Onkyo 6.1 receiver shuts off at moderate high volume?

Question

I have 2 Onkyo receivers TX SR601 and TX NR801. I've had both hooked up to my home theater (6 HIGH-end Boston Acoustic speakers and a powered (w/amp) Boston Acoustic subwoofer). When a loud sound comes up on a movie the receiver kicks out (protect mode). It's not real loud....but I need it to be at that level for the home theater. I need to squeeze a little more volume out of the amp. I've inspected and cleaned up all speaker wiring and had CircuitCity FireFox folks look at it...they said that I might consider adding a pre-amp for the 6 speakers. Your thoughts??

Answer 1

A pre amp will not fix your problem. More than likely you have a damaged speaker or wiring that still functions but barely. You may want to look at better and thicker speaker cable to help remedy the problem. Since the problem shows up with both receivers i would wager the issue is in the speaker. Make sure you settings are correct first. Next eliminate one speaker out of the bunch at a time to see if it is damaged, then investigate the wiring.

And by the way as a former Best Buy manager, I know with all certainty that no one from CC or BB has a clue when dealing with home theater!

Answer 2

If both receivers are doing the same thing then it is one of the speakers that has an internal short. Try it again on a scene that would send the receiver into protection but disconnect one of the speakers and see if it still does. If it does, reconnect and try disconnecting a different one and so on. If it stops shutting off with one of the speakers disconnected you have found your culprit. repair or replace that speaker. Good Luck. Don't ask CC or BB guys, you will only hurt their brains. A Pre-Amp wouldn't help (if it is a problem with the receiver an amp, not a pre-amp, will help but it is unlikely since both receivers are having the same problem)

Answer 3

Quick answer. If your receiver cant put out what the speakers can take in then you might have power level problems. Or even if you speakers cant take in what your receiver puts out. If your 6 speakers take so much that your receiver cant put out the same it will trip and go to protective mode.

Answer 4

I am merely a lowly BB guy so honored to be in the presence of such a sage as miguel but here is what I would do.  

1) Verify phase (polarity)

2) Ohm out the speakers ensure they are all the same

     a) next ohm them out under a load.

3) if all checks out then maybe a pre-amp would have helped before you fried both of your receivers but it is too late I have seen this more than once service probably won't help even though it has its own on-board diagnostics.  

Just curious if this is happening right before a scene with decent bass notes.  The reason I ask is that it is the most difficult frequency to "power".  Also I would just be curious if either of these receivers were ever used under multizone conditions or not.  

Obviously I am biased but  Fire Dog is fairly new guy on the block if you got ahold of a Veteran (of the audiophile persuasion) Magnolia HT installer (now GS) you would be in good hands.  At the end of the day I hope you figure it out it might be worth sending them to service if they are still under warranty.

Answer 5

You have done the right things by checking the wiring. And I agree that a pre-amp will do NOTHING to solve your problem.

Question: Does your receiver think your main/center/rear speakers are LARGE or SMALL?

If any of them are "LARGE", your receiver is sending low frequency sounds to them. This large spike of power causes your receiver to go into protect mode.

Make sure your speakers are all defined as SMALL so the receiver feeds things to the self-powered sub.

Answer 6

A pre-amp likely has nothing to do with your problem and will do nothing to address your issue. For louder sound, you need a 'beefier' power amp. Also, a pre-amp goes between your sources and the power amp. The thing driving your speakers is the power amp.

If the reciever is going into protection mode, it is because of your power amp. My bets are there is something wrong either with the electronics or the way it is wired. There are a couple of things you could look at :

a> you can configure the front, centre and rear speakers to have a higher frequency cut-off (thereby making the receiver use less power .. pumping bass takes the most power and you have a powered sub-woofer for that purpose).

b> ensure you are not connecting the speaker output to the sub. You should be using the line output.

c> ensure your boston acoustics speakers are not 2 ohm. Your onkyo receivers will not be able to drive them and will likely overheat.

d> usually the amps cut off due to 'thermal' overload. Try some extra cooling .. however, we are getting into strange territory ...

Answer 7

Receivers can shut down for various reasons.

-Heat. Ensure you have adequate ventilation and nothing is on top or preventing airflow around the unit.

-Short circuits. Check your wiring, Make sure all connections are tight and not touching, especially if you have recently moved or changed connections. Speakers can go bad also causing that specific channel to short out.

-Over driving the Amp. At very high volume levels receivers can "protect" themselves by temporally shutting down.

It appears you are overdriving the amp in your situation. Both these receiver are at least 100W and should more than adequately handle the load from your speakers.

If you're comfortable with this, here is a "note" from Onkyo : "Look under the wide ribbon cable going to the front panel. There is a cluster of components on the main board that make 12V and 6V power for different things. There is a pair of 12 ohm and a 1 ohm resistor. These run very hot and over time will take out the motherboard underneath.

Sounds like you may need a service center.