Peter,
Just seen your post. Well, first thing that happen before I even got my 3008 was my EP500 went out. Axiom is sending me a new amp, should be here Tuesday. However, I did get my sub to work. I finally got it to turn on with the 12 volt trigger, it the only way I can get it to come on. Seems to work fine with the trigger. Very weird, but at least I got to test out my new 3008!
Anyway, here's my first impressions of the TX-NR3008. Keep in mind this is my first experience with Audyssey ever. Plus all comparisons will be from my pioneer & Khartago mono block amplifiers, which both have been sold.
The very first thing I did was hook everything up and did the firmware upgrade via USB stick. The upgrade went flawlessly, took about 10 minutes. Shut it down and fired it back up.
Then before even listening to anything I followed AVS guide to audyssey to walk me thru the MultiXT 32 calibration. Calibrated all 8 positions. Others said this was time consuming, but mine only took about 15 minutes at the most. Again, went flawlessly.
I had already received Iron Man II and The Last Air Bender from Netflix, both Blu-ray. But decided to listen to a few songs that I've heard a million times for reference and comparison.
First song up was Molly Hatchets Dreams I'll never see via Flac. Which by the way, the network capabilities of the 3008 to stream straight lossless Flac from my pc are incredible. It's so freaking nice NOT to have to power on my PS3 to play my flac files. All folders and song titles show up right on my big screen. Use the remote to browse, they ya go, works killer. Loving this feature for sure!
"Dreams I'll never see" I've heard so many times over the last 30 years, release date was 1978! I was just 16 when I first heard this song!
Once the song finally kicked in, I had a huge smile on my face. I won't sit here and tell you it was like night and day. In fact the mid highs & highs pretty much sounded the same. But it was the mid bass and low bass that floored me. I immediately knew MulitXT 32 was at work here. The bass guitar runs were so fast and tight and defined, it was like hearing a newer version of the song.
So I thought "whoa, I have to try something else" So I fired up another song that I knew would confirm for me "if" Multi32XT was doing it's magic or I was just over reacting just because I had a new toy, yes, been there, done that
The particular song was "Slit Skirts" by Pete Townsend. The reason this song is such a reference song for me is the Bass guitar is this song is all over the place. Being a former guitar player myself, the bass in this song goes to very low octaves to very high octaves. My old system did not handle this song very well, as the lower octaves went "boomy and loose" and the higher octave Bass notes lost all impact, very uneven...
I'm not for sure, but I am just assuming that audyssey has somehow eq'd and corrected my room response, time domain delays, nulls, etc. Because I could hear every bass note clearly, evenly and smoooooooth...
Gone was the boomy bass notes and back were the higher bass notes. So far, I'm diggin this avr severely.
Again, not much difference in the higher end Hz, but definitely a difference in the lower/lower mid end. Listened to a few more songs over the next 30 minutes or so. I have developed a broad range (almost crazy) of music taste over the years. I tested out Asia, Boston, Aerosmith, Brooks and Dunn, Elvis, Stone sour, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth, Sick Puppies, Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Stevi Ray, Van Halen, UFO, Thin Lizzy and yes...get ready, Michael Jackson
Every song was the same, tighter, smoother, more even, solid and defined Bass. I should also mention here the only thing I changed from the Audyssey setup was the XO. It had set my XO for my mains to 40hz. I set it back to 80hz where I preferred it. Everything else I left untouched.
This is getting way too long winded, so sorry. But I'll go on to movies and I'll "try" make it quick, I'm sure this won't happen
I then watched just some LFE parts of Iron Man II, but now with movies, I hear a few more differences than with music.
First, my surrounds (Vintage Boston Acoustics A100 floor speakers) from the 80's had much more clarity and presence. With my pioneer, I had to actually crank up levels some for the surrounds. Not with the 3008. The levels for my surrounds were set at +5.5 on my Pioneer, But the 3008 has them set at -1.5!! Quite a shock here to say the least. Even a couple days later I haven't had to change the surround levels one bit.
The other difference, to me at least, was that it now seems like my EP500 is actually going lower and deeper for movies. As I've seen Iron Man II 3 times now. I am hearing more impact, feeling more couch & wall shaking. Again, on my Pioneer the Sub trim level I preferred has always been +2 and now the 3008 had the sub at -0.5. I did bump the sub level up to an even flat zero.
Up next was "The last Air bender" I don't know if anyone here has seen this movie, but the LFE is mind blowing! The movie itself was just OK and predictable, I would say it's good movie to sit down with Family.
But man, the freakin low end on this flick freaked me out so much I had to turn down the EP500, I thought my sub was gonna blow!
Anyway, to summarize. I am Very, Very Happy with NR3008! The more I dig into it, (believe me this has so many features it will take me awhile), the more I am finding that I am so glad I sold my amps and Pioneer and got this thing. I've really only scratched the surface of it's capabilities. Last day or so I've been playing around with Dynamic EQ which is awesome at low listening levels, dynamic volume, upconversion, all the THX modes and the zillion other modes. Fun stuff so far!
Last thing I forgot to mention was power output and heat. My 3008 is sitting in an open rack/TV stand so I haven't really noticed any heat issues. As far as output, there's plenty. I love listening to obnoxiously loud volumes and the 3008 get's me there for the most part. I will say it's not quite as clean at extremely loud volumes as my Khartagos, but as JohnK will tell you, it's more than enough for "safe listening levels". I'm gettin old anyway and I think I'll try to delay my hearing damage. Don't take me the wrong way, any normal person listening to loud volumes on the 3008 will tell you to turn the damn thing down! The 3008 will blast your ears off your head and do it cleanly. If I want to keep my hearing, I'll take my own advice and will NOT need to buy separate amps. (although then again...)
Whew! That's all folks! I can't recommend the Onkyo TX-NR3008 enough. For the money, this AVR will be tough to beat. Now I just have to hook up my "wides" and Heights" for 9.1 Bliss!
Dana
