Hi:

Bought my first A/V receiver-onkyo sr800.
Not used to this type of volume (-db) adjustment. Should my volume be in the -30 to -15db range to get good stereo volume? (I noticed that even headphone volume has to go into the lower -20s to sound reasonable.)
A Harman Kardon avr525 that I recently tried needs the volume to be in the same ranges for good stereo sound also.

Also, are speaker level adjustments that range from -12db to +12db normal at the 0db setting. I noticed that setting them say at 6db each or higher makes overall volume higher-can this cause more distortion? What is the nominal setting assuming both speakers should be set the same?

Thanks,

Intune

May I suggest you review a recent post of mine in "technical questions". I 'd put a link to it here but don't know how that's done so I suggest you search for "-Db" within the last month. Also, you should invest in an SPL meter (radio shack analog, about $40.00). Then whatever sounds good to you is ok with us..:-)

the individual speaker settings are for adjustment. you should leave them at zero except to balance the levels so each speaker reads the same volume on an spl meter at listening position. -30 to -15 sounds about right. thats what my two receivers are usually set to. remember that the volume setting on the receiver doesn't correspond to any specific level or amount of power (watts). its just an arbitrary setting so you can see differences in volume.