Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions AXIOM Speaker and Onkyo TX-DS797

Hi, I finally able to setup (Hardware setup) my HT, and during the receiver setting setup (while reading the onkyo manual), there are some settings which i need to verify to anyone who uses onkyo tx-ds797 (I believe Cheeseroo has). Some of my question is a generic question to proper setting the HT system, so if you can provide me some advise to experience my Axiom speakers i'll appreciate it.

SYSTEM:
receiver:Onkyo tx-ds797
speakers:front l/r M50ti, center - vp100, surround l/r/back - QS4.

1. The ONKYO manual says in order to experience THX, you need to set all your speakers settings to "small". But then some of the magazine review that I read, says for front speakers if you are using Floor standing, set it to "Large". Can anyone tell me what setting should I really select in order to experience my speakers?

2. This is basically for those who have TX-DS797, when I first tried my setup using my TV Stereo out as my Source, I can't hear anything on my speakers (my volume level is already at 30 (max volume level is 100) not in db). At first I thought there's a problem either on my receiver audio inputs or connections, so I switch to VCR as my source, but still I'm not hearing anything. I'm already thinking of returning back my receiver but decided to give one last attempt by adjusting the volume up, then at volume level 50 i started hearing the sounds. So my question for those who have the same receiver that I have, is this normal? I haven;t tried the DVD yet as I am still waiting for my digital and component cables to arrive.

I know this is off the topic, so if you want please just email me your reply at seanandredj@cs.com. If you could also give me some audio setup advise for your tv, vcr, cd and dvd source (such as listening mode, pl11 or neo6 etc etc) to achieve and experience the best sounds that I am seeing on this forum for the axiom speakers, i really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance....

Sean, so far as generic advice would go, it would depend on whether you're using a subwoofer, which you don't mention. You should have the speaker which is most capable of handling low and mid bass handling the bass. If that's a sub, then all other speakers should be set "small" to allow the sub to handle what it does best. The sub crossover should be bypassed if it has that option or turned up to its maximum setting to get it out of the way of the receiver crossover. If there's no sub, then the center and surrounds should be set "small" and the M50s "large" so that the M50s handle all the bass, which they do well, but not as good as a good separate sub.

Hi seanandredj

To help get you going, here is a link to a Sound and Vision online article about setting up your speakers for home theatre (includes info on subwoofers):
Sound and Vision article online

The point of setting your speakers to 'small' , even if they are actually 'large' floorstanding models, is useful IF you have a subwoofer. By using the 'small' setting, your main speakers are being held to playing sounds above a certain range of frequences (called a crossover point). I believe on the Onkyo 797 this frequency is around 80Hz but don't quote me on that, i haven't looked it up.. Essentially, your subwoofer will play most of the music/sounds below 80Hz while your floorstanding speakers will play the range of sound above that level (i'm noting that i've left out info on frequency dropoff/rolloff here so no one gets too excited on me).
If you were to leave your Onkyo settings at 'large' then the floorstanding speakers will play their entire range of frequencies which will overlap sound frequencies from your subwoofer. Often the sounds then become what many people describe as mushy or muddy.
However, even though i have read articles and heard opinions on setting your speakers to 'small' and leaving the subwoofer to handle those low end frequencies, i've personally found that i like the sound of my M60s playing notes below the 80Hz range especially for music. I find that my EP350 sub does not have the tight bass sound that i like in that sound range. (I purchased my subwoofer more for the HT rather than music although the odd time my fiance listens to pipe organs...).
Anyways, in order to get my M60s to mesh well with the subwoofer (to remove the muddy sound) when the Onkyo speaker settings are set to 'large' i have turned down my subwoofer crossover (on the back of my EP350 there is a dial, several actually) to about the 55Hz range. In using this dial you can set the subwoofer crossover lower than what the Onkyo uses when your settings are on 'large' for the main speakers.
I rather enjoy the tight bass that the M60s put out for music and the sub only kicks in when music notes go below the 55Hz range or so.
You can see a poll that was setup awhile ago asking what other people were using for subwoofer crossover settings (but keep in mind there's more info missing from this poll that would make a difference in the selections)
sub crossover poll

Basically you can select either 'large' or 'small' options with the Onkyo and then tinker with your sub settings to see what sounds best to you. I would highly recommend using that Sound and Vision article as a starting point and go from there.

As for the Onkyo volume, yes, you really have to turn the sucker up.
The first time i listened to music i was shocked at how high i needed to turn the volume dial. My typical music listening level has the Onkyo set around 60-70 (using the same scale as you) and my typical dvd movie listening level is between 70-75 depending on how the movie sound was mixed. Believe me when i say, i have yet to get the volume above 83 due to extreme sound pressure!!

Feel free to send me a private message via these forums if you want to discuss the Onkyo more. Lando and i are enveloped in a conversation about DTS at the moment.

Thank you very very much cheesero and Johnk and Rob(sent me an email yesterday) for your advise. I feel so relieve now knowing that the volume for onkyo really starts at around 50 and it's not a defective unit. Johnk, unfortunately and due to lack of budget I don't have a sub yet, so for now by default if I set no sub on my receiver, the front will automatically set to large. I was just a little confused when the manual says for THX setup, set the speaker to small and some reviews that says floor standing must be set to large....but anyway you answered it all....and thank Cheeseroo for the link i'll read on that....

You guys are all amazing...thank you very much once again :-)

I dont have axiom speakers but I do have the 797 and have had it for a while. If you want a source to appear louder at lower volume this is what you do: while in the source mode you want louder, i.e. cd, fm, dvd, etc... on your remote hit setup and scroll thru to option 2 on the menu (input setup), hit enter and scroll until you reach (intelli-volume) it can be adjusted from -12 to +12, it basically ramps up the power of the source signal before its amplified so it seems louder. Its also useful for leveling out volume between sources, my radio reception is low where i live so i have the intellivolume set high on that so it matches the cd volume so i can swtich between the 2 without having to adjust volume.