Speaker Hook Up Confusion

bullwinkle1968

i have talked and listened to what every one here has to say and believe me i do not doubt what anyone here has to say but i have been presented with another option and this way fully explained to me by HARMAN KARDON TECHNICIAN AND AM CONFUSED SO HERE IS MY DELIMA

i know what you allhave told me about bi amping and bi wireing but here is whati was told by HK

i was told that i wold get better power and better clarity anddepth and sondstage if i do not use the front and left out put on the reciever and use the center and surround only due to frequency and wattage and amps and overall power use of the reciever that i would not get the best out of this set up by doing what i just said above and useing only the amp to power my polk rti 150's and useing the center and subwoofer and surrounds from the receiver.

my original plan was to use the receiver to power the surround and front and left and center and then use my amp to power that bigger set of speakers of the rti 150's.

i hope i am explaining this correctly if so and you nderstandwhat i just said please tell me your opinion.

thank you:D

amulford

So in other words you want to bi amp the 150's using the receiver AND the amp. Bad idea IMO. Why? Because not all equipment has the same characteristics.

You could try it and see, but what HK is telling you is to just use the pre outs to the amp and use the amp to power the mains. This will take some of the load off of the amplifier in the receiver and allow it to be directed to the other speakers.

I would recommend that, but like I said, that is my opinion. Try it both ways and see how you like it.

jdhdiggs

My suggestion on Bi-Amping would be to ensure that the amp is covering the low end and the reciever the high. That should eliminate most of the load from the reciever and minimize the coloration differences between the amplifier sections across the front speakers

AsSiMiLaTeD

Originally posted by jdhdiggs
My suggestion on Bi-Amping would be to ensure that the amp is covering the low end and the reciever the high. That should eliminate most of the load from the reciever and minimize the coloration differences between the amplifier sections across the front speakers

I agree completely...use the receiver to power the highs and amp to power the lows...

If you're still looking at that PA2000, that won't drive them 150's by itself, your best and cheapest option is to Bi-amp unless you have alot of money to spend on a high quality high wattage amp...

While amps do have different sound characteristics, that won't really be an issue here because you're only using the amp to drive the low end...there's not an incredible amount of audible detail in the lower frequencies...

Bi-Amp using the receiver for highs and amp for lows...

My $.02

AsSiMiLaTeD

Oh, and H/K is wrong in this case...plain and simple. They're goot techs, but they don't understand them 150's, it's best to listen to the guys on the forum I think....

PolkWannabie

Amulford,

You could of course be correct but I'm not following your thinking ...

With a HK receiver and amp, one would think ?! that the characteristics of the amps would be fairly similar and that to use the amp to power the bass of the mains and the receiver to power the highs/mids of the mains and the center/surrounds would present a fairly consistant soundstage. I would think even with a different manufacturers amp to power the lows of the 150's one would not notice much if any difference.

Can you explain your rationale ?

amulford

I was under the impression that the receiver and amp were from different manufacturers. I didn't realize the PA2000 was also a HK product. Sorry.

PolkWannabie

No problem, I was just curious. But even if the amp were from a different manufacturer I wouldn't think there would be much of an effect when the amp is used to power the low end.

Tour2ma

amulford's caution is still valid in that amps in a given manufacturer's line aren't guaranteed to have the same charateristics, but you certainly do reduce the odds of a gross mismatch.

bw'68,
Gotta go with the folks above, but you can always try it our way and HK's way and see what works/ sounds better to you. Personally I don't like that their way leaves a couple hundred watts of power idle. What a waste.

If I had to guess why HK said what they did, it'd be that with all the heat issues your HK AVR has with the 150's, they're recommending a solution that demands the least of their AVR.

Maybe the bottom line is we have more confidence in their goods than they do....

PolkWannabie

I'm cornfused ... Again ...

I thought the heat problems were with a Pioneer receiver. I didn't think the HK was even in place yet.

bullwinkle1968

there is heating disapation with HK the supposedly get as hot as 130 degress but that is not a heat or overload shut down issue.

My guess is what tour guy is meaning is that HK heat sinks and amps in the reciever get hot and that is why they were concerned about over heating if i did not give enough ventialtion and i told them that the reciever will stick out the back of my av cabinet by about 5 inches and i have my air conditioning duct and a good heavy duty fan back their to keep the units cool.

so i do not take a chance on damageing them but with a 2 year parts and warrenty on both the amp and reciever plus the extended i am going to buy if anything goes wrong i know i am covered.

it may be over kill but i have been considering buying a 2nd pa 2000 to power each lower half of the 150's so their is no mistakes.

thanks you guys for all you help you are the most generous peple out here and i do not know what i would have done with out you.

thank you very much.
jack:D

Tour2ma

Originally posted by PolkWannabie
I thought the heat problems were with a Pioneer receiver. I didn't think the HK was even in place yet.

Now that you mention it....

bw'68,
One at a time would be prudent on the 2000's I would think.