[Critical50]

I bought a Sony Reciever STR-K790 and two Bose speakers for $70. I know Bose isnt really all that highly praised for audiophiles, but I figured for $70 its not a bad deal.
I played music through them, and the vocals were terribly drowned out. The guitars, bass, and drums were way louder.
With videogames, they sounded nice.
I found two used Polk speakers. The seller played music through them when I arrived, they sounded good so I gave him $50. Get home..and same exact thing. Music sounds awful, games sound good.
Both speakers also kinda crackle, or hiss when a bit of loud audio comes through the game.

The reciever also doesnt have any EQ options, from what I can see.
So..could the reciever be just old? It is a 250 watt.
Or should I just dump it, and get a new reciever? I dont mind spending $100-200 on a new one, but wasnt sure if this would be something I would have really cared for, so I bought some cheaper used ones to see the difference. Before anyone starts telling me about the dangers and risks of buying used..

 

[johnnyb]

After a while, some electronics can get worn out. Particularly capacitors. I have a Mitsubishi DA-A10DC, vintage late 1970's, but it has had it's power capacitors replaced. Still works great -- I have it hooked up to the living room entertainment center and it pumps out class-A goodness every day.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I bought a Sony Reciever STR-K790 and two Bose speakers for $70. I know Bose isnt really all that highly praised for audiophiles, but I figured for $70 its not a bad deal.
I played music through them, and the vocals were terribly drowned out. The guitars, bass, and drums were way louder.
With videogames, they sounded nice.
I found two used Polk speakers. The seller played music through them when I arrived, they sounded good so I gave him $50. Get home..and same exact thing. Music sounds awful, games sound good.

Check first if it has some kind of Dolby processing that forces 2ch audio to come out through 5ch. Look for the manual online and disable anything like Pro Logic. What it might be doing is taking some audio that is on both channels (ie, the vocals that are centered) and filtering it to play out of the center channel, which you don't have.

One other way to check is hook up just one of the speakers to the Center output and play music. If you get any sound at all, let alone clear vocals, there's some kind of processing being done to make a 2ch program play on 5 physichal channels.

Both speakers also kinda crackle, or hiss when a bit of loud audio comes through the game.

That could be from the receiver, but hard to tell if it's faulty or just a bad design.

So..could the reciever be just old? It is a 250 watt./QUOTE]

It's not that old save for newer HDMI features, but I'd still not be too confident about the quality of the amp circuit.