soulbabel

Thanks everyone for the responses so far. I haven't had a chance to work on my speaker issues yet, as I've had school, work, and spent time making a DIY projector screen. I have an SPL meter now, and will go through and try to detect the issue this weekend. I'll update the thread when I have more info.

Thanks, that was a pretty awesome reply. However, I'm not sure if I can get more efficient speakers, cuz I'd have to return ship the F3s back to California, and I live in Virginia. I was looking around, and saw at Best Buy they had Yamaha HTR-5890 and HTR-5990. Both are rated 140wpc. I'm slowly becoming disinterested in the HDMI capabilities of the AVR-2807, and would really prefer a receiver that brought out the quality of the speakers. I was initially under the impression that throwing more wattage at the speaker might work, but according to the 2X Watts for +3db rule, I'd really only get 3 more dbs. I'll cross my fingers and hope maybe I just messed something up in the wiring, just waiting to be fixed so that it can deliver its potential. I'll try some other source materials too.

Thanks for the replies everyone so far. The room is 12'x22' with hardwood floors. I have it wired pretty standard, using Acoustic Research banana clips and speaker wire for the center and surround speakers. I used Monster cable and banana clips for the two front speakers. I'd say the cables going to the front speakers and the surrounds are about 18' long. And the back speaker wires are about 8' long. I was pretty meticulous when I made the speaker wires, but I'll definitely check to make sure the polarity of the speakers are correct. The room is at 71F. So far I've only tried it out with movies, I'll see how well they work with music. I've been thinking about getting an SPL meter, that way I can better quantify the loudness concerning this issue. Do I think it sounds good... the quality of sound seems fairly good, its just not loud enough for me to really feel immersed in the movie I'm watching. And when it does get loud enough, the receiver trips a few seconds later.

I have the 2 f3's, 4 s3's, a c3 and a sub12 powered by a Denon AVR-2807 using 16 gauge wire. The problem is that the whole setup sounds really weak when I listen to it, like the Denon is underpowered (110 wpc) or something. This is my first home theater setup, but I'm pretty sure I've hooked it up correctly. The receiver volume goes up to 15 db max, and I have to turn the volume up pretty high to get decent sound. I don't hear anything, until about -40db, and its still pretty whisper quiet. About -19db its at a sub-decent volume, and at -8db its at a reasonable level that I find about right for watching a movie. The problem is at this idea level, the receivers protection circuit keeps tripping as soon as the movie soundtrack gives off a good amount of bass. The manual says the receiver will trip the protection circuit when it gets too hot, so I put a high speed fan to blow into the unit to cool off the heatsink, but it didn't help. The only difference I saw was when I changed the front speakers from large to small, at which it would trip the protection circuit at -1db instead of -8db. The thing that concerns me, is that the volume level was never really ear shattering, where I was like "oh crap, thats loud." Should this setup have the capability to be deafening? Can anyone offer any insight into my situation? It'd be much appreciated. Thanks.