Fine Tuning Onkyo nr-801 with Bose Acoustimass

[swamyv]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. I would like to have an expert advice on the following issue I am facing:

I bought a Onkyo receiver NR-801 and Bose acoustimass 15 speakers and I have a Sony DVD 5 disc changer. I hooked up everything and was happy with settings. A friend of mine who has Bose Lifestyle criticized that the surround sound in my system is not that good. I tried to fine tune and I do get surround sound but not as much as he claims he gets in his system. So the final comment was why buy a system that needs to be so fine tuned and still does not give as much performance as a system like Lifestyle.

Am I missing something in the settings? I set the speakers as large, 8ohm, and the other settings as much as I could figure out from the user manual.. When I connect VCR the sound is not that great. Is it mandatory that the inputs be digital and we get awful sound for analog sources such as VCR even though we are playing Dolby 5.1 Video Cassettes?

Am I missing some thing? Is there something I need to setup correctly?

I'd greatly appreciate if the gurus here point me to correct direction and steps involved in the setup.

Swamy

[GMichael]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. I would like to have an expert advice on the following issue I am facing:

I bought a Onkyo receiver NR-801 and Bose acoustimass 15 speakers and I have a Sony DVD 5 disc changer. I hooked up everything and was happy with settings. A friend of mine who has Bose Lifestyle criticized that the surround sound in my system is not that good. I tried to fine tune and I do get surround sound but not as much as he claims he gets in his system. So the final comment was why buy a system that needs to be so fine tuned and still does not give as much performance as a system like Lifestyle.

Am I missing something in the settings? I set the speakers as large, 8ohm, and the other settings as much as I could figure out from the user manual.. When I connect VCR the sound is not that great. Is it mandatory that the inputs be digital and we get awful sound for analog sources such as VCR even though we are playing Dolby 5.1 Video Cassettes?

Am I missing some thing? Is there something I need to setup correctly?

I'd greatly appreciate if the gurus here point me to correct direction and steps involved in the setup.

Swamy

Hi Swamy,

Your Onkyo receiver NR-801 will toast a Bose Lifestyle system. But it may not, or should I say will not, proform to the best of it's abbilities while hooked up to a Bose speaker system. Bose dose not work and play well with others. Get yourself some good bookshelf speakers. Run the auto set-up. Then invite your friend over to drool at how much better your system is.

[swamyv]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

Does it mean that I cannot get better from what I have?

Could you please help me in finding nuances in the fine-tuning/configuring the Receiver to work better with what I have? I am planning to get a separate system for my basement anyway. I'd probably go for bookshelf speakers there. Which ones do you suggest for the book shelf speakers, sub-woofer and surround speakers?

Regards,
Swamy

[GMichael]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.Swamy

You're welcome. And welcome to AR.

Does it mean that I cannot get better from what I have? Swamy

I'm sure you can.

Could you please help me in finding nuances in the fine-tuning/configuring the Receiver to work better with what I have? Swamy

I'll try, but others here are better at this part than I. Do you have the manual? Does it say anything about the auto-set-up?
How do you have the speakers placed around the room?
What part, if any, seems to be missing for you?

I am planning to get a separate system for my basement anyway. I'd probably go for bookshelf speakers there. Which ones do you suggest for the book shelf speakers, sub-woofer and surround speakers?

Regards,
Swamy

So many choices, so little time. Speakers make the biggest difference in how your system will sound to your ears. But your ears are not my ears. We all hear things a little different. Do you know what price range you'd like to be in?

[bobsticks]

Hey Swamy,
I'm fairly new myself but here's a few things you might consider:
1) What is the size of the room--maybe try using speakers at "small" instead
2) You probably will have issues with the analog output from a vcr;if possible try digital outputs
3) Try scrolling through your DSP modes--check out "Multi Channel Stereo" or "Studio Mix"
4) Using the "chan sel" button try altering the level of you front right and front left speakers.
Spend a little time tweaking, hopefully it works out. Have fun