Help Me, I’m New!

[DjS.]

So like an idiot I purchased a bunch of speakers and really didn’t do a whole lot of research before purchasing my receiver. I’m running a 5.1 surround with Klipsch speakers. At the time I looked everywhere to find a receiver but everything was sold out everywhere until I found the last one in stock through Amazon. It’s the Denon AVR-X1600. Now the watts for my floor standing speakers is 150, but my receiver says it’s 80 watts per channel which doesn’t seem right to me. The receiver is a 7.2 channel but I really only needed 5.1. So the other day I was listening to something slightly loud but not crazy and I could hear crackling coming out of my bookshelf speakers which are rated at 85w. I’m in a panic now because I feel like I’m in over my head and I’m wondering if I got the wrong receiver for my setup. My speakers are the Klipsch R820F, R34C, R51M, R120SW. I’m just wondering if I should’ve went with an actual 5.1 receiver like the Denon S650H. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated and I thank you for having a platform like this forum to help people like me.

 

[MalVeauX]

Hi,

What size room (total dimensions)?
What distance from speakers to your listening position?

Don't worry about the watt ratings on your equipment, it's not meaningful really for this. The 150 watts on your speakers is just approximately how much they should be able to take before being damaged. Your receive can sustain 80 watts on a channel. But these two do not really correlate much for anything. We can touch on this later though, but rest easy, this is not the source of your problem(s).

Check your wire(s) connections on the channels that are crackling. Also, use a more controlled audio source to test this with. At what setting (db volume knob) does it occur? What kind of audio/frequency range does it occur? Does it occur with another speaker if you rotate it onto that channel too?

Very best,

 

[Kvn_Walker]

"Wattage" on speakers is how much clean power they should handle without being damaged. On cheaper brands this can be overly generous because some folks fall for "bigger number is better" marketing.

Your receiver is more than adequate for the speakers you bought. If I were a betting man, the crackling is coming from them receiving a full-range signal and not being properly high-passed. The small woofer's can't handle low bass signals at volume.

 

[Teetertotter?]

Your speakers are just fine. Yes, tighten down speaker wire connections if not using banana plugs. What wire are you using. If banana plugs, maybe a loose wire, if used crimping tool.

 

[DjS.]

The room is like a little den that’s two steps down from our kitchen and when we’re in our kitchen we like to listen to it while cooking or cleaning. The room itself is probably about as big as two pickup trucks side by side. I’m using a 16 gauge wire with banana connectors. When I first set everything up the music was only playing through the floor standing speakers and the subwoofer, after a lot of panic, changing the audio from stereo to multichannel I was able to get sound out of everything, but that’s as far as I went with the setup process. I haven’t changed any of the settings in which the receiver came from the factory. Like I said, I’m new. I did do the calibration straight out of the box so I thought that took care of all the different sound settings. When we’re in our den, we probably sit about 10 feet away from everything.

 

[kini]

Check to see what the AVR set the crossovers at. It gets them wrong most of the time. If they're not at 80hz for the left and right change it to that. Make sure all the speakers show as "small". It has nothing to do with the actual size of the speaker. Your center should be crossed over no lower than 100hz. Same for the surrounds.

 

[Teetertotter?]

16 ga is fine. I am assuming you performed the auto speaker set-up, using Audyssey Multeq with microphone. If you did, did you hear CLEAR sound from each speaker as it was calibrating? There was no interruption in anyone speaker? If a crackling sound and was constant, has it since disappeared? Were you using a DVD player and music at the time, and on "Stereo Mode.? What were you listening to when you received the cracking? Just brainstorming. The SOURCE you were using when heard cracking and was in Stereo Mode? Stereo Mode is Front and Left speakers only, if I recall.

 

[DjS.]

16 ga is fine. I am assuming you performed the auto speaker set-up, using Audyssey Multeq with microphone. If you did, did you hear CLEAR sound from each speaker as it was calibrating? There was no interruption in anyone speaker? If a crackling sound and was constant, has it since disappeared? Were you using a DVD player and music at the time, and on "Stereo Mode.? What were you listening to when you received the cracking? Just brainstorming. The SOURCE you were using when heard cracking and was in Stereo Mode? Stereo Mode is Front and Left speakers only, if I recall.

Thank you for helping me problem solve. So yes I used the Audyssey and all speakers were clear. The crackling sound I first noticed when playing a rap song from 1994. There was also a classic rock song I recall hearing it as well. When I could hear the crackling, I was in multichannel Mode. Once I get home I’m going to plug in a monitor and go through the calibration process again and go through more of the settings to check the crossovers and such.

 

[lovinthehd]

If it's multich stereo mode, I'd change to an actual surround mode like Dolby Surround, probably less stress on the surround speakers (multich stereo just repeats the L/R information into the surrounds and sums it for the center). Unless you move the speakers/sub around adding a monitor wouldn't necessitate a re-running of Audyssey (but may be worth re-running to see if it improves anything).

 

[DjS.]

So after some tweaking of this and changing of that I’ve come to a conclusion. I changed the crossover, as well as other speaker settings and what I’ve noticed is only one speaker will crackle at times. The volume will have to be over 50 in order to achieve this, but to trouble shoot this I changed out the banana connectors going to the speaker and to the receiver with new ones, then I switched the right cracking speaker with the left non cracking speaker and realized that it only cracks when coming out of the right surround speaker port. I’m thinking I need to replace the receiver while I still can.

 

[MalVeauX]

Before you rule it the receiver, make sure you replaced the wire and terminals. Swap the R & L channel wires completely and terminals, a straight trade. Rule out connections and wires before you isolate it to the AVR.

Very best,

 

[DjS.]

Before you rule it the receiver, make sure you replaced the wire and terminals. Swap the R & L channel wires completely and terminals, a straight trade. Rule out connections and wires before you isolate it to the AVR.

Very best,

Yeah the only thing I have left to check it’s the wire so I’m going to make a test wire and try it again and if it’s still crackling then I’m just going to try another AVR.

 

[Danzilla31]

Yeah the only thing I have left to check it’s the wire so I’m going to make a test wire and try it again and if it’s still crackling then I’m just going to try another AVR.

As lovin said if you do need to get a new reciever try to stay out of multichannel mode for music. Music is more demanding of amps then movies and multi channel is the most demanding of all. You really need some stout speakers and good amps to pull it off.

Most AVR's can't deliver they're full rated power with all channels driven and in multi channel music they wont keep up.

You'll bust the avr or the speakers in that situation easily I've done it myself before I knew better

 

[lovinthehd]

Plus multich stereo just doesn't sound good IMO. Does get louder, tho.

 

[Kingnoob]

"Wattage" on speakers is how much clean power they should handle without being damaged. On cheaper brands this can be overly generous because some folks fall for "bigger number is better" marketing.

Your receiver is more than adequate for the speakers you bought. If I were a betting man, the crackling is coming from them receiving a full-range signal and not being properly high-passed. The small woofer's can't handle low bass signals at volume.

I’ve ran smaller duel 6.5” Klipch towers full range a few times and never had cracklings , very unusual !!!! Then again I never go very loud as Klipch are loud treble heavy .
40-80hz is better for towers if you have a good sub .
I’ve only heard a small surround crackle once cuz I had volume too high during movies , which I no longer have set up for . Probably being over driven or something not hooked up right . Hard to overdrive Klipch with a regular avr tho . Bass uses a lot of watts tho

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I’ve ran smaller duel 6.5” Klipch towers full range a few times and never had cracklings , very unusual !!!! Then again I never go very loud as Klipch are loud treble heavy .
40-80hz is better for towers if you have a good sub .
I’ve only heard a small surround crackle once cuz I had volume too high during movies , which I no longer have set up for . Probably being over driven or something not hooked up right . Hard to overdrive Klipch with a regular avr tho . Bass uses a lot of watts tho

He said it was his bookshelf speakers, which are 5”.

 

[DjS.]

Okay, I appreciate all the feedback, definitely a lot of helpful tips and recommendations. After a long trial and error the ultimate decision was to return the receiver. Since the one I was returning was out of stock I stepped down to the Denon S750H. I’ve gotten everything hooked back up, calibrated and tweaked the best I could. No crackling in the bookshelf speaker which is very nice. Now I’m trying to figure out what the best sound option I should use for the setup. The multichannel seems to be a big no no so I need to find a setting that won’t be so demanding of the speakers. I’m also trying to figure out what to set my crossover for the bookshelves, floor standing, and center speaker. So for now I have them all set at 80HZ but while toying with it I put the floors over 150HZ and I thought they sounded great, but I’m sure that’s probably because they were being pushed too hard. Like I said before, I feel like I’m way over my head.

 

[Danzilla31]

Okay, I appreciate all the feedback, definitely a lot of helpful tips and recommendations. After a long trial and error the ultimate decision was to return the receiver. Since the one I was returning was out of stock I stepped down to the Denon S750H. I’ve gotten everything hooked back up, calibrated and tweaked the best I could. No crackling in the bookshelf speaker which is very nice. Now I’m trying to figure out what the best sound option I should use for the setup. The multichannel seems to be a big no no so I need to find a setting that won’t be so demanding of the speakers. I’m also trying to figure out what to set my crossover for the bookshelves, floor standing, and center speaker. So for now I have them all set at 80HZ but while toying with it I put the floors over 150HZ and I thought they sounded great, but I’m sure that’s probably because they were being pushed too hard. Like I said before, I feel like I’m way over my head.

Just keep trying and asking that's what we're here for we've all been where your at just starting out so no worries we got you

 

[lovinthehd]

As far as sound mode/upmixers to use, that's pretty much a preference thing (even using multi-ch stereo instead of a surround mode if you really like it, just keep in mind that's just a bit more load on the speakers, particularly the surrounds). There may not be one particular sound mode that fits all your uses, particularly between music vs tv/movies, but your avr can help remember some of your preferences by input/type of signal. Sometimes to see what best response for what crossover takes measurements. Again, preference can win out in some cases over suggested/standard crossover. I tend to use higher than lower crossovers (generally around 100), as long as you can't localize the sub with a higher crossover that's generally a good thing. Experiment.