Where best to start?

argylesox

Greetings & Happy New Year!

Have an NAD T-747 AVR driving Polk Lsi7 fronts and LsiC center, all rated at 4 ohm but fairly easy to drive for the Lsi line, along with two small 8 ohm rears. When playing the WiiU, for example, the NAD gets plenty warm and we're wondering what the next step in an upgrade would be. We just ordered a TV stand that will accommodate our 50" plasma, the LsiC center on the second shelf, and room for three separates on the bottom with two spaces already taken with room for a power amp. Budget is tight and we can go as incremental as it takes, for example, maybe a mono-block to drive the LsiC center, which may be the harder of the three to drive. If we did that we could always do another mono-block or two to drive the front three, or do a two channel + a mono-block to drive the front three later.

Holiday sale on at Emotiva with the XPA-100 looking appealing as a starter to drive the LsiC.

Any thoughts, observations, advice about this vs. Outlaw mono-blocks, or Parasound, etc, appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

cfrizz

Get a 3-5 channel amp of at least 200wpc @ 8ohms. All of your speakers will appreciate it especially the LSIs. I used to use a Outlaw mono for my center channel it did the job just great until I finally bit the bullet and got my 5 channel Sunfire. Check out what Audiogon has first before buying new if you are willing to buy used.

This will take care of all of your power needs!

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/multi-ch-rotel-rmb-1095-black-2013-12-31-amplifiers-49002

danz1906

cfrizz wrote: »

Get a 3-5 channel amp of at least 200wpc @ 8ohms. All of your speakers will appreciate it especially the LSIs. I used to use a Outlaw mono for my center channel it did the job just great until I finally bit the bullet and got my 5 channel Sunfire. Check out what Audiogon has first before buying new if you are willing to buy used.

This will take care of all of your power needs!

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/multi-ch-rotel-rmb-1095-black-2013-12-31-amplifiers-49002

Agreed..........great amp at a good price!

dhart86

cfrizz wrote: »

Get a 3-5 channel amp of at least 200wpc @ 8ohms. All of your speakers will appreciate it especially the LSIs. I used to use a Outlaw mono for my center channel it did the job just great until I finally bit the bullet and got my 5 channel Sunfire. Check out what Audiogon has first before buying new if you are willing to buy used.

This will take care of all of your power needs!

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/multi-ch-rotel-rmb-1095-black-2013-12-31-amplifiers-49002

Rotel RB 993 is a great 3-channel amp w/ 200 watts. I had one driving my Lsi7's and Lsic for several years before I upgraded.
It worked extremely well. If you can find one around $400-475 it would be a great aquisition

Mikey081057

Sunfire amps work great with LSi's

argylesox

Great! Pretty much confirms what I thought. Cfrizz sold me on the 200 wpc @ 8 ohms minimum which I was waffling about, you know, less wpc to save on green paper. Although 1K is a little rich for us at the moment I understand we'll have to bite the bullet sooner or later.

Also appreciate the heads-up on Sunfire amps - they weren't on our radar at all. We're just a tad shy of buying used having been slightly burned by used gear ebay purchases in the past (cameras, not hi-fi gear). We have scanned Audiogon a few times in the past but there is so much to choose from and we're only familiar with a few names like Adcom, and Rotel (thanks Dhart86), so I guess we just keep looking.

The mono-block sounds like a great way to get our feet wet but if we stick with mono-blocks we'll end up with other problems like where to stack them and plug them all in.

Conclusion: purchase a new or good used 3-5 channel amp 200 wpc @ 8 ohms minimum, focus on Sunfire.

Thank you gentlemen, that's precisely the solid info we had hoped to find here. We love our Lsi7''s & C - we were running them in a listening session today with covers off. Sweet. Thanks Polk.

BlueFox

Mikey081057 wrote: »

Sunfire amps work great with LSi's

I have been using a Sunfire TGA-5400 in my HT for around 8 years, and it works, sounds great. At first I had 4 LSi15s, and LSiC. Now I just have 2 LSi15s in the surround spot. The Sunfire has been fine with both the PSB and LSi speakers. One point in regard to the 200W/ch, with 4 ohm speakers this amp rates at 800W/ch. I rarely even bother to turn on my sub anymore.

argylesox

Thanks, BlueFox. Even with 800w/ch I don't expect the bookshelf Lsi7 will produce enough bass for HT applications to turn off the sub. I looked at the Sunfire website and the new models are not exactly inexpensive! I suspect we'll be shopping either the good used market or something like Emotiva 3-5 channel new.

cfrizz

You are correct Argylesox. While the 7s do produce quite a bit of bass, they simply can't not produce the fullness of either a sub or a full size speaker. And in trying to do so, the midrange gets muddy.

I have never been a proponent of not using a sub for 2 channel music. I use it for everything and I benefit from get a full range sound out of everything.

Quite a few on here have heard what they are missing once they put a sub back into the mix. Just ask Phil (Pearsall001).

argylesox

Cfrizz, I tend to agree with your point of view on using a sub for everything, esp with bookshelves. There are times when bass moderation is called for, however home theater isn't one of them. We occasionally dial down the sub for some music but mostly we just leave it alone as once we have it set where we like it and it seems to fill in any gaps on the bottom end. It supplements the 7's nicely as they reproduce most everything else to our satisfaction.

I think I did forget to mention that we do use a powered sub - it's a Mirage Omni S8, which while small it is quick and rumbles low enough for our needs. During the initial arrival of the train in The Polar Express, for example, it will shake the walls.

Our system is quite modest compared to most but it is very enjoyable in the environment in which we use it. As mentioned earlier, we'll be collecting green pieces of paper whilst in the hunt for a 3-5 channel to "supplement" our system. The lure of that little brown truck pulling up in front of the house gets pretty strong at times.

Thanks for your reply.