Hello. I am new to home theatre and would appreciate any comments. I just purchased a Pioneer VSX D814 and a JBL 180.6 speaker system. So far I have just listened to the tuner and have not hooked up the sub because I think the receiver may be defective. I cannot get a lot of sound out of this system. I have to crank the volume to where is starts to destort to get it to play even remotely loud. My old 2 channel Pioneer that has less power blows it away. Is my reciever defective or is this typical of a home theatre system. It appears I hooked everything up correctly. I thought 100 watts x 6 would really crank.
I don't expect them to crank like my old floor standing speakers, but they are not much louder than the Harmon Kardons on my computer. I had small box speakers in my boat that ran of a car stereo that really performed. I thought the performance of my new system would be similar.
Nicholas, Can you hook up your old floor standers? Of course, you'd want to switch off any surround mode and listen in straight stereo. If you have trouble recreating volume levels achieved by your old Pioneer, then maybe the new receiver is defective.
Thanks John. I tried that and the old receiver seemed much stronger. I may have has the new reciever on surround, the speakers set on small, and the default sub crossover setting at 100. I will try again tonight. It seems likes on the new reciever I have to turn the volume up a lot before you even start to really hear anything.
Thanks for your input John. I put the speakers on large, subwoofer no, and in stereo mode. The receiver is about as loud as my old pioneer vsx 3300, but does not deliver as much bass. Maybe that is the sacrifice I pay for buying a 6 channel receiver that is less than $ 250 ? The old receiver also has a five band eq if that makes any difference. The new unit does sound clean though. You were right about the volume control difference.
