Did my speaker system kill the receiver?

[kramanat]

Hi,

I recently decided to upgrade my receiver and bought the Onkyo TX SR 875.

My previous setup since 2001 was the Onkyo TX DS 595 and Polk RM6600 speakers. The speakers are rated at 125 watt output and 8 ohms imdepance.

I connected the new receiver to the Polk system and the receiver conked off after a day. The technician seemed to imply that the speakers could have caused the receiver to overheat. Can someone explain this to me?

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum, kramanat.

I highly, highly doubt that those speakers caused a problem with your new 875 unless they were hooked up wrong (e.g. causing a short circuit). The 875 seems to run pretty hot according to other reviews. How much room did you have around the receiver, particularly above it, when you had it set up? I'm asking because I'm curious about how much cooling air was available.

If that thing stopped working after a day (and won't work at all anymore), then I'd definitely recommend that you return it for an exchange if that is possible. That's preferable to going through Onkyo's repair service...at least from what I've read about it.

Adam

 

[kramanat]

Thanks Adam for the welcome and the reassurance.

I'm not on top of all the various terms like ohms, output and efficiency. But from what I could gather, a speaker rated lower than the receiver could only hurt itself (by blowing up) and not hurt the receiver.

Seems to have become a victim of the 875 heating issue. I did not have place in the cabinet - it was standing separately on the floor, with nothing above it.

For what it is worth, the 20 hours it worked, it sounded great

The technicians have taken it away and said they will get a replacement day after.

Yes, did I mention that I am currently based in Dubai - the technicians came home and took the piece away They will be back day after and do the installation too!!

 

[Adam]

That's very cool that they're bringing a replacement for you, and that they'll install it!

I don't know if the 875 has air vents on the bottom, but if so, try to make sure that it isn't sitting on carpet. The technicians should get you all set up, though.

 

[kramanat]

No carpets. Sitting on the ground - seems to have a small raising stand to give it some circulation on the bottom too.

BTW, is my statement "a speaker rated lower than the receiver could only hurt itself (by blowing up) and not hurt the receiver" - mostly true?

 

[Adam]

BTW, is my statement "a speaker rated lower than the receiver could only hurt itself (by blowing up) and not hurt the receiver" - mostly true?

Depends on which rating that you're talking about. If you try to drive a low-impedance speaker (4 ohms is lower impedance than 8 ohms) with a receiver that isn't designed for that kind of load, then you can hurt the receiver. At least, that's my impression. Hopefully someone else will chime in if I'm wrong.

The Onkyo 875 is quite a nice receiver, and it shouldn't have any trouble with the 8-ohm nominal Polk speaker system that you own.

 

[PENG]

If the speakers are rated much lower, say speakers rated for 50W powered by an amplifier rated for say 150W, then the speakes would likely be in greater risk. Otherwise it is not possible to answer your question because it depends on many factors.

 

[kramanat]

Think it needs to be worded better than 'lower rated'. Higher ohms impedance and lower power output is what I was trying to classify as 'lower rated' speakers...

 

[TLS Guy]

Hi,

I recently decided to upgrade my receiver and bought the Onkyo TX SR 875.

My previous setup since 2001 was the Onkyo TX DS 595 and Polk RM6600 speakers. The speakers are rated at 125 watt output and 8 ohms imdepance.

I connected the new receiver to the Polk system and the receiver conked off after a day. The technician seemed to imply that the speakers could have caused the receiver to overheat. Can someone explain this to me?

I have checked your speaker system. That speaker system would not cook that receiver.

There are two possibilities.

You made a wiring error.

The receiver was faulty and had a bad component or a tin whisker.

 

[Adam]

If the speakers have a higher impedance rating (e.g. greater than 8 ohms), I would think that would not present a danger to the receiver or to the speakers. The higher the impedance, the lower the current. I find the article at this link to be pretty good. I've read it before and skimmed it again today.

As for power rating, Peng answered that one. For some more information, here's a link to a recent Audioholics article on speaker power ratings.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hi,

I recently decided to upgrade my receiver and bought the Onkyo TX SR 875.

My previous setup since 2001 was the Onkyo TX DS 595 and Polk RM6600 speakers. The speakers are rated at 125 watt output and 8 ohms imdepance.

I connected the new receiver to the Polk system and the receiver conked off after a day. The technician seemed to imply that the speakers could have caused the receiver to overheat. Can someone explain this to me?

Do you still have the 595?
Hook it up, carefully, and check it. But, it had no problems for years, it seems, so no reason for the speakers to affect a better receiver.

Make sure you tell that to the tech that the lesser receiver had no problem with those speakers.

Even if you shorted the speaker cable, it should have gone into protection mode. I suspect an amp issue. It happens from time to time. You drew the short straw this time

Keep us informed as that helps.

 

[TLS Guy]

Even if you shorted the speaker cable, it should have gone into protection mode. I suspect an amp issue. It happens from time to time. You drew the short straw this time

Don't bank on it. A speaker short is a severe stress to any amp and receiver, and is liable to cause failure. You can go into protection once too often and once can be enough. You should always take great care to avoid shorts in speaker wiring.

 

[kramanat]

I thought about pulling out the 595 back and attaching everything back - its just too much work!! Anyway, it was working fine for nearly 8 years.

I will wait for the technicians to be back tomorrow and let them do the installation. I'm hoping it will be the final change for quite a while.

 

[fmw]

I have checked your speaker system. That speaker system would not cook that receiver.

There are two possibilities.

You made a wiring error.

The receiver was faulty and had a bad component or a tin whisker.

Ah, the old tin whisker.

 

[TLS Guy]

Ah, the old tin whisker.

It would be nice to get a handle on the tin whisker problem. You can't get a handle here, because you don't know the increase in popularity of the site. The number of posts about fault equipment seems to be increasing, but there obviously could be multiple reasons for that.

I have a feeling this is going to be bad news for purchasers of new equipment. The problem will be hard to track, as I bet there will be no thorough attempts to actually find was has caused equipment failures like to OP's.

A comparison of warranty claims, and equipment failures in the first three years of service before and after June 2006 manufacture would be interesting, and also keeping tabs on equipment life curves.

I can't believe this isn't the next consumer raw deal. I have tried lead free solder and its awful stuff! And buy the way they found that out in World War I, which is why the lead was added! As you know military equipment is exempt from the reg, in fact it must not contain lead free solder. I think that speaks volumes.

If this RoHS compliance reg causes shortened life cycles of electronic equipment, it will cause far more environmental damage than the lead.

 

[kramanat]

Very impressed with the customer service - the technicians came back today with a replacement receiver.

They worked with me to install the receiver and everything is back in order now. There were three of them

Anyway, they manually setup the speaker settings and fairly badly. I will be getting down to the adjustments now. The set feels just as hot as the previous one - hoping this one stays.

On the point of faulty equipment, this has been my first major purchase that has had anything go wrong

 

[Djizasse]

I have tried lead free solder and its awful stuff! And buy the way they found that out in World War I, which is why the lead was added! As you know military equipment is exempt from the reg, in fact it must not contain lead free solder. I think that speaks volumes.

If this RoHS compliance reg causes shortened life cycles of electronic equipment, it will cause far more environmental damage than the lead.

Food for thought