818

Hey again imahawki

I have the predecessor 809 along with exactly the same problem. You know that sometimes companies slap a new number on a product and make maybe one or two small changes, if any at all, but most of the parts remain literally the same. I have no doubt that the problems exist within the Onkyo receivers. I assure you that I have spent at as much time as you trying to figure out how to solve it. In the end the best I could do with the T2's as the only bass sources was to set the LFE trim level to -10 or something like that if I am remembering correctly. Like me, you probably don't have the advanced features that Art has that might help. I am sorry to say that we both bought what should have been decent Onkyo products but got units with built-in problems, likely because of bad QC or someone's bad idea.

Believe me when I say, I feel your pain!

Sorry that I have nothing positive
Christo

Imahawki,

I have a pre-amp and separate monoblock amps in my setup, but with the Integra/Onkyo, my LFE levels are still high when I'm in home theater mode. Even with the pre-amp and amps, I still fluctuate between 12:00 and 13:00 on the gain knob of my T1s. My point being, I'm not following how an integrated amp or separate pre-amp and amp combo are going to achieve.

I'm not discouraging you from this course of action. My 2-channel listening is way better with the addition of my pre-amp/amps. You will be rewarded fo your investment but if proper bass management can't be achieved now, I'm not sure this will be the answer. I may be missing something here and I apologize if I'm not processing something.

If things are still out of sorts, I would encourage you to run all signals below 100Hz through your LFE input on your Onkyo. This will ensure the right balance between stereo and home theater and you may like the sound better. Art prefers this setup where I don't find the bass quite as musical and tonally accurate. It will only cost a few minutes of your time to find out.

You may find that it cleans up your mids and highs a bit as well since your receiver won't be stressed at all with stereo playback. I think the amplifiers circuits in most AV receivers have a more difficult time playing full-range. Additionally, the T1s impedance does dip down below 4 ohms at certain places, further stressing amplifiers. Stereophile recommended a good 4-ohm stable amp to get the best performance out of the T1s. It is my hypothesis that this is why Art prefers this setup method.

Anyways, there you have it; my .02. Take it with a grain of salt and do what best suits you and your setup. I hope things are getting sorted out. Thanks again for the great pics! You have a fantastic theater setup! Hopefully that Hawkeyes memorabilia isn't taking away from the ambiance...

Cheers,

T Cobe

P.S. Congrats on the great season! I hope the Hawkeyes represent The Big Ten well in the post season. As usual, it's taking a Big 10 team way too long to move up in the rankings.

T Cobe wrote: Imahawki,

I have a pre-amp and separate monoblock amps in my setup, but with the Integra/Onkyo, my LFE levels are still high when I'm in home theater mode. Even with the pre-amp and amps, I still fluctuate between 12:00 and 13:00 on the gain knob of my T1s. My point being, I'm not following how an integrated amp or separate pre-amp and amp combo are going to achieve.

I'm not discouraging you from this course of action. My 2-channel listening is way better with the addition of my pre-amp/amps. You will be rewarded fo your investment but if proper bass management can't be achieved now, I'm not sure this will be the answer. I may be missing something here and I apologize if I'm not processing something.

If things are still out of sorts, I would encourage you to run all signals below 100Hz through your LFE input on your Onkyo. This will ensure the right balance between stereo and home theater and you may like the sound better. Art prefers this setup where I don't find the bass quite as musical and tonally accurate. It will only cost a few minutes of your time to find out.

You may find that it cleans up your mids and highs a bit as well since your receiver won't be stressed at all with stereo playback. I think the amplifiers circuits in most AV receivers have a more difficult time playing full-range. Additionally, the T1s impedance does dip down below 4 ohms at certain places, further stressing amplifiers. Stereophile recommended a good 4-ohm stable amp to get the best performance out of the T1s. It is my hypothesis that this is why Art prefers this setup method.

Anyways, there you have it; my .02. Take it with a grain of salt and do what best suits you and your setup. I hope things are getting sorted out. Thanks again for the great pics! You have a fantastic theater setup! Hopefully that Hawkeyes memorabilia isn't taking away from the ambiance...

Cheers,

T Cobe

P.S. Congrats on the great season! I hope the Hawkeyes represent The Big Ten well in the post season. As usual, it's taking a Big 10 team way too long to move up in the rankings.

The pre-amp or integrated is not to solve this problem. It is just for better music listening. I previously had a Parasound pre-amp and amp with HT bypass and I can tell you it kicked the pants off my Onkyo AVR for music (as it should have!). The issue is I can't have the gains turned down with that in the chain because when I listen to music, 2 ch pre-amps and integrated amps don't have LFE controls. So the Tritons have to be set with the proper gain to sound right with speaker level inputs only. Make sense?

On a side note I was posting my trials and tribulations on my own forum while I was trying to work this out. A guy on my forum hit on something that really hit home. He thinks there's a software bug (or maybe a feature) when you have the LFE trim maxed out at -15dB. The reason we jointly came to this conclusion is because when I had it at -15 there was almost no bass when listening to a movie scene. When I went to -11dB there was TONS of bass (this was without moving the gain on the T1s or changing anything else). This wasn't 4dB more bass, it was like 10dB more. We mused that perhaps there's something in the software that just says you know what, I'm not sending the LFE signal (or I'm going to seriously attenuate it) with the trim at -15. You must have something setup wrong and I'm not going to blow your sub. Maybe maybe not but its odd that there is SO much more bass between -15 and -11 on the trim. I think there's something to it.

And yes, go Hawks! We made it to #10 in the AP poll today. If we keep winning we should be near top 5 going into the B1G title game. I'm nervous about Indiana and Nebraska but I think the rest of our schedule is very favorable and even those two teams are worse than the Hawkeyes on paper.

Imahawki,

That explanation makes perfect sense. Moderator Dude has stated that the 12:00 position is the "flat" point. A good integrated or pre-amp/amp combination should definitely rune things up. The T1s are fantastic and anything you invest in electronics will be rewarded. They are extremely capable and revealing.

Your theory on the Onkyo makes sense. I'm glad I like my bass for theater high, I'm back at -10 dB on my Integra and am probably still a bit high but my room is large and I like music with the gain knob at 13:00. I'll be glad to be rid of my Integra...

I think the Hawks will run the table until the Big 10 title game. Ohio State and Michigan State are tough! I'm not sure anyone on our side can take either of them this year. I'm glad to see the Big 10 doing well. Hopefully we get another national championship this year!

Cheers,

T Cobe

christo wrote: Hey again imahawki

I have the predecessor 809 along with exactly the same problem. You know that sometimes companies slap a new number on a product and make maybe one or two small changes, if any at all, but most of the parts remain literally the same. I have no doubt that the problems exist within the Onkyo receivers. I assure you that I have spent at as much time as you trying to figure out how to solve it. In the end the best I could do with the T2's as the only bass sources was to set the LFE trim level to -10 or something like that if I am remembering correctly. Like me, you probably don't have the advanced features that Art has that might help. I am sorry to say that we both bought what should have been decent Onkyo products but got units with built-in problems, likely because of bad QC or someone's bad idea.

Believe me when I say, I feel your pain!

Sorry that I have nothing positive
Christo

My apologies Imahawki, apparently you were not the only one.