need suggestions for my new setup

tap

I recently ordered rti10's, csi5 and fxi5's for my home theatre setup. The rti10's showed up today and the rest will be here next week. I hooked the rti10's to my hk avr240 and they sound pretty good. I was upgrading from a bose acoustimas 5.1 setup. I have an old carver tm-35 that I tried but the speakers sounded terrible. I havent used that amp for ten years so there may be something funky about it. My living room is about average size. What suggestions do you have as far as an amp. Do I need a 2 channel amp for the fronts only or should I get a 5 channel amp? My price range is bit tight due to all the money I dropped on the speakers.

Any help would be greatly apprieciated, I am amp dumb.

adam2434

I think your 10s will benefit from separate amplification more than your other speakers, so I would start there. Down the road, you may want to get an amp for the center. I personally don't feel that upgrading my center ch amp was much of an improvement but, but the separate amps for my fronts certainly was, but really more in a 2 ch context rather than for HT.

I would look for something in the 200 watt/ch or higher range, new or used from the likes of
Outlaw (mono amps)
Adcom
Rotel
Audiosource (these are lower end separates, but I had to mention them because that's what I'm using - monobridged Amp Three's).

The Outlaw's are a nice option because, down the road, you can add additional mono or multi ch amps from them and maintain the same sound/wattage for all channels.

Adam

MSkeezer

If you only amped the front speakers, wouldn't that overpower the center and surrounds?

adam2434

MSkeezer wrote:

If you only amped the front speakers, wouldn't that overpower the center and surrounds?

You can still calibrate all channels to be at the same level with the test tones. With the separate amps for the fronts you will have more headroom and can improve bass depth and transients, as well as overall dynamics, even if they are calibrated to the same level as the other speakers. And, as I mentioned above, I think this improvement will be more noticeable in 2 ch listening vs. HT. So, in that context, the receiver's amp would not be in play anyway.

Also, taking the load of the fronts off of the receiver should give the receiver more current to drive the rest of the speakers. I think this may be part of why I didn't notice an improvement when I upgraded my center amp. With my receiver relieved of the fronts, it can do a decent job driving the fronts and surrounds, especially with the low bass from those channels directed to my sub.