Do you allow your AVR to tune your speakers flat ? Or do you prefer to hear your speakers "personality" ?

[forum_crawler]

Good point.

I sure hope it isn't one of the drivers, but could it be? I mean it isn't like rattling or the distinctive sound of a blown speaker but more like some sort of harshness at high volumes.

I bought my wire at walmart and did not solder the bannana plugs, just used the included screws in it. That is why I suspected the cable. I will try running all the speakers one by one at high volume and trying to figure out which is the culprit or all. I don't think the sub is having issues though. It has no problems shaking the house and for reference it is an SVS PB12-NSD.

Would perhaps unplugging all the speakers and plugging them one by one to hear which distorts/gets harsh a good way to figure it out? And lastly, so it isn't me who is crazy for thinking the Pionner should have enough juicy to drive my speakers to reference without breaking a sweat or sounding harsh?

[Rudy81]

I would certainly check the speakers by listening to each one separately. Just be very careful to keep the unplugged leads from touching each other or you might fry your amp. If it is just one speaker, you should be able to localize the distortion location by carefully listening and walking around the room as you play the music. However, I suspect the issue may be the amp capability of your AVR. What is the rated power output for each channel?

Your speakers are plenty efficient and should work just fine with 100 watts per channel.

Other things to look at are the frequency at which you are crossing to the sub from the mains. If you are running the mains and center as "Large" or " Full Range", the Pioneer is going to send it the entire FR from 20Hz to 20kHz. Your speakers are going to have a tough time below 30Hz and even 50Hz for your center. Make sure your speakers are set to 'small' and cross them to the sub at or above the highest frequency they can comfortably reproduce.

[forum_crawler]

The amp is a Pioneer VSX-919-AH-K rated at 120W per channel. I have read that at full load of 7.1 it can drop the power per channel considerably.

My fronts are set as large and my crossover at 50Hz. I did this so that I could have more bass comming from the front speakers while getting a tad more bang from the sub. I am also biamping the fronts as well. Am I asking too much from my amp?

BTW Rudy, thank you very much for your very helpful information. I am very new at this and have much to learn still

[Rudy81]

I only hope my suggestions can be of some help.

I will certainly suggest that you change your mains to "small". When I had Khorns, I had them set as small because they too cannot do 20Hz as well as my sub. They should have come up with something other than 'small' and 'large' because we all feel slighted to call our mains 'small'.

Try this. Set your all your speakers to 'small' and set the crossover to 80Hz, which is the crossover for THX certification. Then, play your system and see if you still have the distortion you are talking about. If it goes away, you are likely pushing your speakers to distort as they try to reproduce frequencies they can't. IF that is the problem, you can then lower the crossover for your main right and left speakers to something better suited to what they can do, say 40 or 50 Hz. Let the sub do what it was designed to do. You will be happier in the long run. I currently run my DBB's as large only because they each have their own RSW-15 for anything below 50Hz. Before I added the subs, I had them set as 'small' eventhough they can do 30Hz easily with dual 15" woofers.

If that doesn't work, and you have verified that all the drivers are ok, try to borrow an external multichannel amp with some good specs and see if that makes the issue go away. Of course, I'm assuming it is not something rattling in your room during near reference play. BTW, reference sound pressure levels are really not all that loud. Audyssey should be setting your system to put out 75dB when your volume control is at 0. If you have a SPL meter see what volume level starts causing the distortion.

Just be patient and methodical with your search for the problem and you will find it.

How are you sending the various audio signals to the Pioneer? Are you using a blu ray player using HDMI or are you using analog inputs?

Also, we are getting away from the topic of this thread, so feel free to e-mail me while we troubleshoot this issue. I hate hijaking threads.

[Roy Lindquist]

Set your all your speakers to 'small' and set the crossover to 80Hz, which is the crossover for THX certification.

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