Questions on amps

snake1

Looking to get educated about amplifiers. Took the suggestion (but not purchased yet) about getting a parasound 2125 amp to help my 12s work when I get the rest of the ht speakers hooked to the Onk. A few questions though.
1. With the amp putting more power to the towers, does that it any way throw off the balance (for lack of a better term) of the rest of the speakers?
2. What about adding an amp to each tower itself later, will this make the towers overpower the rest of the speakers? Same question as 1 I guess... Just wondering what all the extra wattage is gonna actually do.
3. When I'm adding an amp (or 2) is there anything else to look at such as amps/ch? Educate me fellas!

snake1

Also, is there any lag on the sound going through the extra electronics? Would it still be in sync with whats going on on the screen is what I mean I guess?

deronb1

Yes, you are going to need at least 200wpc to drive the Rti12s to their potential. Good news is that you will free up headroom on the AVR so you can drive the center and rears with the AVR more efficiently. There might be some tweaking needed (on the AVR) to even out the sound, but you will be amazed at the sound of the 12s when fed some real power.

Gadabout

First, I will say that you don't *need* a 200wpc for home theater on your 12's but it won't hurt. I have B&K thats about 125 wpc and I'm fine with the sound from the supposed required magic 200 wpc. That being said, if your HT rig does double use for music too, the 200 wpc might provide a difference.

Answer to 1 - The audyssey calibration your Onkyo uses will take care of most of the balance issues. You can adjust it manually too, if it just doesn't sound right after the calibration.

Answer to 2 - Rather than get 2 amps, I would suggest a 3 channel amp and drive your mains and center with it. Let the AVR power the surrounds. If your not using a center, then one amp will be fine for the 12's.

Answer to 3 - If there are any sync issues there is also a setting in your Onkyo where you can adjust this. The only sync issues you will really notice will be from the dialog and what would normally be coming out of the center. If the music or sound effects are a couple milliseconds later than they should be it is pretty hard to notice vs the voice not being in sync with the moving lips.

Hope my .02 helps,
Scott

tonyb

It should not effect any sync issues, and with the additional power available from the receiver to the surrounds you'd probably have to do nothing. In case you do, adjust the channel levels in your menu on the receiver.

Don't overthink this. Run with it, hook it up with good quality rca cables and enjoy.

snake1

deronb1 wrote: »

Yes, you are going to need at least 200wpc to drive the Rti12s to their potential. Good news is that you will free up headroom on the AVR so you can drive the center and rears with the AVR more efficiently. There might be some tweaking needed (on the AVR) to even out the sound, but you will be amazed at the sound of the 12s when fed some real power.

Gotcha! 75% of the time or more, I just listen to music so amping the 12s will probably be all I do. Also with 2 amps running bridged and mono each, with the amp I'm looking at, supposedly will bring out 400w for each speaker! Sweetness! Until then just one amp running 125wpc for each tower will work fine.

Gadabout wrote: »

First, I will say that you don't *need* a 200wpc for home theater on your 12's but it won't hurt. I have B&K thats about 125 wpc and I'm fine with the sound from the supposed required magic 200 wpc. That being said, if your HT rig does double use for music too, the 200 wpc might provide a difference.

Answer to 1 - The audyssey calibration your Onkyo uses will take care of most of the balance issues. You can adjust it manually too, if it just doesn't sound right after the calibration.

Answer to 2 - Rather than get 2 amps, I would suggest a 3 channel amp and drive your mains and center with it. Let the AVR power the surrounds. If your not using a center, then one amp will be fine for the 12's.

Answer to 3 - If there are any sync issues there is also a setting in your Onkyo where you can adjust this. The only sync issues you will really notice will be from the dialog and what would normally be coming out of the center. If the music or sound effects are a couple milliseconds later than they should be it is pretty hard to notice vs the voice not being in sync with the moving lips.

Hope my .02 helps,
Scott

Definately helps a LOT! I figured as much but just wanted explained so I could understand what would happen. Thanks bro!!

tonyb wrote: »

It should not effect any sync issues, and with the additional power available from the receiver to the surrounds you'd probably have to do nothing. In case you do, adjust the channel levels in your menu on the receiver.

Don't overthink this. Run with it, hook it up with good quality rca cables and enjoy.

Will do!! Just trying to understand more about what I've got and what it actually does.

Thank you all for the help! Sounds like I've got a plan now!!

jbooker82

I have seen people on here say a bridged amp doesn't sound as good. Maybe look for single channel mono block amps. You could then find a 3rd one later on for the center channel.

tonyb

Not a fan of bridged amps either, most don't like impedance swings when bridged. I would shoot for a regular good quality 2-3 channel amp and be done with it.

snake1

What kind of $$ are we talking when you say
'good'?

tonyb

For 2 channel, many used good amps out there under 600 hundred bucks from the likes of B&K, Parasound, Adcom, just to name a few. Plenty of others also. Since you have the rti12's, maybe go with a warmer sounding amp like a B&k.

jbooker82

I run a Carver A-753x it is 250 watts x 3 channel. There are older TFM 35 and 45's on ebay in the $300-400 range. Carvers are known to be warm as well.

snake1

jbooker82 wrote: »

I have seen people on here say a bridged amp doesn't sound as good. Maybe look for single channel mono block amps. You could then find a 3rd one later on for the center channel.

Wonder why it doesn't sound good? Any good brands for a mono?

jbooker82 wrote: »

I run a Carver A-753x it is 250 watts x 3 channel. There are older TFM 35 and 45's on ebay in the $300-400 range. Carvers are known to be warm as well.

I will be looking into these as well! Thanks!

snake1

What would bi-amping each amp to each set of posts do? For ex. 125w to the top and bottom separately, and run 2 amps in that config?

jbooker82

I would probably just get a good 2 channel amp and hook them up regular. If you put a 125 x 2 amp on your rti's you get 125 watts to the midrange section, and 125 watts to the bass section. You power two different circuits so your not putting 250 watts in to the speaker.

Where biamping really shines is when you use an xo between the amps, and the pre amp. That way you can control what frequencys go to wich part of the speaker, and the ampilifer only amplifies the signal that is going to be used. Other wise both channels of the amp will amplify the entire range of sound and send full range to the tweeter circuit and full range to the bass section.

stretchl

What is an "xo"?

FastGame

stretchl wrote: »

What is an "xo"?

crossover-cross over-xo