Onkyo HTS7800 + SKF 4800

[Joel González]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forum so hello to everyone

I just bought an hts7800 and I blieve it sounds good, however with volume over 75 I started to hear distorion, which I didnt liked because I thought it would play at top without this issue, I was wrong any way, so the I found out about the SKF 4800 floor standing speakers, and I thought why not, however I see they have a difference with the included speakers.

HTS 7800 front channels have 55 Hz–50 kHz
when SKF only have 55 Hz–35 kHz

I´m not really an expert so I wouldnt know what the difference it would be or if by the size this would sound better. All said I want it to play movies and from time to time some music. So, would they be better than my actual speakers? Would I need to change the other speakers as well?

Thanks in advance

 

[lovinthehd]

Welcome to the forum!

You likely can't even hear 20kHz so why worry about the difference between 35kHz and 50kHz (which is pretty far fetched claims for both these speakers IMO); I couldn't find specs for either in any case. You might want to look at a frequency chart for instruments for example

Home theaters in a box (HTIBs) aren't known for providing high quality speakers, or even in some cases receivers (although this Onkyo has a reasonably decent avr as part of the package, so at least you can add components normally unlike some HTIBs). You might get some more performance from the floor standers, maybe not. Got links to full specs for the speakers in the set as well as these floorstanders?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Home theaters in a box (HTIBs) aren't known for providing high quality speakers, or even in some cases receivers (although this Onkyo has a reasonably decent avr as part of the package, so at least you can add components normally unlike some HTIBs).

You could say that again.. few times
Sorry Joel, Your luck only went so far and your HTIB's receiver doesn't suck badly. I wish I could say same about the speakers. You say you hear distortion at 75% of volume? How big is your room and how loud (approx) do you want it to play?

 

[lovinthehd]

Just a note on the volume scales, they're not always meaning the same thing from avr to avr....

What is the range of the numbers for volume scale you're using on the Onkyo? Did you use a built-in calibration routine in the avr to set up your system? Seems its likely absolute scale at a guess from the number 75, and that would be fairly loud, and depends on the distance you are from your speakers.

The avr may have a relative scale but don't know if Onkyo still offers that (I have an Onkyo with the choice). Many of us here use the relative scale for comparison. Here's an article, altho from Denon, explaining http://denon.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/136/~/relative-and-absolute-volume-ranges

 

[yepimonfire]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forum so hello to everyone

I just bought an hts7800 and I blieve it sounds good, however with volume over 75 I started to hear distorion, which I didnt liked because I thought it would play at top without this issue, I was wrong any way, so the I found out about the SKF 4800 floor standing speakers, and I thought why not, however I see they have a difference with the included speakers.

HTS 7800 front channels have 55 Hz–50 kHz
when SKF only have 55 Hz–35 kHz

I´m not really an expert so I wouldnt know what the difference it would be or if by the size this would sound better. All said I want it to play movies and from time to time some music. So, would they be better than my actual speakers? Would I need to change the other speakers as well?

Thanks in advance

The distortion is likely the weak amplifier section, I used to own the same receiver from an htib, and even with extremely efficient klipsch speakers sitting at a distance of 8', I got clipping at higher levels on peaks. That receiver will be lucky to hit 35wpc with multichannel peaks.

I have no idea what the volume of 75 equals, but I know I got clipping above 50 in a small room with efficient speakers, so I'm not surprised. I think the speakers are only rated at 83dB at 1w, and theyre 6ohm.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk

 

[lovinthehd]

The distortion is likely the weak amplifier section, I used to own the same receiver from an htib, and even with extremely efficient klipsch speakers sitting at a distance of 8', I got clipping at higher levels on peaks. That receiver will be lucky to hit 35wpc with multichannel peaks.

I have no idea what the volume of 75 equals, but I know I got clipping above 50 in a small room with efficient speakers, so I'm not surprised. I think the speakers are only rated at 83dB at 1w, and theyre 6ohm.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk

Which model number is the Onkyo avr? I was wondering which one it was....

 

[yepimonfire]

Which model number is the Onkyo avr? I was wondering which one it was....

HTS 7800. Its rated at 170w 1ch at 1khz 1% THD, which is meaningless. The speakers specs are useless as well. Its rated at 120w, but I tested that when I upgraded the speakers and it went up in smoke at around 70w. Its obvious from looking at the tiny power supply that it can't possibly manage those specs with real content.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk

 

[Joel González]

Welcome to the forum!

You likely can't even hear 20kHz so why worry about the difference between 35kHz and 50kHz (which is pretty far fetched claims for both these speakers IMO); I couldn't find specs for either in any case. You might want to look at a frequency chart for instruments for example View attachment 21680

Home theaters in a box (HTIBs) aren't known for providing high quality speakers, or even in some cases receivers (although this Onkyo has a reasonably decent avr as part of the package, so at least you can add components normally unlike some HTIBs). You might get some more performance from the floor standers, maybe not. Got links to full specs for the speakers in the set as well as these floorstanders?

Hello

Thanks for the answer, I wasnt aware of that chart, it seems very unlikely I will miss something given the specs, unfortunately I dont have much information on either speaker, this is all I could gather:

The one that comes with the receiver:

SKF-693 Dolby Atmos-Enabled 2-Way Bass Reflex Front Speakers/ Full-Range Acoustic-Suspension Height Speakers
• 12 cm OMF Diaphragm Woofer
• 2.5 cm Balanced-Dome Tweeter
• 8 cm Cone (Separately Powered By Height Channel)
• Max. Input Power: 130 W
Front/Height: 55 Hz–50 kHz / 80 Hz–20 kHz
Impedance: 6 Ω

and for the SKF 4800:

Type: 2-way Bass Reflex
Impedance: 6 Ω
Maximum input power: 130 W
Output sound pressure level: 86 dB/W/m
Frequency response: 55 Hz–35 kHz
Crossover frequency: 3 kHz
Cabinet capacity: 40 L
Speaker: 16 cm Cone Woofer x 2 2.5 cm Soft-dome Tweeter
Dimensions: 295 (W) x 1024 (H) x 305 (D) mm (Overall dimensions)
Weight: 13.0 kg (/speaker)

Unfortunately for me it doesnt tells me much about if it´s going to be louder and clear, or not

 

[Joel González]

You could say that again.. few times
Sorry Joel, Your luck only went so far and your HTIB's receiver doesn't suck badly. I wish I could say same about the speakers. You say you hear distortion at 75% of volume? How big is your room and how loud (approx) do you want it to play?

Hello,

Thanks for the reply, actually it is quite small I´ll say it is a rectangle, with arround 6 m x 3.5 m Thanks also for the graphic is very helping to know how loud things are, on the how loud I want to play, I´m not really sure, I´ll say just enough to reach the 100 volume on my receiver without distorting, I wouldn´t know for sure how much in dB that is

 

[Joel González]

Just a note on the volume scales, they're not always meaning the same thing from avr to avr....

What is the range of the numbers for volume scale you're using on the Onkyo? Did you use a built-in calibration routine in the avr to set up your system? Seems its likely absolute scale at a guess from the number 75, and that would be fairly loud, and depends on the distance you are from your speakers.

The avr may have a relative scale but don't know if Onkyo still offers that (I have an Onkyo with the choice). Many of us here use the relative scale for comparison. Here's an article, altho from Denon, explaining http://denon.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/136/~/relative-and-absolute-volume-ranges

Hello,

Thanks for your reply, it has 0 to 100 or 99, havent gone that far due it bothers me. It sounds fairly loud, however I feel when the action kicks in it distorts, also the subwoofer distors at those volumes. I saw your link to the article and read the article, however I cant check at the moment wether it has the option or not to see if those are dB or just numbers. To calibrate it, I used the provided mic and the calibration routin, hoerver I ended changing a bit the crossover due the mic wanted the crossover on lower frequencies and I noticed it distorted worst

 

[Joel González]

The distortion is likely the weak amplifier section, I used to own the same receiver from an htib, and even with extremely efficient klipsch speakers sitting at a distance of 8', I got clipping at higher levels on peaks. That receiver will be lucky to hit 35wpc with multichannel peaks.

I have no idea what the volume of 75 equals, but I know I got clipping above 50 in a small room with efficient speakers, so I'm not surprised. I think the speakers are only rated at 83dB at 1w, and theyre 6ohm.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk

Hello,

Thanks for the reply,

I´m not sure if you mean volume setting but at 50 volume I can hear them normal, they are low volume and I noticed no distort at all on any action scene. what do you mean by 35wpc?

 

[Joel González]

@lovinthehd,BoredSysAdmin

You mentioned the receiver was not so bad, could you clarify it please? what could be better for arround the same price? what it lacks to be good? I lack experience, my previous HT were Sony bundled with blu ray player, and so far I hear this better than those

 

[Pogre]

From what I saw it looks like your receiver has enough power to drive most 8 ohm speakers. If you were to spend any money to improve your sound, speakers first and don't skimp on your front 3 (l/r/center). Once you get your speakers sorted you could look at upgrading that receiver, but I think it'll do the job for now.

 

[Joel González]

From what I saw it looks like your receiver has enough power to drive most 8 ohm speakers. If you were to spend any money to improve your sound, speakers first and don't skimp on your front 3 (l/r/center). Once you get your speakers sorted you could look at upgrading that receiver, but I think it'll do the job for now.

Hello,

Thanks for the advice, so you think those speakers will improve the HT experience?

 

[Pogre]

Hello,

Thanks for the advice, so you think those speakers will improve the HT experience?

I think replacing at least your front 3 will improve your experience, yes.

 

[Joel González]

I think replacing at least your front 3 will improve your experience, yes.

Any idea on what center speaker could I use to pair with that SKF 4800 front speakers? i know there is a SKC4800 but on paper looks like the one I already have, so do you know if it will change the sound? or would be better to use a different model ?

 

[Joel González]

Which model number is the Onkyo avr? I was wondering which one it was....

It is the HT-R695

 

[Pogre]

Any idea on what center speaker could I use to pair with that SKF 4800 front speakers? i know there is a SKC4800 but on paper looks like the one I already have, so do you know if it will change the sound? or would be better to use a different model ?

Is there a reason you're sticking with Onkyo brand speakers? I think you could do better, imo. Onkyo makes (made?) good receivers. Speakers aren't their fortè.

 

[Joel González]

Is there a reason you're sticking with Onkyo brand speakers? I think you could do better, imo. Onkyo makes (made?) good receivers. Speakers aren't their fortè.

Actually I read in somewhere that you should try speakers with the same kind of sound, I think they mentioned Timber, and that was more likely to happen inside the same brand or series of speakers, so I´m not trying to replace all my brand new speakers, I just want the front to dont distort over 75 volume, I´ll be happy with a 90 volume, and then I thought I could use those tower speakers due to being of the same brand, or did I got wrong the idea?

 

[Pogre]

Actually I read in somewhere that you should try speakers with the same kind of sound, I think they mentioned Timber, and that was more likely to happen inside the same brand or series of speakers, so I´m not trying to replace all my brand new speakers, I just want the front to dont distort over 75 volume, I´ll be happy with a 90 volume, and then I thought I could use those tower speakers due to being of the same brand, or did I got wrong the idea?

Timbre matching. It's not as critical to match your surrounds with your other speakers as it is to have the front 3 match. I believe the speakers you have now just plain aren't cutting it if you're having issues with distortion at relatively low listening levels. I'd replace your front 3 and keep the surrounds you have for now. You could even just buy the front 2, left and right speakers, and go phantom mode with your center until you upgrade that as well.