LSIc Distortion during female voices

[J9_ls1]

With my receiver (Onkyo Txnr900) at regular volume, sometimes I can hear some distortion in the dialogue of news or shows. It sounds staticy. My setup is 1 lsic 2 lsi15's and 4 lsifx's. I do not think the speaker is damaged, but the problem seems to only be this speaker. Any suggestions?

[mantis]

Might be a bad speaker or the receiver is running out of gas.

Lsi speakers shouldn't be driven by that receiver.I would upgrade to something with more current.

Rotel and B&K come to mind.

Dan

[scottvamp]

sometimes I can hear some distortion in the dialogue of news or shows

It is probably your cable providers signal - who do you use???

[J9_ls1]

Actually, the receiver seems to be fine at 4 ohms. It is one of Onkyo's top of the line. I use Time Warner, but I also noticed it during a dvd.

[Emlyn]

The receiver is rated to handle 4 ohm speakers. The impedance setting should be set to 4 ohms in the internal set-up menu though (page 46 of the manual shows how).

Onkyo has been known in the past to have drop out problems with Dolby Digital, but I don't think their problems extended to this receiver as well.

There are a number of ways to troubleshoot to isolate the problem: switch cables from one speaker to another, run one of the front speakers as the center channel speaker, try a DVD with female voices, listen to the news, adjust the volume higher than normal to test, run some test tones at high volume, etc.

My guess is that there is either a damaged tweeter in the center channel speaker or the amp output section for the center channel has gone bad. Although Onkyo receivers are rated to handle 4 ohm speakers, they don't do it as well as high current receivers or separate amps, even at the top of Onkyo's line. If the receiver has been pushed too hard driving 7 LSis at the same time it may have caused damage to a speaker or to itself.

[F1nut]

The "Distortion during female voices' that you are experiencing is called sibilance, the sssssssss sound. It's not uncommon with solid state gear and digital sources.

[pjdami]

Originally posted by F1nut
The "Distortion during female voices' that you are experiencing is called sibilance, the sssssssss sound. It's not uncommon with solid state gear and digital sources.

I kind of think its sibilance as well. I had the same problem with difficulty understanding dialogue watching DVDs or tv shows with my LSi C. Call me insane, but swapping from Monster XP wire to Transparent did wonders. There is a lot of good wire out there as well. MIT and DH labs would also be good choices.

Kind of ironic, but last night I swapped back to Monster XP on the center and yep the problem came back again. Seems improbable, but at least in my system better wire seems to do wonders and I can definitely hear the difference because I can understand what's going on. I have also owned Onkyo and Yamaha receivers as well and my ears were quite sensitive to the sibilance that those receivers added to the sound. A little sibilance is natural of course, but when you can't understand what's going on then that's too much for me.

You may also want to use the rubber feet with the LSi C to isolate it (if you aren't allready) and aim the center towards your listening position.