Is Pioneer customer service wrong? Too much receiver for my speakers?

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D

Dustin Dibble

Audiophyte
Newbie here. My brand new receiver that I scrimped and saved for is now in safe mode,and won’t turn on, and I am super frustrated. It was shutting down over and over while I was trouble shooting, and I guess I did it one too many times, hence the safe mode. Can someone tell me what is happening? Cause I don’t buy Pioneer customer service’s explanation. (below) Here is my set up:


The story: Before it shut off permanently and went into safe mode, I was testing a movie. The receiver would handle everything fine during parts of dialogue only, but as soon as a louder scene started, it would shut off. I then tried to plug in only one speaker at a time, with the same effect. Every single speaker (plugged in one at a time) would cause the receiver to shut off when the movie got to an action scene.

I called Pioneer, and the guy said I have too much receiver for my speakers, especially my rear two speakers. This is the entry level 5.1 receiver Pioneer makes. The manual says it can handle speakers from 6-16 ohms. I can’t go any less powerful and still get 5.1. And if that’s the case, why did the receiver shut off when I was pushing my bookshelf speakers, (one at a time) as they should be able to handle the wattage?

I am going to box up the receiver and ship it back, but I need to know if what Pioneer is saying is true. Do I need to get new rear speakers that can handle more wattage? What do I do? Please help.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Dustin Dibble said:
Newbie here. My brand new receiver that I scrimped and saved for is now in safe mode,and won’t turn on, and I am super frustrated. It was shutting down over and over while I was trouble shooting, and I guess I did it one too many times, hence the safe mode. Can someone tell me what is happening? Cause I don’t buy Pioneer customer service’s explanation. (below) Here is my set up:


The story: Before it shut off permanently and went into safe mode, I was testing a movie. The receiver would handle everything fine during parts of dialogue only, but as soon as a louder scene started, it would shut off. I then tried to plug in only one speaker at a time, with the same effect. Every single speaker (plugged in one at a time) would cause the receiver to shut off when the movie got to an action scene.

I called Pioneer, and the guy said I have too much receiver for my speakers, especially my rear two speakers. This is the entry level 5.1 receiver Pioneer makes. The manual says it can handle speakers from 6-16 ohms. I can’t go any less powerful and still get 5.1. And if that’s the case, why did the receiver shut off when I was pushing my bookshelf speakers, (one at a time) as they should be able to handle the wattage?

I am going to box up the receiver and ship it back, but I need to know if what Pioneer is saying is true. Do I need to get new rear speakers that can handle more wattage? What do I do? Please help.
Click to expand...
Yes, the person that you spoke to at Pio is a Dumba$$, he has no clue what he is talking about. Send it back while you still can.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
Dustin Dibble said:
Newbie here. My brand new receiver that I scrimped and saved for is now in safe mode,and won’t turn on, and I am super frustrated. It was shutting down over and over while I was trouble shooting, and I guess I did it one too many times, hence the safe mode. Can someone tell me what is happening? Cause I don’t buy Pioneer customer service’s explanation. (below) Here is my set up:


The story: Before it shut off permanently and went into safe mode, I was testing a movie. The receiver would handle everything fine during parts of dialogue only, but as soon as a louder scene started, it would shut off. I then tried to plug in only one speaker at a time, with the same effect. Every single speaker (plugged in one at a time) would cause the receiver to shut off when the movie got to an action scene.

I called Pioneer, and the guy said I have too much receiver for my speakers, especially my rear two speakers. This is the entry level 5.1 receiver Pioneer makes. The manual says it can handle speakers from 6-16 ohms. I can’t go any less powerful and still get 5.1. And if that’s the case, why did the receiver shut off when I was pushing my bookshelf speakers, (one at a time) as they should be able to handle the wattage?

I am going to box up the receiver and ship it back, but I need to know if what Pioneer is saying is true. Do I need to get new rear speakers that can handle more wattage? What do I do? Please help.
Click to expand...
Dustin
Welcome to the AH and I hope things get better with your AVR situation. Lots of opinions here.
I can render mine.

Too much reciever for your speakers? I'd call B.S. on that. From a rating point of view, that's a silly claim.
If you have a defective speaker drawing too much current, I might buy that. But, you said you tried the speakers individually and the result was the same one at a time.

I bought a new AVR this year. It would power off and go in to safe mode with speakers attached and without speakers attached. All I had to do was turn it on and turn up the volume a bit and it would power off and go to safe mode. Eventually, it refused to come out of safe mode and became a high priced night lite. I sent it back. New replacement works like a charm. The customer service guy told me it was my fault too. Be persistent and keep a cool head.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
If anything you might have a speaker issue, but you pretty much eliminated that. Send it back!

One thing sticks out, you gave power ratings for 6 ohm, which is what your speakers are. However, an entry level amp could have some issues driving a more difficult load (6 ohm instead of 8). Anyone have an opinion on that?

Edit: Did you check all of your cabling to make sure you don't have any bare wire anywhere? That happened to me once. Our dog (puppy at the time) got behind the couch and chewed one of my cables. Not all the way through, but enough to cause a short.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Bucknekked said:
The customer service guy told me it was my fault too. Be persistent and keep a cool head.
Click to expand...
Good advice!
I find, when dealing with customer service guys (and I'm sure it depends on the corporate philosophy) they will often "low-ball" me. IOW, they are assigned the task of minimizing the cost of each customer interaction. Patiently say no to anything that is unreasonable. Often, in this case, I get the best results by telling them what I expect them to do. This is not an off the cuff "Well, you'd damn well better..." demand, but a carefully thought-out expectation with consideration of standard practices as well as what is fair.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
As far as trouble shooting, as long as you disconnected the speaker wires from the back of the AVR (not at the speaker), the AVR is defective.
My brother had a speaker cable his cat had stuck a claw or two in. He replaced two AVR's before he noticed the speaker wire damage. His system worked ffine until the volume got loud enough to short across the wires. Eventually tripping the circuit into permanent failure. He had checked the cable wires at the end, but never considered damage along the length. It was lucky that he happened to slide his fingers along the damaged section. You really couldn't see anything under casual inspection, but you could feel the puncture locations.
 
MR.MAGOO

MR.MAGOO

Audioholic Field Marshall
Dustin Dibble said:
The story: Before it shut off permanently and went into safe mode, I was testing a movie. The receiver would handle everything fine during parts of dialogue only, but as soon as a louder scene started, it would shut off.
Click to expand...
Is there a procedure in the owner's manual on how to reset the firmware, or something like that ?

Could be a defective unit, or poorly designed to begin with. Good luck!
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
KEW said:
As far as trouble shooting, as long as you disconnected the speaker wires from the back of the AVR (not at the speaker), the AVR is defective.
My brother had a speaker cable his cat had stuck a claw or two in. He replaced two AVR's before he noticed the speaker wire damage. His system worked ffine until the volume got loud enough to short across the wires. Eventually tripping the circuit into permanent failure. He had checked the cable wires at the end, but never considered damage along the length. It was lucky that he happened to slide his fingers along the damaged section. You really couldn't see anything under casual inspection, but you could feel the puncture locations.
Click to expand...
That's why I brought up checking cables. What you describe is exactly what happened to me (different species of pet tho). My old yammy would shut off when I turned it up to a certain level. It did that for a long time too. Fortunately it never went into permanent shut down on me. I still have it (not in use) in fact.
 
D

Dustin Dibble

Audiophyte
Thanks Gents! I appreciate the quick responses. My cabling is all in-wall, so difficult to inspect. But I pulled it myself, before the drywall went up. I took extra care to be careful, but who knows if a drywall screw got a wire somewhere. But my feeling on that is this: The receiver shut down on each speaker individually, What are the odds that all lines of cable have damage or an exposed wire touching something it shouldn't? Probably slim to none. Thanks for talking me down and saying I'm not crazy.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
Dustin Dibble said:
Thanks Gents! I appreciate the quick responses. My cabling is all in-wall, so difficult to inspect. But I pulled it myself, before the drywall went up. I took extra care to be careful, but who knows if a drywall screw got a wire somewhere. But my feeling on that is this: The receiver shut down on each speaker individually, What are the odds that all lines of cable have damage or an exposed wire touching something it shouldn't? Probably slim to none. Thanks for talking me down and saying I'm not crazy.
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whoa, Dustin. Nobody here said you weren't crazy.............
We gotta know a lot more about you before we leap to conclusions :)
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Pogre said:
That's why I brought up checking cables. What you describe is exactly what happened to me (different species of pet tho). My old yammy would shut off when I turned it up to a certain level. It did that for a long time too. Fortunately it never went into permanent shut down on me. I still have it (not in use) in fact.
Click to expand...
I had not read your response (was likely typing when you posted), but before this incident, checking cables would have meant checking the ends for shorts and looking for kinks in the cable (to indicate somebody closed a door on them or otherwise stressed them). I would have never inspected them at the level required to detect the precise damage that his cat so diabolically inflicted!
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
KEW said:
I had not read your response (was likely typing when you posted), but before this incident, checking cables would have meant checking the ends for shorts and looking for kinks in the cable (to indicate somebody closed a door on them or otherwise stressed them). I would have never inspected them at the level required to detect the precise damage that his cat so diabolically inflicted!
Click to expand...
The damage to mine was pretty obvious, but behind the couch. I traced all the cables from source to speaker. Mine aren't pulled through the walls tho. Looks like OP can rule it out either way.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
I have an older pioneer (521k) driving the towers from the same series as your bookshelves. It works just fine at any volume. Replace your receiver and you should be fine. Sadly customer support is mostly a waste of time.
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
Pogre said:
If anything you might have a speaker issue, but you pretty much eliminated that. Send it back!

One thing sticks out, you gave power ratings for 6 ohm, which is what your speakers are. However, an entry level amp could have some issues driving a more difficult load (6 ohm instead of 8). Anyone have an opinion on that?

Edit: Did you check all of your cabling to make sure you don't have any bare wire anywhere? That happened to me once. Our dog (puppy at the time) got behind the couch and chewed one of my cables. Not all the way through, but enough to cause a short.
Click to expand...
One note...that 6 ohms is probably an average at that...entirely possible that they could drop down to 4 ohms at times and really pulling a lot of current and the AVR can't handle it...could very well be the opposite...the AVR can't handle the speakers.

In either case it needs to go back asap.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
2channel lover said:
One note...that 6 ohms is probably an average at that...entirely possible that they could drop down to 4 ohms at times and really pulling a lot of current and the AVR can't handle it...could very well be the opposite...the AVR can't handle the speakers.

In either case it needs to go back asap.
Click to expand...
I've got the tower version of his speakers and an older version of his receiver. Never had an issue with mine. Speakers are also rated at 6ohm. Unless they VASTLY downgraded the amp in the new version, I'm with you on "it's broke".
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
panteragstk said:
I've got the tower version of his speakers and an older version of his receiver. Never had an issue with mine. Speakers are also rated at 6ohm. Unless they VASTLY downgraded the amp in the new version, I'm with you on "it's broke".
Click to expand...
Yeah. Most AVRs can handle a 4 ohm load to some degree, so a 6 ohm speaker that might drop down to 4 ohm sometimes should not be causing this problem...get it gone.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
2channel lover said:
Yeah. Most AVRs can handle a 4 ohm load to some degree, so a 6 ohm speaker that might drop down to 4 ohm sometimes should not be causing this problem...get it gone.
Click to expand...
Especially not one speaker at a time....
 
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