Low Power Question for Sony STR-DE895/995 owners.... (1 Viewer)

[John Macri]

Just bought a DE995 and find the volume/power to be much less than my DE925 which I planned to replace it with. I have a small 12x12 area with Polk R30s/CSi20/DCM SW/Wharfedale WH2s and last night while watching the "Identity" DVD (DD5.1) had to use the #60 volume setting (73=MAX) to get decent sound. With the 925 I plenty of power and rarely got over 45% volume level on a DD5.1 (less for DTS 3.2) DVD.

I find I get no sound at all from the speakers until almost #40 volume. Video Essentials speaker calibration at 75 decibels (Radio Shack SL Meter) is at #67 volume.

All equalizer, etc. settings are at default. I'm using the Tape/MD mode with optical input as my DVD player has no coax. I'm not using the DE995 for video switching.

What # volume are others using? Any suggestions or do I have a bad unit?

Thanks for the help.

 

[John Garcia]

The DE line is well known for having average power at best. I had a rather old 815 that had a better amp section than the 875 I compared it to. So I went auditioning and found plenty of similarly priced receivers with better amp sections and ended up with Marantz. If you can return the 995, I would strongly suggest you do, and give a listen to Marantz, Harman Kardon, Denon and Onkyo in the same price range.

 

[Mark Hedges]

You cannot really translate volume knob settings to reciever power. Having said that your numbers do seem high. When I was using a DE485 reciever I was usually at about 40 or 45 w/ JBL studio series speakers.

Mark