Pioneer Elite and Polk LSi's

falconcry72

How do the Pioneer Elite SC Series of receivers do running an all LSi setup? i.e., 15's, a C, and FX's.

I'm thinkin' about going LSi, so I'm trying to plan out the surrounding electronics. I know an external power amp is ideal, but can a SC-37 drive them well? Like really well?

codyc1ark

My 25 drove my 9's and center fine, however I didn't push it too much off of the avr. When I added my first amp, it was a huge improvement. I wouldn't be comfortable running a 5.0 4ohm setup off of my avr for any lengthy period, even if it is a hefty one...

nwohlford

There are some issues with the ICE amps that Pioneer used and 4 ohm speakers. At lower levels they should be fine, but probably no increase in power over 8 ohm speakers before clipping. The new series of SC receivers are thought to have addressed this issue.

falconcry72

hmm... I was hoping to hear that the Elite SC's were more capable.

I could drive them off (3) Adcom GFA-545's... they're only 100 WPC, but they handle low imp. loads with ease, and kick major butt.:cheesygrin:


You should know, Neil, I bought a couple of'em off you.

tonyb

falconcry72 wrote: »

hmm... I was hoping to hear that the Elite SC's were more capable..

They are capable, just not ideal. Look at it like this, would you power the Maggies off a receiver ? Give the LSI's the same thought if you want them to sound their best.

heiney9

The 545's will run LSi's all day long provided you aren't at insane levels and have in a large room. I ran a single 545 for my 2 channel with LSi 9's and it never broke a sweat until you really listened loud.

H9

PSOVLSK

heiney9 wrote: »

The 545's will run LSi's all day long provided you aren't at insane levels and have in a large room. I ran a single 545 for my 2 channel with LSi 9's and it never broke a sweat until you really listened loud.

H9

Same experience for me, except I had the Adcom running R/L in my HT setup. My H/K 7300 (flagship model) was running pretty hot so I added the Adcom to give the H/K a break. I didn't really notice any improvement in sound quality, but it probably saved my avr from an early death.

falconcry72

heiney9 wrote: »

The 545's will run LSi's all day long provided you aren't at insane levels and have in a large room. I ran a single 545 for my 2 channel with LSi 9's and it never broke a sweat until you really listened loud.

H9

That's what I figured. I guess I'll just stick with my current Denon 3805 as pre and GFA-545's for power until I need to uprade to bluray.

When I do go to the hi-def formats, are there any surround processors that do hdmi, 1080p, DTS-MA, and DDTHD better than an Elite SC for less money???

angelsfann02

The Adcom 545 is a very capable amp. Unless you plan to listen at insanely high levels, the 545 will handle a pair of lsi's. You could score an Adcom 5503 for 2 fronts and the center, and run the rears off your receiver...

mantis

Only very few AVR's do well with 4 ohm loads. THe Pioneer SC models can run 4 ohm loads pretty well. I'd prefer to have a external power amp to drive all my 4 ohm channels.
Standard practice when purchasing 4 ohm load speakers should automatically steer you into separates. No reason to strain a AVR into running at peak and sounding strained. IF an AVR is your game then 6-8 ohm load speakers should follow.
NAD , Rotel , Cambridge are a few that run 4 ohm loads well and don't sound like they are at the end of their abilities. Yamaha , Denon , Pioneer , Onkyo , Marantz , Sony , Etc all have limits and don't allow your 4 ohm load speakers to perform their best.
Lsi's are power hungry and why buy them if your not going to power them correctly.

falconcry72

mantis wrote: »

...why buy them if your not going to power them correctly.

I guess I just have an affinity for watching Polk speakers writhe in pain...

In all seriousness, though, I do want to power them properly; that's kind of, like, the reason that this thread exists.

syntheticzero

I just purchased an NAD integrated amp for my Lsi9's --- the C 326BEE, around $550 (I don't fully understand why integrated amps are all so much cheaper than power amps, but whatever). It is fully stable for 2 channels of 4 ohm loads, and it sounds absolutely beautiful (I listened to them with some small B&W speakers at the store, and it sounded fabulous --- it sounds very good with my Lsi9's as well). I had been running my Lsi9's off of an old Onkyo TX-NR806 receiver, which worked at first, but after a couple of years it started to act erratically, first cutting out randomly and eventually the HDMI switching circuitry started to simply fail. Needless to say I wasn't that impressed with Onkyo reliability.

So, I had to replace my receiver. Initially my plan was to run the NAD and get a relatively inexpensive receiver to drive the 8 ohm rears and subwoofer... however, there really aren't any inexpensive receivers with preouts anymore. Yamaha used to provide full 7.2 preouts in the old RX-V667, but the new RX-V771 no longer has preouts (GRR!). However, the Yamaha RX-A810 DOES have full 7.2 preouts, and so does the RX-A1010, which I managed to get at the super low price of $699 from a discounter (I think he was really trying to make a sale, because that's about $300 less than the going price I've seen elsewhere).

The manual says the RX-A1010 can drive 4 ohm speakers. However you're supposed to put it in "6 ohm mode" and I doubt it will really work any better than the Onkyo did. So, my total outlay for all this is now around $1300... (it would have been closer to $1600 if I hadn't gotten the killer deal from the discounter). But, it does sound absolutely terrific. I had been considering an Emotiva XPA-3 but it looks so large and really I didn't need anything quite that stupendous --- the NAD is really plenty of amp for my needs. It's an integrated amp but I'm really just using it as a dumb power amp --- I just leave the volume at a fixed position and run the preouts from the Yamaha into the NAD on one channel. The only thing I do with the NAD is turn it on and off (thank god for Logitech remote controls or my whole setup would be a royal pain to use).

The Yamaha RX-A1010 definitely does a better job than my old Onkyo did with all the processing. It really handles surround well. I think maybe if I end up adding a center and upgrading my surrounds to Lsi's I might try and see if the Onkyo can drive those while I keep the NAD driving my two fronts.

zane77

I have on Onkyo PR-sc5508, it has all the features you are looking for, but i haven't heard any of the Elite AVR's to compare it to.