need info on how to manually set up onkyo sr602

[sportyforty]

Recently replaced my jvc rx-6500 rcvr with the onkyo sr602 and have spent the past week sitting in my recliner with the auto set microphone on top of my head trying to get it to read my sub. I'm a newbie, obviously. Fond the review on cnet (and others about the issues with auto set on this unit and did what they said the onkyo rep told them. Turned the volume al the way up on the sub and it read it. However, it now said the sub was too close. It's 3 ft from the rcvr. All the stuff I have read recommends setting it up manually. Which I would love to be able to so I can learn how it all works. Hers what I am working with. The oom is 16x17 w 8' wood ceilings. Walls are sheetrock. Floor is 1/2" ceramic tile, no carpet. Two recliners and a futon and a 60 gal fish tank is all thats in the room other than Theater.
Front and back speakers are mounted in the corners of the room and all four are polk rm2350 and register small on configuration. Front are both 15' from listening location. Back are both 8' from listening location. Center is a klipscg sc1 and is 11 '. Both surrounds are Klipsch ss1 and are 9'. Sub is a klipsch KSW 12 and is 12' from listening location, in corner under front left. The area I am having problems with is figuring out the calibration and especially the EQ. I've been told that the calibration is mostly what sounds best to you and that it's best to have the tones at about the same level from al the speakers when you test. true or not? I don't understand the eq at all. The settings available are (in order for all the speakers) 80hz, 250hz, 800hz, 2.5khz and 8khz. I'm assuming this is for bass, trebl and midrange, but I don't know what is what in relation to the numbers. Should all the speakers be set the same and is there a starting point? The sub is 40hz, 80hz and 160hz. I really need some help here and would appreciate anthing. Even a good starting point and some advice on how to make it sound decent. I have also been told that if I set it manually I will have to reset it for different movies depending on the soundtrack of the movie. Is that true or can I just set it and leave it alone and have it sound good? The tv is a mitsibushi 52725 52" HD and the dvd recorder is a panasonic DMR-E55, CD is JVC XL-MC334, and Dish HD mpeg 2. Not gonna upgrade the dish until they have enough HD to make it worthwhile. The DVD-R and CD is not hooked up yet. Why bother until I get the sound right. All hookups will be digital. Dish is HDMI with optical to the receiver. DVD-R will be component an optical. Hopefully I have given enough detail for somebody with more functioning brain tissue that me to be able to give me some help. Thanks and have a good day.

 

[MDS]

You can do the setup manually by pressing the setup button on the front panel of the receiver or the same button on the remote. Use the up and down arrows to scroll through the options (press enter to go into a menu option) and the right and left arrows to change the values. Press return to return to the menu.

1. Sp Config menu
- Set all speakers to Small and Subwoofer to Yes.
- Xover depends on the frequency response of the other speakers. 80 Hz is usually right unless the Polk's lower frequency response is much higher than 80 Hz - in that case set it to 100 or 120 Hz.

2. Sp Distance menu
- Enter the distance from the listening position to each speaker.
- You can press the display button to change the distances from meters to feet.

3. Level Cal menu
- If you enter that mneu item, the test tones will start for you to balance the levels. But, I would exit the setup menus and start the test tones separately.

You need an SPL meter to accurately balance the channels. Set the meter to slow response, C weighting. Set the EQ to off if possible. You don't want to mess with EQ until after the levels are balanced.

Calibration:
- Hold the SPL meter at ear level pointing straight up or if possible put it on a camera tripod so you can get out of the way.

- Press test on the remote and the test tones will start. They will play for a few seconds and then automatically move to the next channel unless you press the level+ or level- buttons to change the level. You can always change the channel you are working on by pressing the 'ch sel' button.

- Use the level+ and level- buttons to adjust the channel levels until the meter reads 75 dB for each channel.

- For the sub, start with the volume 1/4 to 1/2 way up and disable its internal xover if you can; if not turn the xover knob on the sub all the way up to its highest setting (the receiver will control the xover).

When you are done just press test again to cancel the test tones. The setting will be saved. Now you can go in and mess with the EQ settings if you like.

It is NOT true that you will have to recalibrate for different movies if you do the setup manually. Regardless of whether you do it manually or let the auto-setup do it, the settings are saved. You can change levels on the fly if you are not in test mode, but they will revert back to your saved settings when you turn the receiver off (standby).

 

[sportyforty]

I appreciate the info. Most of it I know just because I have been messing with it for the past week. Where I bog down is the EQ settings. I can handle the calibration now that you told me what i need to do with the spl meter. The sub doesn't have a crossover listed. It has the auto on switch, the volume the 0 to 180 phase switch and then something called lowphase (hz) know that goes from 70 to 120. Is that the same as crossover and if so should I set it as low as it will go? How do I adjust the EQ for the speakers? should they all be the same as in calibration? And the EQ for th sub which has 40 80 and 160? Thanks again for your help.

 

[MDS]

The lowphase knob (never seen it called that!) is the sub's xover control. You want to set it as HIGH as it will go because you will be using the receiver to handle the xover. If you know the lowest frequency the Polk speakers can reproduce, you use that as a guideline for setting the xover in the receiver - 80 Hz is usually right unless those speakers only go as low as 100 Hz or 120 Hz. In that case, set it to 100 Hz or 120 Hz.

An EQ is a tone control on steroids. It allows you to boost or cut multiple frequencies. It should have more frequencies than 40, 80, and 160 as those are only bass frequencies. When doing the level calibration though, you want all of them flat (set to zero - no boost and no cut).

You can't really adjust the EQ by ear and that is the purpose of the auto setup. Say you did a sweep of various frequencies and found that 80 Hz had a huge spike in the response. You could use the EQ to cut those frequencies to reduce the spike in amplitude.

None of my Onkyo receivers have the auto setup feature but I think there should be a way to run the auto setup and have it skip the calibration (that you did manually) and only do the EQ.

 

[sportyforty]

You have been extremelu helpful. Thanks. The EQ does have more than the 40, 80 and 160. That's just the sub settings. The EQ settings for all the other speakers are 80hz, 250hz, 800 hz, 2.5khz and 8khz. I'm off this morning to find a spl meter at radio shack. Looks like they have one that sells for around $50. Then I'll have to swing by blockbusters and pick up a couple of good DVD's to do some sound checks. I just want to see the grandkids mouths drop open with the new sounds.