Set up of a 5.0 system on onkyo NR515 receiver.

Binka

I have just recently purchased a lovely pair of black RTi A3's, and have found them to be a great value set of speakers. My only worry right now, is that I am not driving them hard enough with my Onkyo NR515 amp, which is only 130w (1 channel driven).

My amp doesn't have preouts on the main channels, but has two sub outputs.

Currently, I have my A3's biamped, but that means my poor receiver is running 7.0 outputs at this time, and it's not doing much anyway.

Now, I currently am not using any subs, because of apartment living, but would like my speakers to be able to hit a bit harder when I would like them to I know the A3's aren't exactly built for bass, but I am going to eventually get a set of A7's and put the A3's as my rears, after getting a CSi A6 for the centre. What I have to say bellow would really be with the A7's in mind.

So! My question.

With the limitations of my Onkyo, would it be possible to use the preouts and send them to a separate 2 channel amp, say, a 200wpc unit, and then run that amp to the lower freq connections on the speakers. Then use the main amplified speaker output on my amp, through to the top end connections on my speakers. I would need to set the crossover in the Onkyo settings to 120hz or higher so all the bass material is being channelled through to the sub outputs, then back into the low end of the front speakers?


My Onkyo crossover settings would look something like this?:

Subx2 = yes
Fronts = 120hz?
centre = between 50 to 70hz?
surrounds = between 50 to 70hz?
surround back/fronthighs/biamping = No


Is this idea feasible or beneficial? What 2channel amp would suit the pricing range of the RTi series to make this work? Would this work with A3's and A7's? I intend to one day upgrade my receiver to do this properly, but its last on the list currently, and I would like to get a 2ch amp that will work well in the future with proper preouts too.

Any response to this convolution would be awesome

Cheers!

EndersShadow

If you dont have pre-outs for your mains, you cant use a dedicated amp.

The sub outputs are filtered so using them to get the signal to an amp for your mains isnt going to work. Also bi-amping any of the polks isnt really useful, its more of a marketing ploy as it is with most companies. The LSiM may be a exception to that, I forget.

If it was me, I'd just get A3's all the way around w a CSiA6, and then spend the money on 2 really good subs. That will let your Onkyo do what it needs to, which is power the speakers down to 80hz, and then your subs take over and do what they do best, 80hz and below.

If you had pre-outs you would have some more options, but you dont. Your onkyo also in no way has 130wpc. If your lucky your getting 30wpc w all channels driven. The 130wpc spec with either be for 2 channels driven, or 1. For every speaker you add, your lowering the total power availible to each one.

Again the A3's are easier to drive, more than capable of going down to 80hz. Subs take over there for the rest. Even if you have to keep them turned down to like 25% for now, you wont regret that setup.

The A7's wont sound as good as you think they will with that Onkyo. Like you suspect, they need more power than your AVR can give them.