I just bought an Onkyo TXSR703 receiver that I plan to use with my Polk Audio In wall speakers. Just to test the receiver before I put everything in, I plugged in my old Yamaha NS P236 surround speakers (100 Watts, Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83Vm, Impedence: 6 ohms) and turned it on. The sound is really nice but here is what I am kinda worried about, the receiver sound meter goes from 1 to 100 but once I play a CD I have to go as far as 35-40 before I hear any sound from the speakers, when watching DVD I have to have the sound cranked up to 70 before it's loud enough. My friend who has an Onkyo said that's how his is also. Is that the way it supposed to be or I am missing something?
The numbers on the dial mean little. It depends on how the amp is designed. My onkyo 601 has to be at abouy 60 for movies (-21 on the absolute scale). My HK receiver has to be at -30 (scale -85 to 0) for it to be loud enough, while my Old Sony needs to be at 50 (scale 0 to 70).
The issue isn't the number, it is, does the receiver play loud enough, without distortion?
Onkyo receivers have intellivolume. Go into input setup in the onscreen menu. Turn up the input volume on the DVD input to +3 or so.