My impressions of the Onkyo TX-NR905

As you might remember in my previous thread I scored a new 905 off the bay for the cost oc $975 delivered. Even if they run out the 906 tomorrow, this was still a good deal. I couldn't even find the 875 for that price. Needless to say I was happy when the UPS man handed this suckah over last Weds. I left it in the box till Friday when I took 3 hours and hooked her up. Here are my initial impressions of the unit.

1. Installation - Receiver just came in the Onkyo box, undamaged and well packed. All included items were "included". Pretty easy to navigate around both outside and hin. .The manual was clear and while she's a hecty 56 some odd pounds she doesn't weigh a ton. I was concerned in that the 905 if about an inch taller than the 898 it replaced but she fit in the new cabinet for the TV. To facilitate this I took a couple of boards. put them from the cabinet to an ottoman slid the 898 out, put the 905 on top of it and slid all the cables over in that manner.

2. Setup - Despite the new remote setup was a breeze. Onkyo's manaul is well laid out (as manuals go). Being familiar with older models this set up was no biggie. The only new wrinkles were the Audessey multi eq setup and HDMI routing.

3. Calibration - I used my old RatShack SPL meter and tape measure and calibrated the system to my tastes. I ran it like that for a couple of days then decided to use the Audessey multi-eq. My distances matched with the Audessey perfectly, on the question of levels our settings varied widely. My calibrations had the system running "hot" while the automated eq placed all the values much lower. I intend to re-do the calibration thingy again and see if I can't get the two a little closer.

For some reason I've NOT been able to get Zone 2 to run. I'll have to check my cabling or other things but the speakers just won't activate.

PROS: Big sturdy, gobs of power, sophisticated set up, good manual quality build. Sounds marvelous with my calibration going to fiddle with it some more

CONS: Slow switching of viideo sources using HDMI. Does run HOT particularly if Zone 2 is accessed or the reon chip is used. Burn-in smell was quite prevelant for a couple of hours

Hope this helps.

Da Worfster

Relating to #1, I had to use an appliance dolly to manuver my amp into the bottom of my audio cabinet. It's almost humorous what we have to go through these days during equipment placement.

Regarding #3, I soon found out through experience and comments here that the mult-eq feature, though helpful in some sense isn't really worth the effort. Better to just get your room laid out as best as possible then use the meter.

CON #1, blame the HDMI Standard ( :lol: ) for your slow switching. The same thing happens with my Yamaha. HDMI = more corporate greed IMO.

If you're have problems with zone 2, and the receiver gets hotter than normal when you activate it, that throws up a red flag for me. No shorts in the wiring, correct?

FYI... The new car smell was noticeable when I first started using my receiver also.

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Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas

Relating to #1, I had to use an appliance dolly to manuver my amp into the bottom of my audio cabinet. It's almost humorous what we have to go through these days during equipment placement.

Regarding #3, I soon found out through experience and comments here that the mult-eq feature, though helpful in some sense isn't really worth the effort. Better to just get your room laid out as best as possible then use the meter.

CON #1, blame the HDMI Standard ( :lol: ) for your slow switching. The same thing happens with my Yamaha. HDMI = more corporate greed IMO.

If you're have problems with zone 2, and the receiver gets hotter than normal when you activate it, that throws up a red flag for me. No shorts in the wiring, correct?

FYI... The new car smell was noticeable when I first started using my receiver also.

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Thanks for the observations pard. I'll check the wiring on Zone 2 again when I gits home. Lot's to learn about with this puppy still, but I'll keep hacking at it.

Da Worfster

Congrats on the new Toy Worf. Sounds like you got a great deal. At 56 pounds, she's a bit of a heffer. Must be all that power.
I have found that I do not agree with the EQ settings that my Yamaha suggests either. I like it flat. It likes it all over the frickin place. We compromised. It's set to flat.

Yeah, have fun with that MONSTER.

are you using analog connections for your zone 2? not sure if onkyos receivers are identical to integras but my zone 2 will only work with analog sources. I couldnt figure it out and then i looked at the manual and found out the hard way

Great post, keep it coming. What have you viewed thus far video-wise?

1. Those Onkyo receivers make you wish that your stand was on wheels, or in a revolving display case. I have mine placed on a typical plasma TV stand. I've had to go behind there twice tinkering with a couple new components (The Oppo and a Rega CD player.). No fun moving that entire stand on my plush carpet. But once I get everything into place -- the new BD player will be my last toy for the rest of the year -- that's it. I'm not touching it ever again.

2. As remotes go, I usually prefer a much simpler magic wand (like the one on the TX-SR806), but this one feels about right, with all of the primary functions on it's face. Now if they'd only design a remote that responded to your telepathic whim.

3. I went with my calibration over the audissey. That probably has more to do with my being a control freak. Automatic setup works, but I like to feel like I'm driving the beast.

4. I actually thought the new receiver smell was a Pro. Come home from a day at the office to be greeted by the scent of brushed steel. But alas, the scent is gone now.

Thanks for the love folks. Some more observations.

1. Got Zone 2 working and YES Jamison, it did seem to want an "analog" source. I don't understand this at all!!! But what the heck. I now have CD music in the kitchen.

2. Burn-in smell seems to be dissapating.

3. I'm gonna run the Audessey calibration for a couple of days, see if I can live with it. If not, I'll do my own calibrations.

Couple of questions:

1. Crossovers - When doing a manual calibration I can set them myself. I've got the manufacturers crossover information for all the speakers BUT that's usually a RANGE of values. How should I tackle this?

2. My Ohm Walsh 2 rears are rated from 4 to 6 Ohms. Manual says set speakers to 4 ohms then. I do this, run Audessey and the machine bumps the settings up to 6 ohms. Switch it back or let it be?

3. Cable boxes HDMI gives me decent picture but no sound. Had to used fibre optic out to remedy this. Am I getting gyped soundwise?

Thanks for the love folks.

Da Worfster

I'll try #3... You haven't assigned your audio to HDMI on your receiver's setup menu. There should be a setting called I/O Assignment off of your Manual Setup (as opposed to your Audyssey auto-setup) menu. It's probably assigned to Digital Optical out. Re-assign it to HDMI.

Stab at #2... Leave it at 6 ohms. Your minimum impeadance may be below 4 ohms, so this will give you more *headroom*. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here...

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Originally Posted by Worf101

Thanks for the love folks. Some more observations.

1. Got Zone 2 working and YES Jamison, it did seem to want an "analog" source. I don't understand this at all!!! But what the heck. I now have CD music in the kitchen.

2. Burn-in smell seems to be dissipating.

3. I'm gonna run the Audessey calibration for a couple of days, see if I can live with it. If not, I'll do my own calibrations.

Couple of questions:

1. Crossovers - When doing a manual calibration I can set them myself. I've got the manufacturers crossover information for all the speakers BUT that's usually a RANGE of values. How should I tackle this?

2. My Ohm Walsh 2 rears are rated from 4 to 6 Ohms. Manual says set speakers to 4 ohms then. I do this, run Audessey and the machine bumps the settings up to 6 ohms. Switch it back or let it be?

3. Cable boxes HDMI gives me decent picture but no sound. Had to used fibre optic out to remedy this. Am I getting gyped soundwise?

Thanks for the love folks.

Da Worfster

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A1) Cool. Music should be everywhere we like it. Beats them old AM radios don't it!
A2) New car smell be gone. Just as long as it keeps playing those tunes.
A3) Great plan. Do you have any memory settings to save what you have now before you start tweaking? Always nice to have a fall back position.

Q1) Do you have a sub? What is the range of the speakers you are using?
Q2) The manual is covering the mfg's collective butts. Setting this to 4 ohm limits the unit's power output. I've read that you should leave your setting on 8 ohm to get the most head room. But don't take my word for it. Wait for someone like Kex to answer. He'll know better.
Q3) I think that Tex nailed this one. Hard to tell from here, but my guess is input settings on the Onkyo or output settings on the cable box.

Glad to see you are having so much fun.

Worf,

Glad to hear it's working out well so far. That's a beast of a unit.

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Originally Posted by Worf101

Couple of questions:

1. Crossovers - When doing a manual calibration I can set them myself. I've got the manufacturers crossover information for all the speakers BUT that's usually a RANGE of values. How should I tackle this?

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IMHO, set the crossover to the highest value of all your speakers. Any sub worth its salt should do a better job at bass duty anyway, and this will remove any gaps in the FR from all the speakers. If you set it any lower you may end up with a hole in the bass response in the least bass-capable speakers, or that darned Audyssey will apply a boost to them, just gobbling up available power unnecessarily. That receiver has a 4th order XO, I believe, perfect for bass xo duty.

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2. My Ohm Walsh 2 rears are rated from 4 to 6 Ohms. Manual says set speakers to 4 ohms then. I do this, run Audessey and the machine bumps the settings up to 6 ohms. Switch it back or let it be?

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Let it be...those switches are for engaging protection circuity - I believe Onkyo uses a current limiter? If you haven't fried a smaller receiver with those speakers, ya ain't gonna fry this sucker. And those things are really there to protect newbies from themselves. You're not a newbie, and if you blared it so loud that you started hearing clipping and distortion, you're smart enough to know to turn it down a bit. Go with 6 ohms unless she starts acting funny.

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3. Cable boxes HDMI gives me decent picture but no sound. Had to used fibre optic out to remedy this. Am I getting gyped soundwise?

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A lot of cable STB's don't support HDMI audio yet. You could be a victim here as well. No performance loss though, optical/coaxial Digital Cables will carry Dolby digital as well as HDMI.

Enjoy!

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Originally Posted by GMichael

Q1) Do you have a sub? What is the range of the speakers you are using?.

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Yes I've a HSU VTF 3 and the range of speakers are as follows

Platinum Audio Studio 3 - Crossovers at 200 HZ and 2.5 kHz, 35 hz to 20kHz Range


Boston Acoustics Center VRC 3 - Crossovers at 5000 Hz and 2.8 kHz
70 Hz to 29kHz range

Ohm Walsh 2 rears - Range 42 Hz to 17 kHz.

HSU VTF -3 Subwoofer - 18 Hz maximum extension 30 to 90 Hz at 24 dB.

Hope this helps

Da Worfster

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Originally Posted by Worf101

Yes I've a HSU VTF 3 and the range of speakers are as follows

Platinum Audio Studio 3 - Crossovers at 200 HZ and 2.5 kHz, 35 hz to 20kHz Range


Boston Acoustics Center VRC 3 - Crossovers at 5000 Hz and 2.8 kHz
70 Hz to 29kHz range

Ohm Walsh 2 rears - Range 42 Hz to 17 kHz.

HSU VTF -3 Subwoofer - 18 Hz maximum extension 30 to 90 Hz at 24 dB.

Hope this helps

Da Worfster

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I think that the crossover points you are listing are the internal crossovers of your speakers themselves. Not the suggested crossovers to be used with your receiver. The ranges you posted help though.
The highest range I see is the 70 Hz to 29kHz range for your Boston Acoustics Center. I would set your receiver to crossover at 80 htz. Let your sub do anything below that.
You can also set your receiver to send bass to both, your mains, and your sub. This has some advantages but can be taxing on the receiver at higher volumes.

Yep, what GM said, 70 Hz seems to be the weakest link of your speakers, so 80 Hz is safe, you can try 70 Hz, but that's a quality sub that doesn't give itself away and 80 Hz is probably better, especially with the Onkyo's steep LFE filter.
What was your last receiver? If it was more than 5 years old it might have had a 90 or even 100Hz fixed LFE filter. I bet you'd notice a big change right there.
(edit, checked out the 898, it had a fixed LFE at 80 Hz - Worf, for music, try farting around with the variable XO on the receiver, the steep filter should blend terrifically with your Studio 3's at 60, 50, even 40 Hz. For HT, sticking with 80 Hz still a good idea).

The stuff I'm learning. I'm taking off from work early so I can "go home and play" with my...... new receiver. I'm reading a downloaded version of the manual and between really studying it for days and soliciting you folk's help, I'm learning even more than before. Sheesh, guess I didn't know as much as I thought I dood.

Thanks again..

Da Worfster

I went back to my own calibration and found out some things.

1. This reciever is far more "revealing" of bad source material than my previous setup.

2. Audessey does an "alright" job with the eq. better than having "none" or set to flat.

3. Had to switch the polarity on my sub.

4. Still having a very interesting time.

Da Worfster

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Originally Posted by Worf101

I went back to my own calibration and found out some things.

1. This reciever is far more "revealing" of bad source material than my previous setup.

2. Audessey does an "alright" job with the eq. better than having "none" or set to flat.

3. Had to switch the polarity on my sub.

4. Still having a very interesting time.

Da Worfster

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Sounds like you are having fun with sound. What's the next step?

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Originally Posted by Worf101

I went back to my own calibration and found out some things.

1. This reciever is far more "revealing" of bad source material than my previous setup.

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Mister, you ain't kidding. When I upgraded from my Yamaha HTR 5740 to my current receiver, I started hearing all sorts of "nasties" from my CD's.

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Originally Posted by Worf

2. Audessey does an "alright" job with the eq. better than having "none" or set to flat.

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It's a good starting point but inevitably you'll be using your ears and a meter for best results (oh, and a tape measure too).

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Originally Posted by Worf

3. Had to switch the polarity on my sub.

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Interesting. What was the cause and effect for this change?

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Originally Posted by Worf

4. Still having a very interesting time.

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More to come...

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Originally Posted by Worf101

3. Calibration - I used my old RatShack SPL meter and tape measure and calibrated the system to my tastes. I ran it like that for a couple of days then decided to use the Audessey multi-eq. My distances matched with the Audessey perfectly, on the question of levels our settings varied widely. My calibrations had the system running "hot" while the automated eq placed all the values much lower. I intend to re-do the calibration thingy again and see if I can't get the two a little closer.

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Audyssey lowers your levels by as much as 9 dB to give enough headroom for frequencies that need to be EQ'ed. Personally I prefer it off because it rolls off the top end too much with my room/speakers, thus shrinking the soundstage depth. A friend of mine has the 805 and in that system Audyssey is a definite improvement so as with anything in audio, YMMV. It's highly recommended to run the full 8-point set-up. Even with mic placement only being a few inches apart from primary listening positions will give the software more data to crunch, and in my experience makes for much better results. Audyssey automatically compensates for manual changes so you do not need to re-run it after tweaking.

What firmware do you have? 1.09 is the most up-to-date for the 875/905/885/8.8/9.8 (and 1.08 for the 805/7.8). Everything you need to know can be found here.

Also it sounds like you don't have much breathing room in your cabinet. I have mine on top of my audio rack and even so it still gets pretty toasty (nothing that I'm worried about, however). You may want to add some forced cooling in your situation.

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Originally Posted by Slosh

Audyssey lowers your levels by as much as 9 dB to give enough headroom for frequencies that need to be EQ'ed. Personally I prefer it off because it rolls off the top end too much with my room/speakers, thus shrinking the soundstage depth. A friend of mine has the 805 and in that system Audyssey is a definite improvement so as with anything in audio, YMMV. It's highly recommended to run the full 8-point set-up. Even with mic placement only being a few inches apart from primary listening positions will give the software more data to crunch, and in my experience makes for much better results. Audyssey automatically compensates for manual changes so you do not need to re-run it after tweaking.

What firmware do you have? 1.09 is the most up-to-date for the 875/905/885/8.8/9.8 (and 1.08 for the 805/7.8). Everything you need to know can be found here.

Also it sounds like you don't have much breathing room in your cabinet. I have mine on top of my audio rack and even so it still gets pretty toasty (nothing that I'm worried about, however). You may want to add some forced cooling in your situation.

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That was good information there. Actually outstanding information. I'm still tweaking the individual speaker eq's by hand. I never thought that the Audessey would keep the volume low for head rooms sake. As for firmware, I've not checked yet but willl when I get home today. I don't know what the current firmware is but it'll be interesting to find out. Be easier of Onkyo had a web site that let you know by serial number.

Thanks again for the tips.

Da Worfster

I have been using the Audessey EQ in PC form for about two years. One of the things I noticed about audessey is that it works better, and gives more satisfactory results when the room is "pre-treated" before running the EQ program.

Before running the EQ from my Onkyo pre-pro, my room was already treated with wool wrapped acoustical panels for the side walls, corner traps, and 4" acoustical foam for the entire front wall. I had some diffusion on the rear wall, and on the ceiling near each surround speaker. With this work, the interaction of my speakers with my room was already greatly improved pre-EQ. Once I ran the EQ(I did all 8 positions as you should), the improvement was subtle, but very noticeable with an improved soundstage and soundfield, but the bass enjoyed the most improvement, and there was absolutely no EQ applied to any frequencies above 250hz. Yes it does lower the volume to give itself some head room for equalization. That can be combated by turning the volume control up when watching program material.

I have found that the less the room is pre-treated, the more irratic and radical the software has to work to get a good result. This goes to show that there really is no substitute for human interaction to the process. In other words, it ain't as automatic as it seems, and it cannot work miracles.

First and foremost Worfster, congrats,congrats, congrats on the successful arrival of the new toy. A few heavy moments of doubt there, eh?

Of course, one can hardly call gears of the quality of the Onkyo "toys" now, can one? Great products and I'm sure you'll be happy. I agree though that proper ventilation with these pieces is important. And you'll get used to the remote quickly. I find that Onkyo has trhe most intuitive remotes, which may not seem like a big deal but is when you don't wanna get yer big Klingon butt outta the chair.

As an aside, I think this is the first time in three years I've seen Slosh post in something other than Rave Recs. Good to see ja patnah, don't get lost on the way back.

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Originally Posted by Slosh

Audyssey lowers your levels by as much as 9 dB to give enough headroom for frequencies that need to be EQ'ed. Personally I prefer it off because it rolls off the top end too much with my room/speakers, thus shrinking the soundstage depth. A friend of mine has the 805 and in that system Audyssey is a definite improvement so as with anything in audio, YMMV. It's highly recommended to run the full 8-point set-up. Even with mic placement only being a few inches apart from primary listening positions will give the software more data to crunch, and in my experience makes for much better results. Audyssey automatically compensates for manual changes so you do not need to re-run it after tweaking.

What firmware do you have? 1.09 is the most up-to-date for the 875/905/885/8.8/9.8 (and 1.08 for the 805/7.8). Everything you need to know can be found here.

Also it sounds like you don't have much breathing room in your cabinet. I have mine on top of my audio rack and even so it still gets pretty toasty (nothing that I'm worried about, however). You may want to add some forced cooling in your situation.

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Hey Slosh I checked the firmware on the receiver and I'm running 1.08. I'm wondering how much or what improvements I'd get if I upgraded to 1.09? I'll check your link again and see if it's explained in there.

Thanks again...

Dave