Stereo Update

My back is getting over carrying the Subwoofer, and then the Onkyo Receiver home from the local 'Post in a Shop', up the steep hill to my house. The back pain came a day or two later, and I'm just getting over it..

Of course, deciding to refurnish the 'stua' to suit the stereo system didn't help any, as I have a hell of a lot of books, and boy are they heavy!

I've moved the bookcases and shelves to their end sites, but there are still large 'movers boxes' of books waiting to take their new places on the shelves.

Moving the bookcases and a few pictures uncovered some pretty resistant dust stains that had to be washed as well as possible where they had become exposed.

So, the end wall of my stua now has three book shelves, where the TV takes centre place on top of a now unused Soundbar. On its left is the Onkyo NR-535 Receiver, and to its right is the Pioneer Blu-ray player BDP-450. All in rather uninspiring black boxes.. oh yes, and I have an Airport Express providing audio from iTunes to the PC Input. Hardly any visible wires these days with HDMI cables between the devices, and a short Optical from TV to the Receiver :)

The basic 2.1 sound is surprisingly good! Those old Sony SS A-705s are remarkable. Mind you they cost a bit back there when the kids were young.

Only snags/Cons; the Blu-ray Remote (like many) is hopeless. It was ages before I pressed something and suddenly saw SACD video.. come to think of it, they might have an Android app, though I don't feel like spending more on a Pioneer Wifi option. Why couldn't they have built it in like Onkyo do?

BUT, I'm damned happy with the result, and can recommend both the Onkyo and Pioneer devices to anyone reading this.

The Onkyo NR535 plays well

I nearly killed myself carrying the Jamo SUB 260 up the steep hill home, and a day or two later I made the same trip with the Onkyo NR535, which was a few kilos lighter, but my back was beginning to react.

Putting the system together physically was no problem. The same Sony SS-A701's 45-20000 Hz. Unfortunately there was no -3dB or whatever indication on the sheet I had. So things ended up being more manual than I thought it would be, considering the advanced nature of the Onkyo!

The Jamo SUB 260 caused more trouble than it should. Some text to go with the installation diagrams might have helped.

I did a lot of surfing for help on the latter, and was surprised to find little, though that little led me to manual adjustments via Setup which fixed the problem :)

"If it is a negative figure then turn the gain on the sub down a bit and rerun the auto setup. This will mean the amp will send a stronger signal to the sub which should help it to wake up."

The problem?

The SUB worked OK for 20 minutes with the On/off switch in Auto On. You couldn't turn the auto aspect off ! The Automatic Speaker Setup using a microphone at the listening spot did its work, but came up with two errors; it found the SUB to be 33 cm beyond the Front Left instead of 50 cm nearer the listener. Not sure what that contributed to ref the 2nd more important error. It set the SUB level at -5dB. This wasn't enough low frequency umph to trigger the SUB back on after its 20 minute time out even though the SUB was working somewhat right up to the Off point.

So I manually adjusted the subwoofer level in Hardware settings until the SUB reacted at ca +11dB, and then I backed off a touch to +10. Might be able to drop that a touch more after some days experience.

It has been working fine now for an hour or so, banging out Art Blakey drums, and Count Basie big band stuff. Not my favourites, but good test pieces :)

That's it for now. My middle back is still uncomfortable..

My Sony Stereo system has given up the ghost

After many years of excellent service it has retired to the cellar room, and I've ordered a reasonable replacement, an Onkyo NR535 5.2 Receiver, together with a Jamo SUB 260 Woofer.

The Sony SS-A701 Front speakers are still going strong, with 45 Hz to 20 KHz response :)

I spent a couple of hours searching for the latter's specifications without luck, but eventually found them inside the old Stereo manual, which I nearly threw out. There was a single sheet which I'll copy here in case it'll help someone else locate them some time in the future..

I'll continue in a few days time with a mini review of my experience setting the new system up.