Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Receiver problem

I just took a second look at that line. Your currency has been hammered harder than the C$.

If you have a receiver that is rated at 100watts per channel, and you have to crank the volume to maximum, there is something else wrong, and another beefier receiver and/or amp is not going to help. You have an input source level problem. Your telling us that for DVD movies, you have to crank your volume to maximum?

Something is not adding up.

Grant, you(and some others)may not have fully grasped the situation. You could get a 1000 watt amplifier and still not get a single watt more power if the input voltage to the amplifier isn't high enough to bring some of that power capacity into play. This depends not on the maximum power capability of the amplifier, but rather on the gain that the pre-amplifier and then the amplifier section itself apply to the voltage coming in from the source material. It's possible that a 90 watt receiver would have higher gain than your 100 watt and be louder with the volume at max, and it's also possible that a 200 watt receiver might have lower gain and wouldn't even be as loud.

The point is that you simply can't buy a unit with a higher maximum power output rating(neither the 3808 which you mention or any other)and be guaranteed the ability to play the lower output level sources which you mention at a higher listening level. You either have to have the gain specs of your present unit to compare with the gain specs of a possible replacement, or you'd have to actually try another unit to see if it would play your source materials more loudly. I know that you're looking for a relatively simple answer, but none is available, since maximum power capacity obviously isn't the problem.

Let's not forget he is working with a Sony amp and they are notorious for ratings that are well under actual real world requirements. It may have the 100watts on one channel with 1/8th watt on the others as required, but if it needs to use 50% on both fronts it most likely is only giving him 50W/ch or less if other speaker requirements are high as well, so it could very well still be an under power issue; not to say that a weak input signal couldn't be the problem or help alot as well. I noticed a huge increase in over all sound quality/loudness going from a Sony dvd player(middle of the line at the time) to my current Samsung(top of the line at the time). I am sure the output levels on that Sony were about half of what the Samsung puts out.

I think that the Sony is overrated in terms of the power output. I found a bench test result saying this:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/receivers/2354/test-bench-sony-str-dg910-av-receiver.html

I have no problems with the power output when playing dvd movies or cd's however I watch a lot of music dvds that many have very low output levels and I need to crank the volume to max and still lacking. I have taken one of these low level music dvds to a friends place and tested it on his system. He has a marantz receiver 80 watts per channel at 0.03%THD and speakers that are 91 db/w/m, where my system is the Sony receiver 100 watts per channel at 1%THD, 8 ohms, (4 ohms ????wpc) M80's with sensitivity of 95 db/w/m. His system is much louder than mine when playing this low level music dvd. I can only think that the Sony output is overrated.

you don't happen to have a voltage switch on your Sony that you've turned from 8ohm to 6ohm have you? If yes, put it back on 8 ohms as you would be limiting the current.

If no, then you probably need a different unit, as you didn't mention earlier that you've tested other receivers.

Hello

Here’s the problem, according to a Sound & Vision review and lab tests the receiver just does not have the power output into 7 channels.

DOLBY DIGITAL PERFORMANCE
All data were obtained using various test DVDs with 16-bit dithered test signals, which set limits on measured distortion and noise performance. Reference input level is -20 dBFS, and reference output is 1 watt into 8 ohms. Volume setting for reference level was 60. All level trims at zero, and except for subwoofer-related tests, all speakers were set to "large," subwoofer on. All are worst-case figures where applicable.

Output at clipping (1 kHz into 8/4 ohms)
1 channel driven: 84/138 watts (19.2/21.4 dBW)
5 channels driven (8 ohms): 30 watts (14.8 dBW)*
Distortion at 1 watt (THD+N, 1 kHz, 8 or 4 ohms): 0.02%
Noise level (A-weighted): -75.1 dB
Excess noise (with sine tone)
16-bit (EN16): 1.2 dB
Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz +0, -0.1 dB

*Multichannel tests, regardless of source signal (digital or analog, stereo or multichannel) or decoding modes, caused the STR-DG910 to limit output to about 30 watts or less per channel; see accompanying lab notes. Since the receiver lacks analog multichannel or preamp inputs, direct testing of power-amp channels was not possible.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/receivers/2354/test-bench-sony-str-dg910-av-receiver.html


Channel Power Rating : 7.1 Channel Power Rating: 100W x 7 Amp Power (700W) (8 ohms, THD 1.0%)
This last specification is from the Sony website and the power rating is not up to FTC snuff.



There's still the high level to low level converter option.

Now I know why I never liked Sony receivers. They do make decent CD/DVD players...

Sony Tv's are pretty good,too.

Am I reading that correct that at 5 chan driven at once, it only has 30 watts to offer? So you can't just say that "you don't have a power problem" because an AVR says it has 100w/c. This is a relatively new amp from a solid company. I guess this is what gets me when so many say "they are all the same, watts are watts, and you only need about 50 of them". Clearly there is more to it than that, as pointed out above, but there has to be a way to compare amps more effectively.