Onkyo tx receiver owners click here to help

[thom h]

After alot of research i have decided on buying the Onkyo tx sr-805. It is going in a 15x23 ft. room. I own a new panasonic plasma, a playstation 2, and i will be getting a Blue-ray player within a year. With that being said, Give me some suggestions on speakers you own or have heard with the Onkyo receivers. Also, i need some help finding stores that have surround sound speakers hooked up so i can go listen to them. I live in the Buffalo, NY area willing to travel 50-60 miles to listen to some speakers. Oh ya, last thought ... i want to stay around $500-$600 for a 5.1 speaker setup. For that i am confident i can get a very good setup. Thanks in advance for your help.

[RoadRunner6]

You will find many here who disagree with my opinion, that all decent quality receivers all sound the same with all most normal designed speakers at reasonable levels. Professional double blind test back this up. You didn't say how loud you like your sound.

That said, I think you are making a mistake allocating only $500-$600 for the 5 speakers and a sub, sort of Home Theater in a Box quality You chose an excellent plasma, why not have excellent sound also. I would rather see you buy a lower priced receiver and spend more on the speakers. I usually recommend people spend 2-3 times on the speakers as the receiver. The receiver will make almost zero difference is the sound and the speakers 98% of the difference in the sound. Why not drop down to the Onkyo 605, the power difference will make very little difference. Understand that twice as much power in watts amounts to only a 3dB increase in sound level output (that is only a slight volume increase). This might give you more like $1000 for your 5.1 speakers. Some food for thought.

If you have to stay at the $600 level then I would start with the two front left and right speakers and the sub and ad the center and surrounds as you can afford them. Try to make sure you buy all 5 speakers (the sub can be from any brand) from the same brand and hopefully the same series so that the all have the same "voicing" because they have the same exact tweeter and hopefully the same midrange.

If you do stay at $600 for all then I would look for the best bang for the buck deal you can find.

Check out J&R for the JBL Venue series or check www.pricegrabber.com for the same or the Infinity Beta series. These are actually fairly decent sounding speakers for the money.

http://www.jr.com/JRSectionView.process?InSearch=t&N=&Ntt=venue&Ntk=All_Record_Search&lastSearch=

below is a real sub.

http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/lfmcompact.html

RR6

[Luvin Da Blues]

Welcome to this forum Thom h,

I'll second the Infinity Betas. I own a pair of 20's that sound real decent.

Check out this site

www.theaudiovideosource.com/0SpeakerDeals.html

1 Infinty C250 center - $129
4 Infinty Beta 20s @ $100 ea =$400
1 Dayton Sub8 - $80
(I can't vouch for this sub, but Dayton has a good rep)

Total = $609

LDB

[thom h]

Hello, thanks for responding. Is it just me or is it difficult to find a store with multiple speaker choices hooked up and ready to listen to? I think my budget will find me very good speakers. No i am not nieve to think i can get "the best" speakers, and that's ok. I don't have "the best" plasma, or "the best" receiver. But if i can just find a store within 50-60 miles of Buffalo NY to do my own listening that would be the best for my budget. Or if someone has a similiar Onkyo receiver what are some very good speakers for it. Thanks in advance for the help.

[Jack in Wilmington]

Hi Thom
Welcome to AR. You could check Speaker Shop in Amherst, they have Paradigm speakers and might be able to help you put something together in your budget.

[thom h]

Thanks for the response. I have tried Speaker shop, Circuit city, Best Buy, Stereo Advantage. Speaker shop is wayyy to expensive for the budget. The low end Paradigms 5.1 started at $1,500. I don't know what model they were, i was kinda sticker shocked. I feel by no means i am being a cheapskate when it comes to buying a receiver and speakers. After all i am buying a $900 receiver! I just want a very good set of speakers that will sound very good with the Onkyo 805, with a limit of $500-$600. But even more important is to find place where i can listen to multiple speakers and make my own mind up.

[pioneer-man]

you should try the pok line of spkrs with the onkyo, you will have better results than going with hi-end spkrs, remember that under powered spkrs will be damaged with sub par receivers, try polk`s web site. or you could go with a yamaha or a pioneer elite, just my two cents

[blackraven]

I agree with RR, drop down to the Onkyo 605 receiver and spend more money on speakers. The 805 will not sound any better than the 605 especially with a set of $500 5.1 speakers. its way over kill. Take the money and spend it on speakers the most important part of your sound system.
The infinty Beta's are very good speakers and a lot of bang for the buck. Go with the Beta 20's.

Consider the PSB Alhpa B's, PSB Image B25's or the Monitor Audio B2's. All are onsale at www.saturdayaudio.com. I prefer the B25's or the MA B2's which retail for $300 and $400 a pair respectively and are onsale for well under $300 a pair right now.

[thom h]

So i went and listened to Paradigm cinema 70 home theater speakers. They sounded very good. I also listened to POLK 6750 speakers. I liked those too. With those two in mind which one would you choose and why? Please be detailed and specific, not just " i like polks". thanks! Keeping in mind i am getting the Onkyo 805

[thom h]

After looking at the specs side by side for the Polk rm6750 and the Paradigm Cinema (i've listened to both). I am confused. If someone with much more knowledge than i could look at the specs of these two speaker systems and get back to me on which is better and why. I LIKE BOTH SYSTEMS!! I just need some educated reasons why to choose one over the other. Thanks.

[f0rge]

man that receiver is way overkill for those little speakers, on top of that the little speakers you're looking at are going to have a tough time filling that huge room with sound.

if you're set on the 5.1 setup, then i would go with the infiniti betas as mentionned above, look on the infiniti site for a location near you to go listen, then buy them online. they're still small, but at least they are "real" speakers

if i was you though, i would get myself some nice bookshelves and then fill in the rest of my system as my budget allowed, something like some b&w 685s would work very well.

if you persist in ignoring our well intentionned advice, then go with the paradigms

[thom h]

Thank for the help. I forgot to mention the Paradigm cinema 70 series with a PDR-8 subwoofer. The specs on those and the Polk rm6750 look similar to me. Yet they are a couple hundred dollars apart from each other. Why do i pay more for one over the other if to me they both sound good. I am probably overlooking something. Help if you can, thanks.

[rogitts]

Onkyo Home Theatre Receivers are Excellent....You cannot get a better Home Theatre Receiver for the price you pay for them.

[JSE]

OK let's make it easy for ya since you have ignored all rational advise.

GET WHICH EVER SPEAKER SOUNDS BETTER TO YOU.

Nobody can tell you to get Speaker A over Speaker B when the Speaker A and Speaker B are very similiar in specs.

Like f0rge mentioned, either 5.1 system you mentioned is going to strain in your large room so both are not going to do any justice to the Onkyo 805. They will give OK sound but the sound will not be that impressive. Your probably going to have sub par bass and not much "weight" to the sound. But hey, knock yourself out.

Your basically putting a custom built 500HP supercharged engine in a Yugo. The engine will look great but first time you hit the gas the fenders will fly off, the tires will melt and your driveshaft will drop to the cement in a twisted heap of shredded tangled steel.

Good luck!

[muffinsarefood]

Heres my advice:

If your not going to listen to the professionals or near-professionals on here, then go to best-buy and have the salesmen there tell you what to get.

Everyone here has told you that an 805 is too powerful for your application, and that dropping down will allow more $$$ for speakers, and make a better system. I would just buy a 2.1 myself.

But for you, i recommend BOSE! They will be prefect for you.:prrr:

[Alex at SVS]

I agree with other posters that the 805 is much more receiver than your speakers can handle. Heck, for your size room my recommendation for a good sub alone would start at $550, and our subs are known for being amazing performance/price. (Just check out the reviews on this site alone)

You're going to get a much, much better overall system saving some money on the receiver and investing more into the speakers.

[budgetaudio76]

sadly i must agree with muffy up there. you can find alot of bose 5.1 speakers for around 500 - 600 dollars on craigslist. and you buy into a "famous" name to boot im sure the bose will "handle" what the onkyo can dish out. within its limits of course.

[Alex at SVS]

sadly i must agree with muffy up there. you can find alot of bose 5.1 speakers for around 500 - 600 dollars on craigslist. and you buy into a "famous" name to boot im sure the bose will "handle" what the onkyo can dish out. within its limits of course.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the Bose recommendation was a joke based on the smiley after. I support a lot of brands for quality speakers, B&W, Polk, Axiom, and others. Bose is one brand I would steer anyone away from, most of what you're paying for in their products are the advertising cost. Not the R&D, materials, or testing like other brands. All those millions of ads that make the name known by everyone don't come cheap, and it's all paid for by speaker sales. You get a name with Bose, and that's about it. Check this out: http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

Also, you can put any speakers you want into any kind of amp. You can get any kind of lens you want on a camera. Seems kinda silly to ever put a $3000 lens on a $200 camera though, doesn't mean it won't work, just not the more efficient purchase for your money. Any speaker system is only as good as it's weakest link. Interconnect, power, room acoustics, speakers, amp, processing, ect... if just one of those doesn't level up it'll bring down the performance of the entire system.

[budgetaudio76]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the Bose recommendation was a joke based on the smiley after. I support a lot of brands for quality speakers, B&W, Polk, Axiom, and others. Bose is one brand I would steer anyone away from, most of what you're paying for in their products are the advertising cost. Not the R&D, materials, or testing like other brands. All those millions of ads that make the name known by everyone don't come cheap, and it's all paid for by speaker sales. You get a name with Bose, and that's about it. Check this out: http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

Also, you can put any speakers you want into any kind of amp. You can get any kind of lens you want on a camera. Seems kinda silly to ever put a $3000 lens on a $200 camera though, doesn't mean it won't work, just not the more efficient purchase for your money. Any speaker system is only as good as it's weakest link. Interconnect, power, room acoustics, speakers, amp, processing, ect... if just one of those doesn't level up it'll bring down the performance of the entire system.

only reason why i agreed with muffy was that i also noted that the original poster seemed to totally ignore the responces from others and when i reached muffies post i thought to my self, thats the same conclusion i came to.
i also wouldnt recommend bose myself, unless they find it for pennies on the dollar. in that case what have they got to lose. theres a reason i put those apostrophies in the post i made.
"FAMOUS" for all the ads they put up. hence the recognition. i almost bought into it myself awhile back. but thanks to the people here , now i know better.
"HANDLE" ,those cube 5.1 with bass modules are rated for 100watts, presumably.
yes there is that part about buying into a name. "hey guys, i got BOSE" and the friends go "WOAH" lets go hear....
not to mention the people that bose has do their reviews, like that newspaper editor, perhaps home and garden magazine...etc..etc..etc..
now dont get me wrong here. im not posting this in spite, or anything like that.
i figure it will be totally ignored by thom h, like all the other posts were ignored.

[Alex at SVS]

Ah, sorry I kinda misinterpreted that. Even the idea of running into a Bose fan on a real audio site frightens me.

[thom h]

I see you've been busy at this thread. Well, i need the collective expertise once again. I bought the Onkyo 805, the Polk rm6750 5.1 speakers. I sat down to plan out my attack with hooking up. Of course there's more than one way to hook this up, and of course there isn't a preferred method clearly stated in the manuals. So i can hook up my front speakers to my receiver OR to the subwoofer, then the sub speaker out to the receiver. Which one is better and why? Then with that answer what settings should i set in my receiver? Thanks.

[Alex at SVS]

So, you're using a $900 receiver with a 5.1 in a box set of speakers currently selling at $200 on amazon? Try to at least audition better speakers in the future to see what we're talking about with more $ on speakers and less needed on the amp, even buying and returning a set of Klipsch or Def Tech from Best Buy would work. Just so you can hear the difference for yourself even if it means saving up for a while to actually buy quality speakers. It's always worth it in the end.

Use the sub output from the amp, it's 100x better quality than a cheap sub's crossover circuitry. Set main speakers to small, crossover probably 80 or 100Hz depending how low those speakers can play (probably need to be higher without a dropout as those speakers look too small to get down to 80Hz well.

[thom h]

Alex, Alex, Alex,
If you read the entire post you would of read that i did try out a few makes and models of speakers that were available within my budget (as stated), and i liked the POLK rm6750 along with another brand, and decided the POLK's. If you seriously want to waste your time insulting people who have legitamate questions about things, then save your keystrokes grow up and move out of your parents basement, get a degree and a job. Now on the other hand if you have done that, then just grow up and be a productive person who helps in forums, not lame attempts at insults for peoples decisions. I had a good question, and you eventually answered it, so thanks.

[JSE]

Troll. :out:

[Alex at SVS]

Alex, Alex, Alex,
If you read the entire post you would of read that i did try out a few makes and models of speakers that were available within my budget (as stated), and i liked the POLK rm6750 along with another brand, and decided the POLK's. If you seriously want to waste your time insulting people who have legitamate questions about things, then save your keystrokes grow up and move out of your parents basement, get a degree and a job. Now on the other hand if you have done that, then just grow up and be a productive person who helps in forums, not lame attempts at insults for peoples decisions. I had a good question, and you eventually answered it, so thanks.

Thom,

Sorry if I came off a little harsh, but I did read the entire post. You compared the Polk setup to the Paradigm cinema 70, which has a comparable price. You ignored several of the posts here stating to dial back the receiver choice and getting higher end speakers like the b&w 685s recommended above.

My opinion, and I believe most people who dealt in home theater sound, is that most people don't even realize what they're missing until they've heard it. Hence my suggestion to audition higher price speakers, it wasn't meant to insult your decisions at all and I'm sorry if it read that way.

[bobsticks]

Alex, Alex, Alex,
If you read the entire post you would of read that i did try out a few makes and models of speakers that were available within my budget (as stated), and i liked the POLK rm6750 along with another brand, and decided the POLK's. If you seriously want to waste your time insulting people who have legitamate questions about things, then save your keystrokes grow up and move out of your parents basement, get a degree and a job. Now on the other hand if you have done that, then just grow up and be a productive person who helps in forums, not lame attempts at insults for peoples decisions. I had a good question, and you eventually answered it, so thanks.

You know there's gotta be a problem when someone with "legitamate" questions casts aspersions on the knowledge and integrity of someone who clearly has more common sense and experience than himself.

Alex at SVS you're much more of a tolerant gentleman than I...welcome to the forum.

[budgetaudio76]

i second sticky up there...(sorry bob)...people like you make me appreciate certain dealers/ companys. with their great customer service. much appreciated.