Onkyo vs other AVR's

meagabyte

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So this is something i have been mulling over for a number of years on and off.
When i first started my HT journey i went out and go a cheap set of MA bronze front and rears and a pair of 100 pound Wharfedale floor standers.
This was paired with an entry level onkyo and second hand yamaha sub.

It didnt sound bad at all but as the bug bit i started to upgrade. Swapped the amp for Yamaha and sub to SVS PB1000.
But i lost something doing this. the sound didnt sound as warm or rich.
At first i thought it was the Sub so this was replaced with a SVS PB2000 and while this made a big difference it still wasnt right.
So AVR was replaced with a Denon 4300 and sub with PC2000 (wanted some space back).

Again this sounded okay but seemed to be missing the warmth i was after. I thought maybe its the speakers as they had been very cheap.
so next upgrade from the front 3 that are now KEF R700 and R200C.
Again this was a lovely improvment but still not there yet.
I thought maybe it was the sub as my very first was sealed. So the PC2000 was replaced with a SB3000.

This has taken years to get to but i still feel like ive never gotten back to that lovely warm rich sound and im wondering if Onkyo just run all speakers hot to achieve this?

Has anyone moved away from an Onkyo avr and found this? or maybe moved to an Onlyo and noticed a difference in sound?
 
I had an Onkyo some years ago and if using the bright and warm terminology, I thought it was on the bright side of neutral.
 
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what do you mean by bright?
i think the term i use for my current setup would be clinical?
 
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@DodgeTheViper okay for me it was the other way around.
Mi55ion, not really sure to be honest. Havent tried REW or anything like that
 
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I should clarify, what type of room is it, much hard surfaces, carpet/hard floor, walls have bookshelves or just plain, any windows or large bi-fold doors etc? All these factors along with size of room and distance to MLP will affect what you hear.
 
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I should clarify, what type of room is it, much hard surfaces, carpet/hard floor, walls have bookshelves or just plain, any windows or large bi-fold doors etc? All these factors along with size of room and distance to MLP will affect what you hear.
Ah got you.
MLP is a large 3 seater couch, do have glass patio door on the left hand side but is covered by curtains. Floor has a rug lol. Room isnt big and is narrow.
but nothing has changed since moving from Onkyo to Denon.
 
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When it comes to audio, it's difficult to work from memory at the best of times so I wouldn't lend much credit to the idea that it was the Onkyo that was responsible for that warmer sound. Onkyo had a reputation for sounding bright/clinical but then I find a lot of AVRs sound that way due to their pre-amp section and lower powered amps.

Sometimes distortion or excessive bass can come across as sounding warm. If you take that away with better/cleaner bass response, you're left with a lot of room reflections that may have been previously masked by the excess bass, these reflected sounds can make the system appear bright and fatiguing over longer listening periods. So as your system has improved over the years, you've lowered overall distortion levels to a point now where the only variable that remains is the room itself. I would therefore suggest looking into addressing the room acoustics. This video is a good introduction to just how much the room can affect what you hear, very much worth a watch if you get some time:

 
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i shall certainly give this a watch. was just curious if anyone had had this moving to or from Onkyo as im sure ive seen others mention it.
 
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