also as suggested to me, you can set all your speakers to small, using your onscreen menu which sends most of the Bass to your Subwoofer, giving your reciever a chance to concentrate on the mid and such. You should have Tons of power with that receiver with those speakers in my opinion. As for the -85 and up thing, I think thats just standard.. but I agree, why not start at 0 and go up, I'm sure someone knows why, but not me, but what do I know, I'm just a dumb Canadian. Those are my ideas, maybe you do have a bad unit, hopefully someone else tries to help ya. (I'm so not qualified to give advice, LOL). Thats a very nice Reciever!

Hi Vince..........I'm just a dumb Cannuck too!! LOL
I did the speaker calibration thing.
And Kris.........I have the 630. I can crank it right to 0 and believe me it is not loud.
There's no distortion or clipping either. But like I said this was with my old speakers. From what I've read the Athena's are more efficient and apparently well matched for the HK 630, but still I've had it to -20 with the Athena's on and it's not impressive......not one bit.
Still confused!!

I think your old speakers are inefficient. Connect all your Athena speakers and the sub and calibrate properly. I've got an HK 325 which has nowhere near the power of the 630 and if I turned it up to 0 my ears would bleed.

Set all your speakers to small, crossover the Athena F2's at 60hz and your center and rears at 80 or 100hz. Let the sub take care of the lower bass. For 2 channel stereo you AS F2's should go very loud. They have a 93db efficiency so your HK 630 will have no problem driving them.

How big is your room?

If your Pioneer shut down at -20 it was distorting too much or couldn't drive the speaker load. The HK is going to be much clearer than that Pioneer. Also some people detect distortion as being louder.

When I had an HK 630 in my home for a short time, I watched movies somewhere between -30db and -20db. Anything higher than that was too loud for me. The speakers were Acoustic Research 310HO mains with the matching center and surrounds. I don't have specs on them anymore, but I think they are 91db efficient.

I believe the HK 630 volume scale ranges from -79db (inaudible from the listening position) to about +10db, but this depends on the trim levels of the individual channels.

I second the advice previously given to hook up the new speakers. Either the old speakers are terribly inefficient or there is likely something wrong with them, especially since you say the old pioneer went into protection above -20db. I'll bet the new Athena's will sound louder and better.

One other note worth mentioning: it is possible that the clean sound of the HK doesn't *seem* as loud as the (likely) distorted sound from your old pioneer. It might be worth measuring the sound level with a meter. (The meter in the remote will probably work, but I'm partial to the old analog SPL meter radio shack used to sell). Perhaps it doesn't sound as loud because the sound is so clean.

Last, how big is the room? It is possible (although unlikely) that the AVR 630 actually is underpowered for the speakers and room size.

To Vince:

Obviously his speakers need more power because they are inefficient....Which means the 630 is NOT providing enough power.....

I said I HAD the 230 and it was quite powerful and I have since then moved up to the 630 and it is very powerful....

Perhaps you had a little too much lunch are are a little sleepy to READ.....

To Wendy:

Your old Pioneer clipped at -20 where as your HK doesn't clip , but doesn't feed the speakers with enough juice to get going.....

Bottom line:

There are plenty of reciever that WILL move your speakers and there are plenty of speakers the 630 will move....The question is which one do you want to keep?

If you keep the HK you will need more efficient speakers...

If you want to keep the speakers you will need more juice from the amp.....

I have 91db efficiency and my 230 had no real problem, but my new 630 "I like the way they move".....They just needed more power.......

Are ya grumpy Kris? LOL I just said "I hope your wrong". Anyways, wasnt trying to make you mad. But from what was said

So in theory the HK 630 should have no problem with the 93db efficiency Athenas...

Exactly, which is why I said the problem lies in the speaker handling.....

Hiw statements were that he clipped 1 reciver at -20 and his 630 played far too quietly when at high volume....

Meaning his speakers NEED MORE POWER....Either that or he has a bunk unit....

How anyone could hit + volume on the 630 and it not be loud is beyond reason....

Who knows?

The entire room is about 24x16. It's basically cut in half for the HT 6.1 seating/listening.
The bose are used in the other half for fill (used to be on the B channel of the Pioneer).
I will try Greg's suggestions.
Let me get this straight..........I have to set the levels and small vs large and crossover for each and every listening mode. Correct?
I think that's one area I have screwed up.
I'm thinking of hitting the reset and starting over.
I have the new speakers hooked up. Athena AS F2 front and AS C1 centre. I haven't pushed it beyond -20 yet.......the manual suggests 50-100 break in hours. At -20 dB with 3 5 or 7 channel stereo it's a nice rich sound....but the volume is fairly low.
The surrounds I have are dinky crappy Sony's that came in a box with a centre channel for 200.00. We needed a centre (I blew ours up.........thanks Floyd LOL) and it seemed like a good deal at the time.
What if I were to replace these with another pair of ASF2's? They are a decent price right now but I'm sure my husband would freek!!

Check each channel adjustment setting, perhaps it's set to -12dB per speaker? (reason why overall it's very low)

Calibrate the system to 85dB.

Floorstanders for your surrounds may be overkill. Why not get the bookshelf AS-B1 or AS-B2 instead? Athena has also come out with a rear channel AS-R1 to compliment your front speakers if you prefer wall mounted rear speakers.

Yep, you must calibrate for each listening mode. Turn the volume to -10 and let the EZset do its work.

It is quite possible that there is something wrong with the 630 also. Your room size is the same as mine and I have a 510 that powers my Klipsch Cornwalls. Needless to say it has plenty of punch for those speakers.

Laters,
Jeff

Even if my main listening is music?
Surround for movies is just a bonus for me.

I hear the "overkill" bit all the time. I have JBL ND310II's for my mains and rears. They sound great and look good in my room. There's no way I'd change them for bookshelves even if the sound quality was the same.

Well if you're using all 5 speakers for music, I guess it wouldn't be overkill. Do you plan to listen to DVD-Audio or SACD? If so, then yeah by all means get floorstanders for the rear. Many people just use 2 channels for music so big rear speakers aren't necessary.

By all means, if price isn't a concern and you have the space then get the AS-F2's for rear speakers.



This is pretty rare to see. I guess instead of WAF there needs to be a HAF.

I think that might be the trick. I recall when I got my HK 500 a couple of years ago and took it out the box, each channel was set to 0 which was low and when I made the adjustments it was quite loud. Depending on the distance between the speaker and the listening area, it plays a significant role in volume.

GregoryGB



Actually the 310HO speakers are 95db efficient. Out of curiosity what receiver/amp setup are you using on them? I have a pair myself with (almost)matching center AR2C & surrounds 206HO. I used to drive these with an older H/K AVR30 rated at 60wpc/40amps HCC and it was VERY loud at just over half-way on the volume dial. I've since bought a NAD T742 (50wpc) and it's even louder than the H/K at about -15db. The AVR630 should have significantly more power than either of these receivers. Have you tried using it in 'stereo direct' mode with just a CD or FM station as input? That way the crossover or any other settings shouldn't come into play.

Wow! A fellow AR owner.

The first receiver I used to drive my 310HO's was a Sony STR-DE925, and this is what I was using up until a few months ago. Around Christmas (it was actually a Christmas gift from my wife), I bought the HK AVR 630 online. Turns out the AVR 630 was giving me a rather loud buzz/hum from the left and right main channels only, so I returned it for a replacement, thinking it was defective. Indeed, HK Support diagnosed it as defective over email. Well, the new unit came and exhibited the same problem. So then I picked up a floor-model Pioneer Elite 53TX at a local shop. I love the 53TX, and have been using it for about 3 months now. It really sounds good, and has more power than I'll ever need with my current speakers.

BTW, the AVR 630 had plenty of power. That's not why I returned it. If it wasn't for the hum/buzz, I'd still have the AVR 630. I absolutely loved it's bass management features, which are the best you will find on just about any receiver in any price range.

when calibrating your system, you need to know where reference level is on the knob. Two people with the exact same systems can have different volume levels, depending on what level on the knob they calibrated them at.

Also the more power you have, the cleaner the sound will be. That pure clean sound will make it sound less loud. I have a 525 and a Rotel 1095, at reference level(0 on my knob) it seems not to be that loud, but if you go outside and walk halfway down the block you can still hear it.