Why does this system suck for music

[ematthews]

I have the following for my Home A/V system. It sounds wonderful when watching movies, but sucks as I try to listen to a CD....Any help why?
Onkyo TX-SR601 receiver
Pioneer DV563A super audio CD/DVD player
Polk RTI speakers....front center and a Polk PS3W sub.


Very flat and not much joy for music only.......Any way to change a few things to get good music out of it?

 

[j_garcia]

There are a lot of things that it could be - room, proper speaker setup, proper receiver setup, proper player setup, etc... What exactly is the problem? How do you have the player connected to the receiver?

 

[chadnliz]

I owned 2 Onkyo units, both were flagship models at the time, one being the top of line 5.1 unit, the other being a 7.1 Net Tune massive beast that was around $2000 and couldnt agree more, they both sucked for music and I have seen nothing from either Onkyo or friends that own the product to show me anything has changed. At low volume it was polite and un-involving and if you cranked it up it became brutal and fatuiging, limiting listening to less then one disc before throwing in the towel. Your room is much more important than many understand and so is proper placement, also if you listen to much modern pop and rock it really isnt going to matter what you do, todays generation of recordings and the people responsible for them have compressed and increased volume to the point of almost unlistenable quality on anything better than a budget setup or a car stereo. Polk speakers also have the unfortunate reputation of being great for movies but hard to accept music performance so you may have a few things working against you.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I have the following for my Home A/V system. It sounds wonderful when watching movies, but sucks as I try to listen to a CD....Any help why?
Onkyo TX-SR601 receiver
Pioneer DV563A super audio CD/DVD player
Polk RTI speakers....front center and a Polk PS3W sub.


Very flat and not much joy for music only.......Any way to change a few things to get good music out of it?

Or, it may be the music has no dynamic range in it due to compression?
What kind of music? Any classical?

 

[ematthews]

The player is connected by digital coax I believe, and also componet, but thats for video. It's not the room because it sounded the same in my old house, in a very different room. I have tried all types of different adjustments. The bass can be good but the upper treble sound is very low, not bright at it's highest setting.

 

[ematthews]

Or, it may be the music has no dynamic range in it due to compression?
What kind of music? Any classical?

No classical here....I have normal recordings..5.1 and SACD The only one that sounds good out of the whole library is the Rush Snakes and Arrows HI Resolution 5.1 surround sound.

 

[MUDSHARK]

Perhaps Polk is not for you. If you have friends with good systems try listening to some different speakers. A more forward speaker may be to your liking. Your sacd player should bring out the best in more detailed speakers.

 

[ematthews]

All my friend are broke and have Emerson radio's, so no luck i that department

My old Onkyo TXSV303PRO that is 15 years always had an EQ hooked up to it as well. I could never get the Treble to go high enough on this system as well.
I had JBL and DCM speakers on this system. The DCM did do a lot better however

 

[rnatalli]

Did you audition the Polks along with other speakers before buying? It's likely your speakers that you don't like. What exactly is lacking in the sound? I think I saw you mention treble.

 

[MUDSHARK]

You sound like a candidate for Klipsch if I have ever heard one. If you can listen to their reference line. You could also try a sound processor if the receiver has a loop.

 

[Kolia]

I have the following for my Home A/V system. It sounds wonderful when watching movies, but sucks as I try to listen to a CD....Any help why?
Onkyo TX-SR601 receiver
Pioneer DV563A super audio CD/DVD player
Polk RTI speakers....front center and a Polk PS3W sub.


Very flat and not much joy for music only.......Any way to change a few things to get good music out of it?

I was just about to start my own topic about a similar "problem". If your player is anything like my Pioneer Elite DV-48AV, you'll need to plug all the analog connectors to the receiver to get 5.1 from SACD. BUT...

It's not over. I just found that a few minutes ago. Is your tv connected via HDMI to the player? If it is TURN IT OFF!!! I keep forgeting that HDMI "speaks" both ways. TV ON = HDMI ON = NO Analog output... (on my player at least)

I was playing with my settings untill I had the idea of just turning the tv OFF because when I turned it ON to access the menus, the player had rebooted to High Def. Anyways, turned the tv off and BOOM! Pink Floyd DSOM is playing all around!!!

 

[ematthews]

Yes I did listen to the Polks.....They sound great on my movie watching set up.
No loop for a processor...My receiver is on the low end of Onkyo line up.
I really do hate it for music. Hints the other thread on me building a music only system.

 

[PENG]

The player is connected by digital coax I believe, and also componet, but thats for video. It's not the room because it sounded the same in my old house, in a very different room. I have tried all types of different adjustments. The bass can be good but the upper treble sound is very low, not bright at it's highest setting.

As Kolia said, you most likely need to hook up your 5.1 analog outputs from the Pioneer to the receivers 5.1 analog inputs in order to play SACD or DVD-A properly.

 

[itschris]

Speakers often have a "charactoristic" sound to them to some degree. I've listened to Polk... actually my sister has a set, I felt they lacked detail. I'm not sure if the highest models are drastically different or not, but I've been told they very much sound the same. Klipsh is a perfect example with their horn tweeter... it has very distinct kind of sound you either love or hate.

If you can't borrow a friend's set you may just have to try to find a way to demo some new ones. Then again, perhaps the TV - on issue mentioned above may be the culprit but I no little about that.

 

[selkec]

I think its probably more than the speakers. I know plenty of people with polks and their systems sound great. I have polk rti150s fronts csi5 center and rc65i in walls powered by a harman kardon dpr 1005 soon to be added is the emotiva lpa1 amp and an earthquake sub. Anyway, my system sounds awesome. And if you talk to alot of people polk seem to have good highs not quite as bright as klipsch though. I seriously doubt its your speakers, maybe because I own polks.

 

[mtrycrafts]

No classical here....I have normal recordings..5.1 and SACD The only one that sounds good out of the whole library is the Rush Snakes and Arrows HI Resolution 5.1 surround sound.

So then, you do have some recordings that sound good.
Maybe the others are just poorly recorded, dynamic compression, etc?

ps, you need to read koila's post as was suggested by Peng.
Maybe it is a setup issue after all.

 

[PENG]

Following is from a c/net review on the Pioneer universal player:

"The 563A's rear end sports a full complement of the essential jacks: component, composite, and S-Video outputs, coaxial and optical digital audio connectors, and the 5.1 analog audio outputs.

To hear SACD and DVD-A surround sounds, make sure your receiver has 5.1/multichannel analog inputs--the 563A's digital audio connectors are for CD/Dolby/DTS signals only. The owner's manual isn't terribly clear on this point, but trust us, don't buy a 563A (or any SACD/DVD-A player) unless your receiver is equipped with 5.1 analog connections."

To read the full review:

http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/pioneer-dv-563a/4505-6463_7-30470421.html

Since you have problem even with regular CD, as mtrycrafts said it could be the source material, so try more CDs. You should check the settings of your components, including the universal player in detail. There are a lot more settings in a universal player than in a regular DVD player. I have Polk speakers, they are not bright and will not sound as good as high end Paradigm or mid end B&W, but certainly not lacking in high frequency response.

 

[wire]

Following is from a c/net review on the Pioneer universal player:

"The 563A's rear end sports a full complement of the essential jacks: component, composite, and S-Video outputs, coaxial and optical digital audio connectors, and the 5.1 analog audio outputs.

To hear SACD and DVD-A surround sounds, make sure your receiver has 5.1/multichannel analog inputs--the 563A's digital audio connectors are for CD/Dolby/DTS signals only. The owner's manual isn't terribly clear on this point, but trust us, don't buy a 563A (or any SACD/DVD-A player) unless your receiver is equipped with 5.1 analog connections."

To read the full review:

http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/pioneer-dv-563a/4505-6463_7-30470421.html


I have Polk speakers, they are not bright and will not sound as good as high end Paradigm or mid end B&W, but certainly not lacking in high frequency response.

I cant see it being the Polk RTI series neither .
Try starting @ 2 channel for music and work from there .

 

[markw]

Speakers are one of the most personal preference choices you're gonna have to make. There's no real right or wrong, but only what you like and don't like. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's a "bad" speaker, only that it doesn't suit your personal tastes.

That said, its been noted many times in the past that many speakers can sound "good" on HT but fall flat on their faces when used for music.

It's rare that a speaker will sound good on music will not satisfy on HT.

So, my suggestion is that when trying out speakers is to use music as your material of choice. Once you find speakers that satisfy you for music, your HT will fall right into place.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yup, I agree that 2 Ch CD music is more fastidious than a 5.1 movie soundtrack.

But another thing is all the DSP in some receivers, which I think can had distortion to your sound. It may help if you can override all the processing and just do a Pure Direct Analog mode. However, your receiver may not have such features.