Amp recommendations to power just a CSIA6 center?

tetrarexful

Hi everyone!

Does anyone have amplifier recommendations to power just a Polk CSIA6 center? I have a Polk 7.1 setup and all my speakers range widely in terms of power handling which prevented me from purchasing a multichannel amp such as the Emotiva XPA-5 or 3.

My setup comprises:
Fronts: Polk RTI12's (500W)
Center: Polk CSIA6 (200W)
Rears: Polk RTI4's (125W) and Polk Monitor 30s (100W)
Power: Onkyo TX-NR609 ( yes I know, I was cheap and bought my whole setup during Black Friday sales)

After doing my research on these excellent forums, I finally ordered an Emotiva XPA-2 to power the RTI12s which I'm sure are gagging for more power. I'm waiting for UPS to deliver it and I'm super stoked. :-) I'm also upgrading the Onkyo to a Yamaha which have the pre-outs I need.

Now, I'm thinking of buying a second amp to power at least the center channel. So the options on my mind are:

1) UPA-200 (2 x 125W) use and RCA splitter and biamp the center CSIA6
2) XPA-3 (3 x 200W) and power the CSI-A6 and the RTI4s.
3) XPA-5 (5 x 200W) to completely power everything and potentially turn my Monitor 30s into Chinese new year firecrackers.
4) Forget about that 2nd amp and power everything else with the receiver (which will be a Yamaha Aventage RX-A1020).

Any option except the 4th would cause me to overpower either the center or the rears beyond Polk's recommended range. Not sure if this is safe to do, any additional advice on this would be helpful!


Thanks in advance!

zane77

I would forget the second amp for the time being and just use the receiver to power everything else except for the amp you are already getting for the fronts. Give that a try, there is a lot less power used for the surrounds and that would probably work just fine. Too much power to a set of speakers is usually not the problem, too little power causes the amps to clip and that will cause problems first.

ZLTFUL

One of the most popular misconceptions in the entire audio world is "I blew my speakers with too much power."

Speakers are more likely to be damaged due to underpowering them and then turning the volume up to the point that the amp is sending a clipped single to the speakers. (Read more about Clipping Here)

I demoed a set of Monitor 30s I had for sale on a 200wpc amp and almost didn't sell them because they sounded so much better with a strong healthy amount of power being sent to them.

But I digress. I agree with Zane here for now. If you feel that the center is being over shadowed by the mains during dialogue, at that point you could pick up something like an Outlaw Audio Model 2200 monoblock to run your center.

tonyb

Don't pay attention to those recommended watts manufacturers put on the back or in print. Means little really. Concern yourself more with 8 ohm or 4 ohm rated speakers.

In any event, an amplifier once hooked up to speakers isn't throwing out it's full power all the time, maybe never in some cases. That's more so associated with the volume of which you listen and source material your playing. If your center sounds off, check your speaker levels and adjust the front 3 until you get a nice blend, it may be set too low or your front left and right set too high making the center sound lost.

msg

nice setup!

yeah, agreed on holding off on the second amp for now (I know, I know, shaddap Tony, lol), and go with the AVR for everything but the RTi12's.

and definitely post back with your observations! I'm curious to hear how you like the RTi/CSi system with the Emotiva and Yamaha. I had that combo on my plate.

is this mostly for theater use or do you plan to use it for music at all?

heartystatue

If it were me I would go ahead and buy the XPA-3. If you already had the 3 I would say no. I ran LSI-15, and a LSI-C and used the TXR-809 to run the LSI-FX's It worked great. If you get the 3 I think it will sound better and when you listen to music only you have plenty of power for the 2 channel. I saw a used on the gon for 500.00. Still had 2 years on the warranty. Good luck!

tetrarexful

Thanks guys! I think I'll hold on looking for a 2nd amp and see how the XPA-2 sounds once it comes in. I would say I use it 70% for movies (lossless audio from Blurays of course!) and 30% for music, usually from Apple TV airplay. Maybe later on when I start to feel the all too familiar itch to upgrade, I'll spring for an XPA-3 or Outlaw Audio mono. Also considering an Adcom amp from eBay, those seem like a pretty good bargain too.

My Yamaha just delivered and is waiting for me at my front step. I'll report back on how it sounds!