200x5 for LSI's

MTXMAN

Hey guys i'm a regular customer to the car audio forums but now i'm looking toward an upgrade for my hometheatre. i'd like to go with the plk LSi9's front and rear and the LSiC for my center channel. at the moment i have a 100x5 onkyo reciever but i would like to give these beauties the full 200w that they want. my problem is trying to find a reciever that's 200x5 cause i don't want to add another speaker or two mainly because of space and cash restrictions and most of the high power recievers that i've seen are 6.1 or 7.1 (and around 2-4 grand) so if you guys could reccomend any good 5.1 recievers with 200w per channel i'd greatly appreciate it :D thanks a ton

fireshoes

See if you can find an older flagship model around. It might 'only' have 5 channels and no ProLogic II and such, but will still sound great. Otherwise, go for a nice used amp.

Tour2ma

If your Onk has pre-outs, the Sunfure Cinema Grand is a nice 5 x 200 wpc (8 ohm) amp. Some come thriugh ebay every little bit for ~$1200 for the series I's.

Frank Z

If you go used, make damn sure that the gear you are looking at can infact drive a 4 ohm (Lsi) speaker. Don't get excited by bells and whistles just yet, check the manufacturers spec's BEFORE you buy anything.

dorokusai

Welcome to the forum, we won't hold it against you

I would say that any normal call brand AVR, Sony/ Yamaha/ Denon/ Pioneer is not a popular choice for driving the LSi. When you get into LSi's you will see more premiuim AVR's like NAD/ B&K/ Rotel/ Outlaw/ etc. These lines will have to be shopped, and chosen.

The LSi's force you, IMO, to step up your thoughts on HT and what you want.

I think used gear is a great option, find a good deal, move forward with the setup. This will keep you 100% in your price range, and may offer you more bang for your buck.

danger boy

if your current Onkyo has preouts..... i'd look at adding a nice 200w (or less) external amp. It might save you some cash going that way... instead of trying to find a 200wpc receiver. even Onkyo's flagship i think is about 140wpc max.

Edit:

I think this is what you might be looking for 5 ch amp
Power at 4 Ohms 225 Watts

brettw22

Originally posted by Tour2ma
If your Onk has pre-outs, the Sunfure Cinema Grand is a nice 5 x 200 wpc (8 ohm) amp. Some come thriugh ebay every little bit for ~$1200 for the series I's.

Tour, since you're familiar with the "Sunfure" line, what's the difference between the Cinema Grand, and Theater Grand series amps? Always wondered that........

danger boy

Originally posted by brettw22
Tour, since you're familiar with the "Sunfure" line, what's the difference between the Cinema Grand, and Theater Grand series amps? Always wondered that........

a buttload of money


Sorwwy Brett, I couldn't help myself.

Tour2ma

brett,

The Cinema Grand is Sunfire's 5 (and now 7) ch power amp. Two models here, the Cinema and the Signature Cinema. They are 200 wpc and 400 wpc (8 ohm) respectively.

The Theater Grand is Sunfire's AVP.

Their receiver is the Sunfire Ultimate. It's 200 wpc.

The impressive thing about the technology here is that the amps are "load invarient". Means that if you halve the load impedance to 4 ohm, the power actually does double. Have it again to 2 ohm and only then does it begin to "fall off" at a measley 1.5 factor. In short the 400 wpc Sig Cin is a 400/ 800/ 1200 wpc amp at 8/ 4/ 2 ohms respectively...

The other neat thing about them is that the front channels have two pairs of outputs per channel. One pair is "voltage driven" and the other "current driven". The voltage driven is "sand amp" style and is generally used for driving woofers, whereas the current driven" mimics tube amp operation and is suggested for mid's and upper frequency.

You can bi-wire using both outputs to the appropriate speaker posts and get an interesting mix of warm mids and slamming bass. That Bob C. be a clever one he is...

gidrah

Get the speakers first. Try it on your receiver. The onk "should" be able to handle the load. If it suffers, then look for the amps that can produce the amps (current).

If your receiver can do 100 x 5 (constant) @ 8 Ohms, it's very likely to be able to do 200 x 5 (when needed) @ 4 Ohms which is what the LSi are rated for.

rickfaldo

Take this from a voice of personal experience, the Onkyo/Integra receiver will not drive LSi speakers. No ifs ands or buts, they don't make a good match. LSi speakers can dip to below 4 ohms which wil clip your receiver in a New York second. Save yourself the agro, get a power amp. If you truly want to make the speakers live up to their ability, separates are the only way to go....sad but true.
Good luck
Rick

danger boy

yes. that's what i've been saying all along.. an external amp is going to be the best way to go. there are lots of good amps out there. going with a 5 channel amp makes the most sense.. but there are other options. two stereo amps, and one mono block amp will do fine too.

I'd look for a amp in the hood of 150wpc at 8ohm which will give you around 200wpc @4ohms. That should drive just about any speaker with ease. My little 70wpc Marantz has no problem driving RTxxxi's. but then those speakers are rated at 8ohms. Adding external amps just gave me more umph to drive them with. and they sound better at 125wpc than they did at 70wpc.

goingganzo

my adcom drives my rt line ti the edge and back. comared to the recever the adcom has about dubble the power. but my onkyo is no slouch. but i payed almost 1.5 times more for the adcom than the onkyo 787.