New AVR for Old Speakers

Fotofreak

We have moved into a new house, and my wife is kicking me and my stuff into a my own room. I am taking my speakers, but leaving the Yamaha RX-A2000 in the living room it connects nicely to my backyard zones and automates well.
This is what I have:
pair of LSi15
LSiC
pair of LSif/x
PSW505 - 2 of them
The room is 12'x13'.
Movie/Music = 70/30 %
After buying a TV, I have $2K left over for an AVR.
How best (if possible) to spend the money?

quickr1

Why not look in some separates. Like a pre-amp and a nice 5 channel amp that will do the lsi speakers justice. You defiantly can get both for your 2k budget.

tonyb

An avr isn't going to cut the mustard on 5 LSI's. Look for a used HT processor and 5 channel amp. BTW....fairly smallish room for those speakers and subs.

chumlie

https://www.outlawaudio.com/mofcart/combos.html

ZLTFUL

Chumlie beat me to it. The Outlaw 975 pre with the 7500 amp would have no problems with those LSis.

Polkie2009

Too bad OP is limited to a room 12'x13'. Really, do you need 200 watts a channel x 5 in such a small room?

ZLTFUL

Remember that we are talking about LSis. They are a hard to drive speaker. From first hand experience, the more power/overhead you have, the happier you will be.

Fotofreak

Thanks guys for taking a look at my small room big speaker problem. I have read your comments over the last couple of years regarding driving the LSi series, thus I thought it be good to leave the Yamaha where it is at. I always thought though with HT applications, that the shared power of an AVR was applicable, thinking the center and surrounds did not require much.?. Your previous comments kept me always thinking that I had bought sound that I did not / could not appreciate with my past configurations. I was always able to play the speakers loud though. I have been reading specs, wondering about the limitation of 5 channels and presence and height channels and noticed that my Yamaha has preamp outs. Now wondering if I move the Yamaha to the room with a new amp (buying a new AVR for the living room - airplay and such for the family) might be a good choice? I also wonder what the "happier you will be vs power" curve might look like. Being an engineer does not help with the over evaluation/fun element.
Thanks.

codyc1ark

I can tell you first hand that there is a noticeable difference when running a set of LSi's on a AVR vs. a dedicated power amp. It really brings them to life and you get the most out of the speaker. I'm also running 9's, not 15's which have an extra woofer to drive. They are power hungry speakers and will not perform like they are supposed to until you allow them to eat. Feed them!

Polkie2009

Since your avr has preouts, look for a high current 2 channel power amp that can feed those LSi's upfront. Then see if the center and surrounds (sides and back) channels can be run from the avr's power section. If the avr can't efficiently power those other channels, you can always add another power amp later to handle that load. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen my power meter on my center channel amp go over 40 watts when watching a movie, it may show 5-10 watts sometimes, usually though it's under 2 watts. Side surround loads can be demanding at times, depending on the movie etc. Back surround loads are usually used sparingly. Of course all of this depends on how loud you listen to the system (usually I watch movies around the 90db -95db range).

Fotofreak

That sounds like a good plan. Do you have another one of those cool links where I might find a 2 channel amp?

scotvl

There's a Parasound hca1200ii for sale in the classified section here for $350.00

forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/165780/parasound-hca-1200ii#latest

ken brydson

scotvl wrote: »

There's a Parasound hca1200ii for sale in the classified section here for $350.00

forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/165780/parasound-hca-1200ii#latest

Unfortunately he doesn't have enough posts to buy in our FM....

Fotofreak

The center and surround LSi's are 4 ohms. Whats the effect of driving from the AVR in the 6 ohm setting. I have already been doing it all these years, but I am now trying to fix things. Did I post enough yet

scotvl

ken brydson wrote: »

scotvl wrote: »

There's a Parasound hca1200ii for sale in the classified section here for $350.00

forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/165780/parasound-hca-1200ii#latest

Unfortunately he doesn't have enough posts to buy in our FM....

Oops sorry.

Polkie2009

Fotofreak wrote: »

The center and surround LSi's are 4 ohms. Whats the effect of driving from the AVR in the 6 ohm setting. I have already been doing it all these years, but I am now trying to fix things. Did I post enough yet

Hi FF, your AVR you are referring to is the Yamaha? If so, my Yamaha 663 has the same 6 ohm option in the menu. Perhaps that setting limits the amount of power or volume gain. I think the manufacturers have that to cover their a** . Before I decided to run all power amps through the preouts, I just went with 8 ohm setting and didn't attempt to run the volume to 11. Being that you're 4 ohm speakers are for the center and surrounds (sides or back surrounds? ) they most likely won't be subjected to as much power demand or load as the mains (front) from the power supply in the AVR.

Fotofreak

I would like to ask another configuration question. The conversation has gone the path of driving the mains with an external amp and using the AVR to drive the rest of the LSi speakers. I was thinking of using the Yamaha amp and two of the Outlaw 2200 mono amps 200/300w @ 8/4 ohm for the mains. Then there was some comments about small room vs power. There is a newer Outlaw amp, 5000, which is quite a bit cheaper than the 7500 and drives 120/180 @ 8/4. Both configurations (2200 and 5000) cost basically the same. Now I am back to the "happier you will be vs power" curve and a lot of 4 ohm Polk speakers. Should I just feed the front with more power or should I drive all of them with a little less power, but not from the AVR using the 5000?

Polkie2009

Those little 2200 mono amps are proven to be solid amps, using them for your front mains would be fitting. You'll probably be fine driving the rest of the speakers from the AVR. Like I mentioned before ,later you can always add another amp for side surrounds.

Ronster267

Emotiva XPA-5 Gen 2 = 200 watts per channel @ 8 ohms ALL CHANNELS driven, and 300 watts per channel @ 4 ohms ALL CHANNELS driven. It also = 1,000 USD. I would use the Yamaha as long as it decodes all of the newer codecs via pre out's with this amp. I can say from personal experience with my 8 ohm speakers it is a revelation, I can only IMAGINE what it could do for 4 ohm speakers. When I turn it up loud, it never even breaks a sweat. The sound stage is much bigger, open and has much more depth than with my AVR. A bargain even at 1k.

Fotofreak

WOW, It's like I bought new speakers, but only bought a new AMP and I have only tried it with two so far..
Thanks.

Nightfall

Fotofreak wrote: »

WOW, It's like I bought new speakers, but only bought a new AMP and I have only tried it with two so far..
Thanks.

What did you get?

Fotofreak

The Emotiva XPA-5. It seemed like a good deal and a boat load of folks liked it (thanks Ronster). It's a beastly thing. My wife came in my room tonight telling me of her tennis outing and looked down at the blue leds but did not say anything. She did know that the box was too heavy for her the bring off the front porch today. I see that she has been happily populating the old locations of the LSi15s. Everyone wins..

Nightfall

Glad you're happy with it. No matter what anyone might tell you about Emotiva, just remember that you're happy with it.

Happy listening.

Fotofreak

I am sure there are tiers of better stuff out there, maybe I can grow into. This has been a great introduction to speaker efficiency and distributed power. The next phase I think is room deadening.. might need to change threads.