Old receiver dying? If so, could you give me a reccomendation?

[neelshiv]

Hi guys. I have a short story for you, and I was hoping you could give me some advice. I am pretty much asking this on my dads behalf, but I am invested in the issue as well.

We got a new house in the past few years, and it has a theater type environment in the basement. There is a projector (1080i), dvd player, receiver, 5.1 setup, etc. Strangely enough, nothing was actually connected for 5.1 sound, but that is a problem that we remedied (I can't believe the previous owner was just listening to glorified 2 channel sound for so long).

Well, we got a great gift from our cousins for christmas, a blu-ray player. Its a sony bd-bxp1 or something like that (a scaled down costco version of another model, I believe). We have the video connected directly to the projector via hdmi and audio connected to the receiver via optical. The receiver, a yamaha rx-v992, does not take hdmi video.

We watched transformers and had a great time the first night, and that was that. My parents then watched another video the next night and things worked out fine. The next day, however, we got the dark knight, and had problems. We hit a really loud sound, and the receiver shut off. This happened repeatedly, and at the exact same place. We turned down the volume, and it worked.

With some experimentation, we realized that a loud enough noise (pretty damn loud) would cause the receiver to suddenly shut off, and we could have it happen in the exact same spot time and time again by keeping the volume the same.


Is this receiver dying? We are willing to accept that it is and get something new, but we want an opinion from some of you. A guy that works at a hi-fi store around here said it is, but he could be trying to sell us something.

If it is dying, what might you guys reccomend? We were looking in the 1000 dollar range, and have somewhat modest requirements. We have the blu-ray player, an hdtv cable box, and a 5 disc changer that doesn't get used (my dad has a dedicated audio-setup). They connect to the projector via hdmi and component cables, because the receiver does not do component or hdmi. This is definitely something that we wouldn't mind fixing. The blu-ray player does not process "truehd" sound onboard, so thats something to consider.

My dad said that he heard good things about the onkyo 606,706, and 806 models, but that the video quality was apparently not the best (this seems to be the consensus in many reviews I have checked out).

Thanks for the help, we really appreciate it. It is hard to get information on this sort of thing. We walked into a generic electronics store (hh greg), and asked for somebody who knew a lot about receivers. Predictably, the guy we were talking to insisted that he was (he probably gets commission or rated on warranties sold). Also predictable was the fact that he couldn't really answer any of our questions.


edit: needless to say, I meant dying, not dieing.


further edit: I should go on the record as saying that standard tv actually looks pretty good on the projector, which I feel often isn't the case with non-hd tv on an hd display.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hi guys. I have a short story for you, and I was hoping you could give me some advice. I am pretty much asking this on my dads behalf, but I am invested in the issue as well.

We got a new house in the past few years, and it has a theater type environment in the basement. There is a projector (1080i), dvd player, receiver, 5.1 setup, etc. Strangely enough, nothing was actually connected for 5.1 sound, but that is a problem that we remedied (I can't believe the previous owner was just listening to glorified 2 channel sound for so long).

Well, we got a great gift from our cousins for christmas, a blu-ray player. Its a sony bd-bxp1 or something like that (a scaled down costco version of another model, I believe). We have the video connected directly to the projector via hdmi and audio connected to the receiver via optical. The receiver, a yamaha rx-v992, does not take hdmi video.

We watched transformers and had a great time the first night, and that was that. My parents then watched another video the next night and things worked out fine. The next day, however, we got the dark knight, and had problems. We hit a really loud sound, and the receiver shut off. This happened repeatedly, and at the exact same place. We turned down the volume, and it worked.

With some experimentation, we realized that a loud enough noise (pretty damn loud) would cause the receiver to suddenly shut off, and we could have it happen in the exact same spot time and time again by keeping the volume the same.


Is this receiver dying? We are willing to accept that it is and get something new, but we want an opinion from some of you. A guy that works at a hi-fi store around here said it is, but he could be trying to sell us something.

If it is dying, what might you guys reccomend? We were looking in the 1000 dollar range, and have somewhat modest requirements. We have the blu-ray player, an hdtv cable box, and a 5 disc changer that doesn't get used (my dad has a dedicated audio-setup). They connect to the projector via hdmi and component cables, because the receiver does not do component or hdmi. This is definitely something that we wouldn't mind fixing. The blu-ray player does not process "truehd" sound onboard, so thats something to consider.

My dad said that he heard good things about the onkyo 606,706, and 806 models, but that the video quality was apparently not the best (this seems to be the consensus in many reviews I have checked out).

Thanks for the help, we really appreciate it. It is hard to get information on this sort of thing. We walked into a generic electronics store (hh greg), and asked for somebody who knew a lot about receivers. Predictably, the guy we were talking to insisted that he was (he probably gets commission or rated on warranties sold). Also predictable was the fact that he couldn't really answer any of our questions.


edit: needless to say, I meant dying, not dieing.


further edit: I should go on the record as saying that standard tv actually looks pretty good on the projector, which I feel often isn't the case with non-hd tv on an hd display.

The amp is not able to provide the current required by your speakers at that volume. What speakers are your using? Your receiver is probably not "dying" but it will be if you keep that up.

We had Dark Knight playing here over Christmas, and that packs huge and almost continuous wallops. I thought the movie was load of cod's wallop, personally, but that's beside the point. I would say however that if that movie is to be played at high spl, then very robust speakers and amps are required.

The screening here was at the request of the movie critic for FOX channel 12 out of the Twin Cities. He was here as a guest of my daughter. He had recently viewed that movie at the Fox screening room in LA. He said he thought that system was a little stressed by it. I'm glad to report that the system in the signature at the bottom came out unscathed, and he gave it a definite edge on balance, clarity and bass definition.

The point is that for most systems some caution and common sense is going to be required playing that movie on receiver based systems, unless they are top of the line flagship models. The other option would be high efficiency speakers, but then you have other trade offs.

 

[Exit]

We watched transformers and had a great time the first night, and that was that. My parents then watched another video the next night and things worked out fine. The next day, however, we got the dark knight, and had problems. We hit a really loud sound, and the receiver shut off. This happened repeatedly, and at the exact same place. We turned down the volume, and it worked.

With some experimentation, we realized that a loud enough noise (pretty damn loud) would cause the receiver to suddenly shut off, and we could have it happen in the exact same spot time and time again by keeping the volume the same.

I saw that you have a 5.1 system and therefore I presume you have a self-powered subwoofer. It sounds like high dynamic sound effects may be overloading your receiver and causing it to shut down. The bass region is the biggest demand on amplifier power, and that is where a lot of special effects are in movies. I recommend you try raising the crossover point in the receiver setup menus so that more of the bass load is transferred to the sub. This should help relieve the demand on the receiver amp and you may not need a new receiver. It is worth a try since it is free and you may be able to increase the volume level of your system without shutdown.

Also, it would be helpful to list your receiver and power rating as well as your speakers and their impedance if such information is available.

For a receiver, the Onkyo 606 is full featured with Audyssey automatic sound correction, 4 HDMI inputs and 95 Watts/Channel. My brother just bought one (list $499) for $339 from Amazon.com. I suggest putting the balance of the money saved from your $1000 budget towards a robust subwoofer from SVS, HSU or others if you do not already own one. I think this will give you the best bang for your buck.