need help with Onkyo tx-sr805 speaker settings (1 Viewer)

[thom h]

Hello, I own a Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver. Hooked up to it, i have Polk rm6751 speakers. The cable box, is hooked up HDMI, the Receiver to TV is HDMI. I have looked and looked online here and other sites and i just can't seem to find the EXACT answer to my problem. The subwoofer doesn't seem to be working. Here are the settings:

The subwoofer is powered and has a L and R output, the RCA jack comes out the L and is plugged into the subwoofer input R which is just under the "center" L input. The phase is set at 0, and the low pass knob is maxed out at 160Hz. The volume is set at half, the auto on is set to ON because i have it plugged into the receiver. Those are the setting on the physical subwoofer.


The receiver settings ...

under speaker config is ...

Subwoofer ... yes

Front ...... 120 hz

Center ..... 120 Hz

Surround ...120 Hz

Surr Back ... None

Surr Back Ch ---

LPF of LFE ... 90Hz

Double Bass ... Off


If you need more info let me know, I admit right now, i don't have a big amount of knowledge when it comes to the fine tunings of Surround Sound. The equalizer is Audyssey. To my knowledge this is not a THX speaker system. I have the audio presets set to THX Cinema for all TV channels (HD or standard), DVD, and game components. Someone, please help me fine tune this stuff so i can get the subwoofer working, and to get even better sound than what i have now. I do know for a fact that the subwoofer does work, just a setting or two is wrong......


Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Hi Thom,


Make sure your speaker settings within the receiver menus are set to "small" and not "large". This setting has nothing to do with their physical size, rather it's intended to help determine if the lower frequencies should be sent to the speaker (large) or the subwoofer (small). If you have a powered subwoofer, most folks recommend keeping this setting on "small" regardless of whether you have "full range" mains or not.


Finally, have you run the Audyssey auto-calibration feature on your receiver? If not, definitely do so, but be aware that it does have a tendency to set your mains to "large" if it deems them capable, so after the calibration, feel free to change this setting back to "small".


Also, just a minor point of clarification - the subwoofer has speaker inputs, and the receiver has speaker outputs. Not that it makes a difference to how you have everything connected, but conceptually, if you think in terms of signal flow (source --> receiver --> speaker) it's often a lot easier for folks to understand how everything works.


Hope this helps.

 

[Al.Anderson]

First, make sure you're using the pre-out subwoofer connection from the receiver (the one furthest to the right; not the one in the multi-channel group).


Second, check your subwoofer manual to see which connector L or R, and LFE input should be connected to. (Actually, before that, make sure there's not a dedicated LFE input other than L/R.)

 

[thom h]

Hello, thank so far for the responses.

Jason Charlton and Al Anderson ... I looked at the receiver menus and (unless i missed it) there is no "small" or "large" speaker choice. I do own the powered subwoofer. The equalizer setting is on Audyssey. I do have the subwoofer hooked up to the "subwoofer pre out" and it connects to the "line in L" connection on the subwoofer. I have added photos, the best i could get. If you need more info, let me know, thanks again!

 

[Jason Charlton]

Looks like it's all hooked up and connected OK. Have you tried swapping out the cable?


I downloaded the manual online and saw under the speaker setup that the 805 uses the term "Full Band" instead of "Large", but nowhere in the manual did it indicate what the other speaker types were. Doublecheck your settings and if your mains are set to Full Band, try setting them to something else.


Also, this may be completely redundant, but just to be absolutely sure - you say the equalizer is set to "Audyssey" but you HAVE actually run the whole setup process using the supplied microphone, right?


According to your manual, there's also an "LFE Level" adjustment under the "Audio Adjust" menu (page 82 in the manual). Verify that the LFE isn't set to -20dB or -infinity...


Finally, you mentioned using THX Cinema for all sources - try using "Pure" or "Direct"... this should minimize any additional signal processing from being done to the incoming audio signal.


Hopefully one of these will produce some results... if not, I'm afraid I may be running out of ideas.


Edit: I just re-read your first post and was wondering if the lack of subwoofer was just for your cable source, or if it's lacking for all sources including DVD? If the problem is isolated to the cable source, there may be a setting within your cable box to specify the audio format that is output via HDMI (i.e. it may default to 2.0 rather than 5.1).

 

[thom h]

Thank for the response so quick!

Jason ... I turned up the volume on the actual subwoofer and i can now hear the subwoofer better, but it's still a little low. Should i max out the volume knob on the subwoofer? It WAS set at half way (see photos above), NOW it is set at 3/4.

Should i keep the Low Pass knob set at 60Hz?(see photos above)

The speaker config .... what should i set those at?

Right now i changed them to ...

Front ... 90Hz

Center ... 90Hz

Surround ... 90Hz

LPF of LFE ... 90Hz


The LFE levels under the Audio adjust menu .... all 6 choices are at 0db

You asked about the running the Audyssey set up ... I did run with the microphone the audyssey set up

Any suggestions i am all ears ... and eyes. Thanks again.

 

[Jason Charlton]

It's unusual to have to crank the volume up so high on the subwoofer, but if that's all that seems to work, then that may have to do.


In your speaker config settings, what were the other options (other than "Full Range")?


Finally, have you tested this with 5.1 soundtracks on DVDs or have you been using cable/satellite as your source? Although HD cable and satellite can have 5.1 soundtracks, they are often not nearly as aggressive than comparable soundtracks on DVDs.

 

[thom h]

Thanks for the quick response.

Jason ... the speaker config choices are: 40hz, 50hz, 60hz, 70hz, 80hz THX, 90 hz, 100hz, 120 hz, 150hz, 200hz, fullband.

Should i change any settings of the speakers, which are all set (including subwoofer) at 90hz?

Should i change the volume knob on the back of the subwoofer which is set at 3/4?

Should i change the Low Pass knob on the subwoofer which is set at 60hz?

The LFE levels on the audio adjust menu are all at 0db, is that ok or should i adjust those?


Another side note that may help with this ... the "level calibration" menu .... i looked at it today and these are the levels ... Left +1.5db, Center -0.5db, Right +1.5 db, Surr Right +2.0db, Surr Left +2.0db, Subwoofer -2.5db

Does all that seem good?


Yes i did notice the difference between TV HD channels and a DVD. I played a Star Wars movie thru the DVD player (which is not HDMI or HD) it is a basic DVD player. The sound was good, just the subwoofer seems low or non existent. Let me know if there are any adjustments you suggest. I know there are alot of questions in this post and i appreciate your answer to all of them. Thanks again!

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by thom h
Jason ... the speaker config choices are: 40hz, 50hz, 60hz, 70hz, 80hz THX, 90 hz, 100hz, 120 hz, 150hz, 200hz, fullband.

Should i change any settings of the speakers, which are all set (including subwoofer) at 90hz?

Should i change the volume knob on the back of the subwoofer which is set at 3/4?

Should i change the Low Pass knob on the subwoofer which is set at 60hz?

The LFE levels on the audio adjust menu are all at 0db, is that ok or should i adjust those?


Another side note that may help with this ... the "level calibration" menu .... i looked at it today and these are the levels ... Left +1.5db, Center -0.5db, Right +1.5 db, Surr Right +2.0db, Surr Left +2.0db, Subwoofer -2.5db

Does all that seem good?

90Hz seems like a decent crossover setting for your mains - so I don't think I'd change that.


If you have to turn the volume all the way up on the back of the subwoofer, then go ahead and do it.


If you have the LPF on the subwoofer set at 60Hz and your receiver is set to send 90Hz and lower to the subwoofer, then you're effectively filtering out 30Hz of frequency response. Your subwoofer should be set at or higher than the crossover in the receiver (can someone verify that my logic is sound on this?)


The LFE levels on the Audio Adjust should be left where they are (or set to a positive value, if there are any).


On the "Level Calibration" menu - definitely try bumping the subwoofer level up higher (see what happens when it's maxed out, but try this before cranking the volume all the way up on the subwoofer). Personally, I've always found the volume control on my subwoofer to make a more noticeable difference than the calibration dB setting, but in this case, it's worth a try to see if it has any effect.

 

[thom h]

Thanks for the response. I changed the level calibration of the subwoofer to 0db from -2.5db. I turned the Low pass knob on the subwoofer to 100hz. I kept the volume knob at 3/4. It sounds better with DVDs I need to test it out with a hd tv channel to see if I notice a difference. Thanks so far. Any other thoughts let me know.