Shouldn't go past half-way mark? (1 Viewer)

[Justin_D]

I was talking to a Polk Audio representative a while back considering a purchase I have since made. He told me, to prevent distortion, I shouldn't turn the volume up past the half-way mark, or 40 out of the max of 80 on my Onkyo TX-SR501. The odd thing is, during calibration, my reference was above 50. And, some music, espeically Classical with a single instrament usually requires 50+. Am I running some sort if a risk? It sounds fine to me, and the receiver has plenty of ventalation. I also have the 3 year warrenty on it.

 

[Drew_W]

That's a really broad statement for him to make. On a sweep of about -80 to +10 on both my H/K 225 and Pioneer Elite 53TX, for movies the setting is usually at -20 to -15. Which is not halfway. As long as you're not hearing distortion, you're fine.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

There's no universal volume knob. Unless the individual had some experience with those speakers and your receiver he most likely won't know what is acceptable. As long as it sounds good that's all that matters.

Possibly what he was warning you about is that with some lower end receivers if you turn them up to much they'll start to clip on loud scenes, which will damage your speakers. I can't say where that would be on your receiver, but if you've calibrated it I'd say you know enough that your not endangering it.

 

[Chuck Kent]

The rep made a blanket statement that could be right with some gear and wrong with other stuff.

How loud a setup plays is a function of how loud the source is going into the receiver, how powerful the receiver is, how sensitive the speakers are and whether or not the room (the setup is used in) is more or less reflective for reproduced sound.

The best way to gauge whether it's too loud or not is to just listen. If you hear distortion, back away on the volume a bit. If the distortion goes away, you'll know where your threshold is...

 

[Leo Kerr]

On the other hand, this may seem obvious, but I thought I'd mention it, anyway.

If you turn it up far enough that it hurts your ears even without distorting, then you've turned it up too far.

You've only got one set of ears: don't blow them!

Leo Kerr
[email protected]