OP
- Thread Starter
- #281
Wow, great find!
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Pioneer VSX-LX505 AVR Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
OP
- Thread Starter
- #282
Well, it clearly fails that based on my testing. It cannot produce power past 35 seconds at just 44 watts let alone full power.
Mostly because I assumed the two were the same! - I didn't assume that the protection mode was a total shutdown... (which would be obvious, and would not require a monitoring indicator...)
Is it possible people with these AVR's are experiencing protection mode and not even realize it? How does the sound change when it engages? Does anyone even know?
Or in other words, do I need Hypex power amps without knowing it
Overkill given that the DACs only have 97 SINAD
I wondered about this. I bought the Pioneer for the processor functions, not the convenience amps, but I did use it set up 5.1.4 with the internal amps for a while, and was not very happy with the audio quality. I swapped an old Emotiva UPA-500 for the five main channels and it sounds a lot better, more enjoyable. I'd move the UPA-500 to drive the height speakers and buy something else for the main five (or seven if I decide to add in surround back).
I understand the frequent (nearly universal) suggestions to upgrade with Hypex based power amps (Buckeye most frequently recommended), Amir gave a great review and they seem to be universally acclaimed here; but I wonder if the Emotiva BasX series might be a reasonable solution for those of us (like me) who are on a budget. It's a big difference, the six channel Buckeye is $1400 vs. the five channel BasX at $600. The eight channel Buckeye is about $1800 vs the seven channel BasX for $700. After all, I bought the Pioneer because it was the least expensive way to get a processor with Dirac Live. Given the inherent limitations of the Pioneer's DAC's, perhaps the BasX would be adequate to enjoy the music.
Amir recommended the BasX A-500 (with some caveats), but since his review was published, the amplifier has been revised, for better or worse, or perhaps the same.
Has anyone had any experience with the BasX series?
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OP
- Thread Starter
- #291
You still need the indicator as lack of output could be for other factors (wrong input selected, input muted, etc.). This is why protection mode always has an indicator.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #292
The de-factor standard is 1 watt. Problem with that is that you are basically measuring noise level as distortion is routinely much lower at that power level. Also, times have changed and speakers have become more compact and hence less sensitive. And amplifier distortion has gotten lower. Both of these motivated me to go up to 5 watts to get a more realistic power measurement.
Note that full power sweep is available from the graphs if you want to know it at 1 watt or some other value.
So is the indication on the web interface an indication of overall shutdown, or an indication of "nanny circuit" engagement?
Makes a big difference - as I have 4 ohm speakers, which are a particularly difficult load (tweeter drops down to 1.6ohm) - and the AVR sounded very poor handling them...
With external amps everything was (is!) fine... but if the Web interface was not indicating "nanny mode" as I assumed - then I may have experienced the audible impact of "nanny mode" without realising it... (in which case - mea culpa....)
I did find that the AVR could handle the Center channel, if the L/R mains were on external, without the audible degradation happening - that is to say it could handle 1 difficult load speaker, but not 3....
But without an indicator that shows whether Nanny mode has been activated - it becomes well nigh impossible to know what was going on!! (grrr)
I did know that the power amps were the achilles heel of this design, and was planning on using it primarily as a prepro... so it is not a huge deal - but still!
OP
- Thread Starter
- #294
Protection circuit. Not power limiting.
Then I apologise... mea culpa...
It well may be that I indeed experienced the power limiting.
If anyone knows of a way to confirm whether or not the AVR is in power limiting mode - could they please post it!!
(might there be an error log of some sort we could get access to? after all, it is software!)
More importantly, what is that of the brick, concrete and glass roomDown this path lies madness...- what is the SINAD of your speakers?
I previously mentioned that I heard relays clicking while my Pioneer was operating (5.1.4) on the internal amps. I subsequently put the five main channels on an external amp (an old UPA-500) leaving the internals with the height channels. In addition to improved audio quality, I no longer hear any relays clicking.
ivo.f.doma
Active Member
From what I have been able to determine the only way to determine it has occurred is that you'll hear the distortion caused by clipping at high volume. For a pair of 90dB efficient speakers at 10 feet we're talking 96.3dB plus with 20W. For my 7 channel system of 98dB efficient speakers it would be 109.8dB. That's freakin' loud.
Martin
My symptoms were more subtle - speakers are 86db/wm so less efficient... but at around 75db (@ MLP) the midrange sounded congested, soundstage collapsed along with a loss of imaging.... definitely something going on with the amps.
Not as obvious as clipping. - problem completely disappeared when using external amps, even if only for L/R (leaving C on the AVR)
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