Reciever and/or amp for A9's

the black widow

I purchased some A9's over the weekend to replace an old set of sony towers. My reciever is about a 10 year old Sony 110x 5. I have an M&K 12' powered sub and a 73" Mitsubishi DLP TV. The speakers sound much better than the older Sony's but I know they have much more in them. Any suggestions as to a decent receiver and amp that I should look for. I'd like to stay in the $500-$1000 range for each. Thanks in advance

J

gfong

A lot of people recommend the Pioneer Elite series and I see a lot of people using the Onyko's. I am not sure about either as I have not owned one.
I have a Sony ES series and I like it a lot, great features, lots of power.

I'd start with a receiver and then if needed move up to an amp. The used market seems to be the recommend way on here for amps. good bang for your buck!
If you go this route ensure that your receiver has pre-outs.

slk55amg

I echo the above, I use a SONY ES 5300, very happy with its features ,power and build quality.

tonyb

Find a decent receiver with all the extra's you want,such as multiple HDMI inputs, video processing, and make sure it has preouts to add an amp. Pioneer,Onkyo,HK,Marantz, good places to start.

Sherardp

Check out the Pioneer SC 25 or SC 35 models. They are both in your price range and sound great with the A9's. Both models have preouts so you can add an amp if you feel the need to.

slk55amg

All of the choices Pioneer, Onkyo HK Marantz, all will be just fine, one thing if you buy new SONY ES products come with a 5 year warranty.

MCCOBRA

Pioneer rec, nad amp

MCCOBRA

Rotel is also great. Thats what im currnetly using

SRTer

the black widow wrote: »

I purchased some A9's over the weekend Any suggestions as to a decent receiver and amp that I should look for. I'd like to stay in the $500-$1000 range for each. Thanks in advance

J

Look, until you get a amp, you will need the most power you can find.

Pioneer Elite SC-35 is all I have to say. (I own one)

Anything less is uncivilized.

You need a receiver that can put out the power it is rated to while staying cool and distortion free. RTi A9?s will take as much power as you can give them. Pio Elite SC receivers don?t lose a lot of power when doing a 5.1 setup. They still deliver 95% of their power rating when bench tested by Home Theater .Com.

A Onkyo TX-NR807 would also be a good choice. Very nice sounding when I heard it against a Marantz and Pioneer Elite VSX-23 at Best Buy. It truly has a full and warm sound to it that I feel is desirable. If I do another set up, I would listen to it again.

Here is a site for a little study to help. I love the bench test information.

http://www.hometheater.com/av-receivers-buyers-guide

SRTer

MCCOBRA wrote: »

Rotel is also great. Thats what im currnetly using

Rotel is nice but it's up there in price. Can't be done for $1000.

I'm looking into Rotel for amps. Great products.

MCCOBRA

Check audiogon.com i picked up my rotel rb1095 for that. I also looked at ebay and while i didnt feel as comfortable i found my other rotel there in excellent condition. Both for the same amount. It can be done

MCCOBRA

Owned by the double post

dbaldus

Based on your price range, I'd go for a HK AVR 254 as your receiver and something like a Parasound, Rotel, Adcom, or Anthem on the amp for a good price/performance ratio.

dbaldus

You have a PM

mdaudioguy

dbaldus wrote: »

Based on your price range, I'd go for a HK AVR 254 as your receiver and something like a Parasound, Rotel, Adcom, or Anthem on the amp for a good price/performance ratio.

I tried a few options, but this is the approach I settled on - a low-priced, but decent quality AVR with all the bells and whistles I needed, plus pre-outs. Add an amp and presto! Sounds pretty darn good to me. Btw, I think the HK sound (warmth is what some call it) complements my RTi speakers nicely.

Welcome to Club Polk, TBW!

the black widow

Thanks for the input guys! I picked up the A6 Center channel today and a friend is looking to sell his Onkyo 905 7x140 . I am testing his receiver out and I still feel like it needs an amp. Would an Emotiva Xpa-3 do the trick??

WGDB

SRTer wrote: »

Look, until you get a amp, you will need the most power you can find.

Pioneer Elite SC-35 is all I have to say. (I own one)

Anything less is uncivilized.

You need a receiver that can put out the power it is rated to while staying cool and distortion free. RTi A9?s will take as much power as you can give them. Pio Elite SC receivers don?t lose a lot of power when doing a 5.1 setup. They still deliver 95% of their power rating when bench tested by Home Theater .Com.

A Onkyo TX-NR807 would also be a good choice. Very nice sounding when I heard it against a Marantz and Pioneer Elite VSX-23 at Best Buy. It truly has a full and warm sound to it that I feel is desirable. If I do another set up, I would listen to it again.

Here is a site for a little study to help. I love the bench test information.

http://www.hometheater.com/av-receivers-buyers-guide

Can be had on Ebay for $919.99 and then add a "Square Trade 3 year" for $165.00.

SRTer

the black widow wrote: »

Thanks for the input guys! I picked up the A6 Center channel today and a friend is looking to sell his Onkyo 905 7x140 . I am testing his receiver out and I still feel like it needs an amp. Would an Emotiva Xpa-3 do the trick??

I'm sure a Emotiva Xpa-3 will give you more power. I have never heard a Emotiva let alone any other amp on the RTiA9's.

However, Emotiva is normally looked down on around this forum. It has been considered a little harsh or bright by some causing fatigue. It is also thought to not be good for music focused systems.

Others say is great and find by them. Plenty clean power to shake the house. Good value. Great for HT.

I can't help you. Also, it seems that amps are a bit of weird science around here. Often seems if you spend more for it, the sound is better. Many will say by used hi-end amps.

I'm not it to that yet. I don't trust paying people thousands and waiting. I'm a cash and carry type of guy.

I only wish that there was a store with a few amps you can hear on different setups. I'm praying for Best Buy to pick up amps so I can listen to them before purchase.

aboroth00

SRTer wrote: »

I'm sure a Emotiva Xpa-3 will give you more power. I have never heard a Emotiva let alone any other amp on the RTiA9's.

However, Emotiva is normally looked down on around this forum. It has been considered a little harsh or bright by some causing fatigue. It is also thought to not be good for music focused systems.

Others say is great and find by them. Plenty clean power to shake the house. Good value. Great for HT.

I can't help you. Also, it seems that amps are a bit of weird science around here. Often seems if you spend more for it, the sound is better. Many will say by used hi-end amps.

I'm not it to that yet. I don't trust paying people thousands and waiting. I'm a cash and carry type of guy.

I only wish that there was a store with a few amps you can hear on different setups. I'm praying for Best Buy to pick up amps so I can listen to them before purchase.

I'm not at all convinced of judging differences between amps in a foreign environment. IMO, it's mostly all due to the room, the room can be made to sound bright and harsh (untreated), diffuse, damped and dull and so on.

I've had Acurus, NAD, Rotel, ATI, Denon, Onkyo, Emotiva, Aragon, pretty much all the usual suspects in the price range, and gosh darn it IMO they sound pretty similar. There are slight variations in sound amp to amp, but honestly it's never enough for me to say I wholly prefer one amp to the next. However, I'll give a big shout to ATI, just because they often get overlooked even though they're a great amp manufacturer in the USA with great build quality.

Of course any of the previous amps had plenty of juice to power the speakers. So my best piece of advice to you is: get a quality, powerful enough, amp (most amps below 1k) that isn't a receiver (too much juice going to power other things) to run your speakers and never look back. If you ever have the itch to upgrade, it's probably going to run you big bucks if you want a sizeable improvement (pure class A or tubes come to mind). Make one investment and honestly don't itch for something else!

Now you got great speakers, it's time to power them right and get a great room to go with those speakers! Means room treatments!

bsoko2

One thing nobody mentioned is the Room EQ that the reciever or prepro uses. You need to find this out then lookup the pros and cons of the EQ.