Amp advice, Sub advice
voight1
Posts: 51
For starters i am pretty new to this, my bookshelf system died after 10 years a month ago and i decided to upgrade or start a home theater system. My first plan was to just buy a intro level receiver, a pair of book shelf speakers and a sub. Well, currently i now have a set of Tsi 400( bi amped), Tsi100 for rear, cs10 center channel, a dsw660 pro, and a 1600 dollar pioneer elite sc-65(scored at bestbuy for 800!)...needless to say i was bitten hard by the audio bug. IT sounds beautiful! But already i want more power from my two main fronts. MY questions are, should i bother adding another amp to this setup? Or should i wait till i buy better fronts? if yes what kind of amp should i be looking for? Also can i add a 550pro or a 440 pro to this set up? Ive heard that if you have two subs they should be the exact same model, it this accurate? Thanks to all for any advice
Post edited by voight1 on
Comments
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Well your nice avr is rated at 130-140 per channel and the tsi400 is recommended 20-200 per channel so I'd be asking myself if another 60-70+ per channel will give me the desired improvement in sound vs. the cost to do so. You say you already want more power out of the fronts, you want them louder or you just think they need more power? Have you listened to the tsi400 on a higher wpc amp and noticed a big difference? Or do you just think you should because some here talk about power like it's tied to their self worth? If you plan on upgrading the fronts down the road then by all means buy a nice two channel amp rated at 200w or more per in advance and enjoy the benefits of higher current with the tsi 400's now until you upgrade the fronts later. I'd rather have too much power now with the 400's than buying better fronts now with not enough to power them and reach their potential.
But you also say the fronts are bi-amped already? Through your avr alone I presume? Seems to me the fronts are getting plenty of power in that case considering their recommended rating.
Also, your avr is 9.2, do you plan on using all channels eventually? This would be another question to answer imo. Your avr has class D3 amplification with is nice, but I still believe the more channels you run the harder is on the avr. You run 5 now, if you plan on running 9 then a separate amp would be recommended imo.
If it sounds wonderful to you then enjoy it and try not to keep thinking your power is smaller than everyone elses and needs to be bigger. If using 2 subs I would recommend using the same sub yes, but if you have a spare one and wish to hookup two go for it imo.
Anyway, I'm no expert by any means so I'm just throwing my .02 out there. Good luck and congrats on the audio neurosis diagnosis, it's a wonderful disease for the most part. Except the fact you rarely feel completely satisfied....lol -
Thank you for the response, i guess i was just thinking my two main floor standing speakers could be a little louder. Yes the fronts are bi amped from the avr alone, and if any thing i might add two additional speakers down the road(front height) butfor now im sticking with a 5 speaker setup. I never take it past +10 dB just to be safe, I know it can go louder but i dont want to damage my speakers..and believe me its pretty damn loud at that point. Everyone elts that has heard it says its plenty loud, but its just not there for me yet....Also im not one of these idiots that just blast there system as loud as it can go, but i do enjoy listening to my music at a louder volume, so i want a system that can handle this demand with out a sweat..Granted the pioneer seems to do a great job at this(never even gets warm) but I've talked to other people in this forum and there telling me my pioneer isn't powering my speakers nearly to there full potential, others are telling me to get new speakers..
Anyway, Ive been looking at 2 and 5 channel amps rated around 200 wpc @ 8 ohms or 300 wpc @ 4ohms. do you think i need a five channel amp? Would putting a 5 channel amp into this system make it sound incredible?... I'm planning on putting in RTiA 7 or 9's down the road(maybe a year) any more advice would be helpful.. -
the receiver that you have should be able to provide ample of power for your speakers. I would wait out till I upgrade speaker system. At that time I would invest in an amplifier such as Parasound Halo. I have Parasound Halo A21 driving two RTi A9s, and the rest are attached to Marantz SR 6006. However, I am suppose to pick up SC-65 this thursday and then I will be using it to drive other speakers..
