Power advice for RTi A7

Skidude04

Hello Everyone!

First time poster, long time lurker. I've referenced this forum a number of times before I finally decided on getting a pair of the RTI A7s for my new house. The room in question is a mid-large great room with 9' ceilings and an open floor plan into kitchen and sunroom/rest of first floor. I'm currently running a Denon x2000 AVR (95watts) with these speakers, and I'm in a smaller room currently. I won't be moving into the new house for 2 months, so I have no way to test it out in the larger room yet. The A7s sound pretty good on the x2000 so far, but I'm wondering if I'm missing out.

These speakers are part of a the following 7.1 setup.

1x - CSI A6
2x - RTI A7
4x - 80F/X RT (ceiling speakers for surround, surrback, custom built 1.2 cu/ft enclosures in ceiling, cu/ft per polk recommendation)
1x - DSW PRO 660wi (adding in near future)

I still have the option of returning the x2000 and getting something else in its place. I'm thinking of upgrading to the Denon x4000 (125 watts), but I'm wondering if the extra 30 watts will make a big difference. I understand that the x4000 also gives me additional pre-outs that the x2000 doesn't have, so I could always add a bit more power. Also, I like that the x4000 has the Audyssey SUBEQ HT so I can add another sub in the future if I want.

My question is this: Will the extra 30 watts make a decent difference in overall SQ and bass response, or will it be not that noticeable? Would the extra watts be more noticeable in the larger room when trying to get the SPL's to "fill" the space? A key call-out here is that an external amp in addition to the x4000 is not an immediate option due to funds (building a house costs money lol), but I may consider in the future. Basically I want to know if the 30watts will give me some decent immediate "bang" for my buck, pardon the pun.

I've done countless searches on this and have found a few things, but they haven't really answered this specific question. I really appreciate the input from anyone who has the time!

chumlie

Welcome to CP. The RTi's are power hungry. So, yes more power is better and your definitely going to want the option of pre-outs for a power amp in the future. Nice system you have but I would definitely take the x2000 back and get the x4000. Pioneer SC series also work well with the RTi's.

Skidude04

Thanks for the reply!

I'm still not certain if the 30 watts is a significant difference.

Basically it seems like I would pay $900 for the upgrade from x2000 to x4000. From that $900 I get:

- 30 watts per channel
- pre-outs
- Audyssey XT32 (vs XT)
- Audyssey SUBEQ XT
- various other features

Since I can't immediately afford an amp to use the preouts, I'm basically relying on the 30 watts to help for now.

chumlie

DSkip wrote: »

If I were in the receiver market, I'd be buying 2-3 year old units. The depreciation is worse than a car and the wear and tear is almost nonexistant. That $900 uptick alone would be enough to get a solid, older unit AND a solid 2-3 channel amp.

This is sound advise. But if your looking at nothing but new. Make sure it has the pre-outs because your gonna want to add an amp later down the road to get the full benefit of the A7's.

Hermitism

DSkip wrote: »

If I were in the receiver market, I'd be buying 2-3 year old units. The depreciation is worse than a car and the wear and tear is almost nonexistant. That $900 uptick alone would be enough to get a solid, older unit AND a solid 2-3 channel amp.

↑This↑

I usually have expensive taste, but I'm extremely cheap. I bought my AVR off of Craigslist and got it for the same price as a new entry level AVR. It's been used almost daily for about ten months now and I've never had a single problem with it. And if/when it fails, I'll buy another used one if the cost of repair is too high. It's usually teenagers with no knowledge of proper care of audio equipment that end up abusing their components and speakers, and they aren't the ones that can afford to own higher end gear. My guess is if you find a used high-end AVR, it's been well taken care of, imo. If it breaks, blame DSkip.

Skidude04

Hermitism wrote: »

If it breaks, blame DSkip.

Lol!

On a sub-note, I'm kinda preferring the newer AVR's due to the mobile app functionality/control. It will be nice to be able to control the AVR from anywhere in my house or yard directly from my iPhone, and the included AirPlay is nice too. Not pushing Apple, but it's helpful for me.

Would be nice if this wasn't such a plus for me though I guess.

chiptouz

If you don't want to buy used go with the x4000. Did you look at accessories4less.com? Maybe they have a better price/deal and you could end up picking up the avr-4520ci and spend about the same money.

With regards to your sub I would pass on the 660wi and buy a hsu, svs, pb, etc. So much better bang for your buck.

Skidude04

chiptouz wrote: »

If you don't want to buy used go with the x4000. Did you look at accessories4less.com? Maybe they have a better price/deal and you could end up picking up the avr-4520ci and spend about the same money.

With regards to your sub I would pass on the 660wi and buy a hsu, svs, pb, etc. So much better bang for your buck.

That idea about the 4520 refurbished is actually awesome. 150 watts and it would also give me 9.2 for optional 7.2 + powered zone2 that I could use for other areas of my house.

I feel much better about a 55 watt increase than 30 for the price!

THANK YOU FOR THE SUGGESTION!

gce

I have the Marantz 7008 that has 125wpc driving my A7's and I thought it sounded pretty good with movies, but keep in mind with movies you're not pushing the A7's at full range (Large) you're using your sub for the low end. When I would use my 7008 for 2 channel the A7's are at full range with no sub and I could tell they were struggling with the AVR power. So I got 2 mAMP's 255wpc each and now my A7's sound so much better! Like I said with movies you're probably ok with the AVR but not with 2 channel and driving your A7's at full range.

voltz

The main thing to do is to get a AVR with full pre-outs, so you don't hold your self back if someday you do want to add a amp to your AVR to help power your front speakers and or center channel.

when i 1st got my A7's I had a lesser Denon without preout and finally replaced it, got a NAD T-758 and added a Adcom 200 wpc amp to the set-up. theres many was to go though!

chiptouz

Skidude04 wrote: »

That idea about the 4520 refurbished is actually awesome. 150 watts and it would also give me 9.2 for optional 7.2 + powered zone2 that I could use for other areas of my house.

I feel much better about a 55 watt increase than 30 for the price!

THANK YOU FOR THE SUGGESTION!

NO problem. Let me know how it turned out. Once my Denon 3808ci, which is an amazing receiver by the way, shoots craps I will get the 4520. So I am interested in how it sounds. My brother bought the x4000 from accessories4less.com and loves it. He is powering a set of rt600i's and a cs350i. Older models of the rt line.