I've recently been upgrading my 13+ year old home theater. It was a Kenwood HTB-504 with Harman Kardon HKB speakers.
First, I replaced the L/R with Philharmonic Affordable Accuracy Monitors (center and surrounds will be replaced soon). The HKBs were mellow in the highs - smooth and gentle, but slightly muffled. I would prefer that to brittle highs. When I was younger, I would have wanted the brightness, but I grew out of that. I would call the color of the cheap HKBs "warm". When I switched the mains out with the AAs, the highs seemed a bit much for me. So, I used the Kenwood's EQ to turn down the treble a notch or two (and the bass up a notch).
After a few days, I found myself flattening out the EQ and preferring that. I contacted the guy who mods the AAs, and he said there really shouldn't be any 'breaking-in' once he ships them. So, I'm guessing my ears/brain needed to adjust to the sound. I continued to enjoy listening to them more and more as I made slight adjustments to the speaker placement.
A couple weeks later I replaced the Kenwood with an Onkyo TX-NR626. Today is the first I've had a chance to sit down and listen to my favorite tracks. I'm very surprised how different it sounds.
Right off the bat, I did the Audyssey calibration. Considering the receiver interface is shown on the TV, there is very little instruction. A simple picture showing an example of microphone placement would have been nice. The first time, I used 3 very different locations in the room. When I tried to listed to stereo music, it sounded really weird and out of phase. I later realized that the downloadable manual has decent instructions. But again, why not just put that in the on-screen display? I recalibrated with closer positions and it sounded better. However, I'm still not sold on Audyssey - at least in my small living room.
I've been a little disappointed with how difficult it has been to control the audio coming from my PS3, Chromecast, USB drive, and turntable. For Blu-ray/DVD, it wasn't too difficult to get it going with the 5.1 formats - but the lip sync was off. Setting the receiver to about 100ms seemed to work. But for CDs in the PS3, the receiver defaulted to "all channel stereo" - spreading the stereo into the surrounds (and center probably). That seemed to default for other 2-channel sources as well, like the Chromecast and USB. The phono defaulted to "Direct", which is a better default, but it doesn't use the sub. I had to change it to "Stereo" to add the sub.
I still don't totally understand when Audyssey is being used or not. I think I have now turned it off for all the sources (also still trying to figure out which settings save after turning the receiver off/on). I figure it might be good for 5.1 movies, but my initial instincts have been to turn it off when I'm listening to 2 channel music.
Anyway, here is my biggest concern at the moment: the quality of the sound. I think I have all the 2 channel music going straight out as 2.1. It all sounds pretty good. In some ways it sounds more clear and 3-dimensional than the Kenwood. But my initial impression is that the sound is a little less natural.
Let me try to explain a little further. The sound from the Onkyo seems to have more presence in the mids, maybe around 2k. Compared to the Kenwood, it kind of sounds like I put megaphones on my ears - giving kind of a magnified impression of the sound. I do feel like I can hear more detail, but that also means hearing more guitar-amp noise and maybe tape hiss. It seems like any clipping or distortion pops out more. I also feel like I hear the reproduction of the sound more - the affect of the components on the signal. It feels more abrasive than the Kenwood. The high-mids remind me of sandpaper for some reason, where I might compare the Kenwood's high-mids to leather and a perfect system to glass - all better than the tin-foil I'd call most low-end systems. My mind keeps coming to the term "gritty" for the Onkyo.
But again, there is a sense that the Onkyo is clear. I'm wondering if my ears might just be getting information they aren't used to and I'm interpreting it as noise/grit when it's really not.
For what it's worth, I don't tend to notice this stuff when I'm wearing ear buds or listening to the Dayton's connected to my computer. My Sony MDR-7506s have always sounded slightly gritty to me though.
Sorry if my metaphors don't translate. And I know this gear is bottom-shelf hi-fi at best, but it's the best I can do right now.
Here is my main question. Do you think the Kenwood is so much worse that it sounds better, or does the Onkyo really sound better and I will grow to appreciate it more?
Also, if you have any insight or suggestions about the Audyssey or other receiver settings, I'd appreciate it.
Part of me thinks that a good system should instantly make me get lost in the sound without thinking about the quality, but I'm not sure if I'm capable of that. I have been listening to so much music lately (often the same tracks as reference material), trying to learn how these components sound and how my brain interprets it. It is almost driving me insane, but I enjoy it. I'll catch myself really rocking out without judgment at times, but that seems to be affected more by my mood than whatever the current configuration I might be testing.
TL;DR Does my old cheaper Kenwood receiver sound that much better than the new Onkyo, or do my ears/brain need more time to adjust?