Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Looks like it's time for a new reciever.

I connected the complete HT system yesterday aftenoon and of course had to crank it up, I noticed the Onkyo 502 was getting very hot, almost to the point of scary.

So, after having my wife feel the top of the reciever I got the go ahead for another reciever. That woman loves these speakers BTW.

Looks like I'm leaning towards the Denon 2805, Yamaha 2500 or maybe the Onkyo 702 because of the good reviews from here and other places. Is there any other A/V recievers along the line of the above units that you all would recommend?

Thanks.

Denon / Axiom is a very nice combo. I have a low end Denon and it powers the Epic80.

However, it will also get hot. All receivers will get hot, especially if you crank up the volume. Just how loud are you playing them? Do you have a big room? You may be dissapointed if you switch receivers and notice it is hot after cranking the volume up.

I see your Onkyo is rated at 75wpc. If you get a receiver with more power, it will likely get hotter. If you get one with less, you won't be able to crank the volume as much.

Is there another reason, other than heat, to replace the unit?

Onkyos tend to get hotter than Denon or H/K. I have the 2805 and love it, however you can get an H/K 235 or any of last years models really cheap right now. If I were buying right now I'd look at one of those.

Actually I thought the reciever was maybe a little small for the 60s and thus the reason for the heat, I'm not very savy with the technical side of A/V componets. I really like the 502 receiver, it's very easy to set up and to me it sounds great. But it seems like I really have to turn the volume way up to get goos sound, especially in HT.

On the technical side, what would be the difference between a 75 watt system like mine or say a 100-130 watt system like the Denon and etc. Is there such a thing as power 'matching' the receiver to the speaker system.

Oh, the room is 12x22 x 10 high

When i asked Axiom about powering my M60s, they recomended at least 100WPC, This being said most reciever manufacturers OVERATE the WPC. The exception to that rule is H/K which tends to underrate their WPC.
As far as 75WPC compared to 100WPC you are only going to get about 1-2 DBs more with 100WPC. Where more WPC comes into play is called "headroom". At any given point your reciever is only useing 1-5 WPC but at certain peaks in the music or soundtrack that number can jump up to 90-100 WPC (for a split second) and that is where you need more power to avoid clipping and distortion. IE "headroom'
This is how I uderstand that it works. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone will jump in and correct me.

Bob, are you sure that you didn't play your blowtorch over the top of the 502 before you brought your wife in to feel it? Just kidding, but if the 502 would get dangerously hot the protective circuit would shut it down. The difference between 75 watts and 120 watts, for example, is only 2dB(e.g 110dB on a momentary peak compared to 112dB)and you might never use it, depending on several factors.

If you want another receiver you might add the new HK 435 and 635(with the new auto-equalization developed by Dr. Toole's group)to your list for consideration.

As long as the speaker impedence is in the range the receiver can handle (which is true for M60s and any receiver) the only real "power matching" is "dividing your money between speakers and reciever so one doesn't run out of steam before the other". In other words the only "mismatch" in your system is that the M60s can handle more power than the receiver can comfortably put out for a long period of time.

Have you done any calibration to make sure the speaker levels are correct ? Sometimes (and I stress sometimes) having to crank an HT system up loud just means your center channel is set too low or your sub is set too low and you're cranking the sound to get the effect you wanted.

On the other hand, you have a reasonably big room (2640 ft3) so more power sure isn't going to hurt. Remember that all AV receivers run hot at the best of times because they have 5+ amplifiers idling and a big honkin' power supply for even a middling-sized receiver.

I think we're all saying "sure, there is a new receiver in your future but make sure you go up enough to make a real difference". The other option to consider is adding a big-ass stereo power amp to drive the 60s, letting the receiver drive the center and surrounds which won't put as much load and won't heat things up so much. One big question is how loud you like to play, don't suppose you have an SPL meter yet do you ? If you like "LOUD" (as opposed to just "loud") then a power amp might be a good option.

I don't know how good / current your Onkyo's "guts" are, ie whether power amp or new receiver is the best investment for the future.

Thanks for the tips and help everybody, I'll calibrate the system and if need be, upgrade at a later (or sooner) date. I will say whenever the reciever was hot I did have the music at a much louder level than it normally would be, but you know how it goes, every now and again you just have to crank it up a little.

I stopped by Best Buy and Circuit City on the way home from work today and just took a peek at the Yahamas, HKs, and Onkyos and noticed that all of the recievers that were on was warm to the touch so maybe it isn't a big deal.