# newbie scratching his head



## 0750turbo (Dec 13, 2011)

This will be a long post but I always am one that appreciates more information than less so hopefully you do too!
When I was in high school (mid to late 80's) I was really into listening to music. Fortunately my dad was as well and bought me some pretty cool gear even though we were from a modest background. I remember being the first person in my school to have a CD player and it was like $800 or something outrageous. Also had a Yamaha C-40 and M-40 (which I still have), and tuner.
I started my family at a young age and kind of got out of listening to music on a serious level. My wife of 19 years and I had a surprise 3rd child almost a year ago. It's sad that everything has gotten smaller and smaller and now my wife, who loves to listen to music, listens to her ipod on a 4" speaker. We have since moved into a new house that has less land and is much larger. I now have a finished basement to play in and started thinking about getting a decent TV and a couple of speakers. I ran across an add in Craigslist and picked up some brand new Klipsch speakers for a great price. I purchased the following:

Klipsch RF-82
Klipsch RF-52
Klipsch RSW-10d
Klipsch RC-62

Now, I've always been one to buy quality things that will last awhile. Since I now had a decent surround set to start with, I rationalized in my mind that I needed a good receiver and blu-ray to go with it. When I got home yesterday, a new Onkyo-TX-NR709 and Oppo BD-93 were there waiting for me which was a pleasant surprise because they were supposed to come today. As a side note, Amazon is amazing because I ordered the receiver on Friday and the Blu-Ray on Saturday and had both yesterday.
So, with the helpful hands of my 11 month old last night, I got everything out of the box, temporary wires run on the ground and basic sound working.
After the wife and little one went to bed, I tried running the Audyssey setup. I had just started running it when my son came home and was in the kitchen. He said the floor started shaking and all the plates and glasses were clinking. If you have run it, you know that at the very beginning, it does a subwoofer test that keeps going until you hit "next" which I didnt' realize and was kind of standing there smiling and also worried about waking the wife and kid up and then realized I needed to hit "next".
Anyhow, I tried running three times and while it did pick up the speakers each time (which sounded like aliens talking to me), it failed to recognize the subwoofer even though it was "playing". I tried it with the volume full up on the sub and also about half way. I also tried with the Low pass on (I think that is what it is called) and the herz setting at half and still no luck.

1. So, my first question is if anyone has a suggestion on how to get this to work?

2. Next, I'm wondering if anyone kind tell me a recommended setup for all of the settings on the receiver with my setup? I have read the manual twice and while I understand "how" to do things, it doesn't give me a sense of "what is best" for my situation.

3. If I wanted to connect the Yamaha M-40 into the system with the goal of adding to available power rather than using it to power a different room setup, how would I do that and would you suggest using it to power the fronts only or fronts and center channel? Alternatively, would it be better to use it to bi-amp the fronts and if so how do you that? I think I also saw something in the manual about bi-amping the fronts with the 6th and 7th channels as well since I'm running 5.1 (don't let the fact that I'm using some of the lingo give you an idea that I know what I'm talking about at an deep level!).

4. I am currently doing all this with an 8 year old (appx.) Hitachi rear projection TV. I tried playing around with the Oppo late last night. When I power it on, it shows the Oppo screen but then my TV starts to flicker and some of the different resolution things flash in the corner like it's trying to figure out what setting to go to and then it goes black with white fuzzy/wavy lines. I'm thinking that my TV can't support what it is sending. The good news is that I have a Samsung 55" 6000 LED 1080P 120HZ that is supposed to land on Tuesday so I'm going to wait until then to worry about the Blu-Ray player at which point I may have more questions.

5. Is there anyone in the Indianapolis area that would enjoy coming by and personally helping? I can promise unlimited drinks of your choice and a good time.

I appreciate your assistance.

Craig


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## Sweetmeat (Nov 19, 2011)

0750turbo said:


> This will be a long post but I always am one that appreciates more information than less so hopefully you do too!
> When I was in high school (mid to late 80's) I was really into listening to music. Fortunately my dad was as well and bought me some pretty cool gear even though we were from a modest background. I remember being the first person in my school to have a CD player and it was like $800 or something outrageous. Also had a Yamaha C-40 and M-40 (which I still have), and tuner.
> I started my family at a young age and kind of got out of listening to music on a serious level. My wife of 19 years and I had a surprise 3rd child almost a year ago. It's sad that everything has gotten smaller and smaller and now my wife, who loves to listen to music, listens to her ipod on a 4" speaker. We have since moved into a new house that has less land and is much larger. I now have a finished basement to play in and started thinking about getting a decent TV and a couple of speakers. I ran across an add in Craigslist and picked up some brand new Klipsch speakers for a great price. I purchased the following:
> 
> ...


1). Sounds like you're using Audessy to EQ and level set your speakers. If that's true and your sub is playing during that process, I'm not sure why it's not recognizing the sub. If the sub isn't playing DURING the EQ'ing, I'd check the AVR manual to see if there's a setting to indicate that a sub should be used. 

2). I'd bet that there is a forum specifically related to your receiver line. I'd search for your model through google and find forums that have threads for it. That would be the best possible place to get advice on how best to setup your system.

3). Bi-amping should provide more power to the speakers that you'll have attached to the Onkyo since your other speakers will no longer require power from it. I don't know the measured specs for the M40 but looks like it has higher power than the Onkyo, but many times specs are deceiving. Neither amp had the spec of "all channels driven", so I doubt they would achieve the published watts into all speakers.


4). Can't help you here, but sounds like you have a nice new solution anyway!

5). I'd love to help out and have a few drinks, but I'm in Kansas City! 

Good luck!!!


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

Welcome aboard.

Cheers,
Bill.


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## NegativeEntropy (Apr 22, 2009)

Welcome!

Just a quick reply on question #1. I had this exact same issue 2 days ago. The problem I had was that my sub was too loud. I'd get "Sp err" or something similar, indicating Audyssey was not seeing (well, hearing) my sub.

When the Audyssey setup begins, it played the sub and displayed the db reading. I had to adjust my sub until the reading was 75 db - then it all worked as it should. For reference, my little 10" sub is ~6' from the microphone and I had to turn its volume down to about 2 of 10 to get 75 db displayed.

Part of my problem was that I did not have my display on (a projector) at first - the full display gives much more verbose instructions than the receiver's little screen.

Good luck and have fun!


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