Onkyo TX-SR876 to LC265i/LCi-C/LC80i???

jeeper_nick

Will the TX-SR876 be able to drive the LC in-walls? A guy from polk tech freaked me out a little when he mentioned that the LC series in-walls are all rated at 4ohm and that I would have to check the receiver to make sure it could drive 4ohm speakers. Is anyone else driving LC's with a TX-SR series receiver? Help!

Pauly

The 876 is a beast and will handle a 4ohm load

jeeper_nick

Spastic - YOU are the beast, my friend - you may marry my sister if you wish.

Thanks for the info - I was hoping to get this receiver as the "heart" of my dream system. I'm going to run a PS3 into it and run dual displays - a 50" Samsung plasma and a Sanyo PLV-Z2000 projector to a 106" screen. I was really hoping that the reciever would be ok with these speakers (since I have already bought them and everything.....yikes!). The guy freaked me out because if a $1700 reciever wouldn't drive these things, I wasn't sure what would, outside of external power amps.

Pauly

no prob. Stick around and learn things. You always do around here. And when in doubt check your 1700.00 Onkyo Manual

Pauly

wutadumsn23

The Onk will have no problem running those speakers, as spastic pointed out that receiver is a beast and pretty much Onkyo's top of the line receiver (behind only the 906) I have an Onkyo (806) and I love it, I have always had a soft spot for Onkyo gear myself.

Kex

jeeper_nick wrote: »

Will the TX-SR876 be able to drive the LC in-walls? A guy from polk tech freaked me out a little when he mentioned that the LC series in-walls are all rated at 4ohm and that I would have to check the receiver to make sure it could drive 4ohm speakers. Is anyone else driving LC's with a TX-SR series receiver? Help!

Welcome to Club Polk!

The Onkyo you refer to here uses a switch to limit power, IIRC, to drive 4 ohm speakers. Some of the Polk 4 ohm speakers only dip down to about 6 ohms, and would not, therefore, be considered a difficult load; but others dip down to 2 ohms, so it really depends. If you read a little more in this forum you will soon discover that most people would not recommend that receiver wholeheartedly for a 4 ohm load, even if some others do use it for that.

The C.W. would be something like this:

If you like the functions on that receiver especially: then look for an external amplifier to use with it to power the speakers to their full potential and eliminate any risk of damaging the speakers (tweeter, mostly) and/or the Onkyo.

If you might consider other recievers, then NAD is rated for 4 ohm and 2 ohm usage, and does not need to use the trick of a power limiting switch to avoid issues. It will also most likely perform significantly better in power output than the Onkyo alone, despite what the specifications might seem to indicate (I am a big NAD fan, but most will still agree with this statement). Current NAD units will have fewer bells and whistles than the Onkyo (anything other than a T7_5 series unit will not have HDMI, and HD audio will not be fully implemented in that series until later this year - possibly as soon as February, but then you will probably not have access to special pricing on those new HD units for a while). There are other options, but most/all of them will have the same limitations as NAD.

If you chose to ignore this aspect, you will, most likely, at best be limiting your speakers to the extent that 8 ohm alternatives may not only cost less, but actually sound better too with the Onkyo you are considering. At worst, you will risk driving your receiver into protection mode and/or damage your speakers. YMMV.

http://nadelectronics.com/products/av-receivers
http://www.spearitsound.com/nad/nadspec.htm

jeeper_nick

Hey, Kex - I was looking around at 7 channel amps and came across the Emotiva UPA-7 - It looks like it will bridge the gap very nicely and is a great price at only $549 - any opinions?

Kex wrote: »

Welcome to Club Polk!

The Onkyo you refer to here uses a switch to limit power, IIRC, to drive 4 ohm speakers. Some of the Polk 4 ohm speakers only dip down to about 6 ohms, and would not, therefore, be considered a difficult load; but others dip down to 2 ohms, so it really depends. If you read a little more in this forum you will soon discover that most people would not recommend that receiver wholeheartedly for a 4 ohm load, even if some others do use it for that.

The C.W. would be something like this:

If you like the functions on that receiver especially: then look for an external amplifier to use with it to power the speakers to their full potential and eliminate any risk of damaging the speakers (tweeter, mostly) and/or the Onkyo.

If you might consider other recievers, then NAD is rated for 4 ohm and 2 ohm usage, and does not need to use the trick of a power limiting switch to avoid issues. It will also most likely perform significantly better in power output than the Onkyo alone, despite what the specifications might seem to indicate (I am a big NAD fan, but most will still agree with this statement). Current NAD units will have fewer bells and whistles than the Onkyo (anything other than a T7_5 series unit will not have HDMI, and HD audio will not be fully implemented in that series until later this year - possibly as soon as February, but then you will probably not have access to special pricing on those new HD units for a while). There are other options, but most/all of them will have the same limitations as NAD.

If you chose to ignore this aspect, you will, most likely, at best be limiting your speakers to the extent that 8 ohm alternatives may not only cost less, but actually sound better too with the Onkyo you are considering. At worst, you will risk driving your receiver into protection mode and/or damage your speakers. YMMV.

http://nadelectronics.com/products/av-receivers
http://www.spearitsound.com/nad/nadspec.htm

Kex

jeeper_nick wrote: »

Hey, Kex - I was looking around at 7 channel amps and came across the Emotiva UPA-7 - It looks like it will bridge the gap very nicely and is a great price at only $549 - any opinions?

Jeeper, Emotiva usually gets rave reviews and there are many happy users. I did try the almost identical LPA-1, along with two other Club members, about a year ago. Two of us were disappointed with the results and did not keep the units. I could find no significant improvement when compared with my harman/kardon receiver in a blind listening test. The third was very happy and is still using his LPA-1. That said, none of us were using 4 ohm speakers, and that could be an important difference.

The Emotiva is a worthy product in any case, and will certainly "bridge the gap" to drive your speakers to very satisfying levels without issues. There is no other choice new for that price that I am aware of and there is no reason why you should not be very happy with the Onkyo/Emotiva combination.

The only question that remains, then, is would the Emotiva be better when paired with the Onkyo than the NAD receivers already mentioned. My carefully considered answer, based on my experience, is "maybe not ... possibly not as good". Others will hotly disagree, since the conventional wisdom is that amplifier power is always and without question better than receiver power. That said, if some of the features available on the Onkyo, that are not available currently on the NAD models in a similar price range, are important to you, then adding the Emotiva will eliminate any of the limitations you might encounter with the Onkyo and that would be an excellent choice IMO.

Good luck! It sounds as though you are beginning to see what you like and know what you need! You will not go wrong IMO if you continue to follow this path.

jeeper_nick

Kex - Yeah, I had looked over NAD and other receivers, but couldn't find any that had the VIDEO processing capabilities that the Onk876 has - specifically the REON upconvert chip and the dual HDMI-outs (since I plan to run at leasttwo displays) and knew I was giving up some audio punch for much better video conversion, but the Emotiva or a couple of Outlaw 7-chan amps I have seen look like they could punch the audio side up to match what my video capabilities are going to be.

S_rangeBrew

spasticpitbull wrote: »

The 876 is a beast and will handle a 4ohm load

Correct.

Kex wrote: »

Welcome to Club Polk!

The Onkyo you refer to here uses a switch to limit power, IIRC, to drive 4 ohm speakers.

This is false. The 4ohm switch is only there for legal reasons. The 876 will power 4ohm speakers all day long in it's normal mode. The 4ohm switch (which cuts the power in half) is there to make the lawyers happy. It should never be touched.

If you read a little more in this forum you will soon discover that most people would not recommend that receiver wholeheartedly for a 4 ohm load,

And those people would be wrong. The Onkyo 876 is THX Ultra 2 Plus certified beast, as pointed out before. It will put almost 200wpc into a 4ohm load without breaking a sweat.

If you might consider other recievers, then NAD is rated for 4 ohm and 2 ohm usage, and does not need to use the trick of a power limiting switch to avoid issues.

Most of us would need to mortgage our house to get a NAD that even comes *close* the the abilities of the 876. How is this relevant?

jeeper_nick

(Great username, btw - hilarious movie.)

In my basement right now, awaiting the completion of the modification of the room I am converting into the theater, is the Onk876 and an Emotiva UPA-7. I just had to jump on their sale price once I saw it - fell completely in love. It looks like one of the monoliths from 2001, and took two Fed-Ex guys to carry it to my pickup!

So now I have the stellar video processing power of the Onk and 200wpc of clean 4ohm power from the Emotiva ready to unleash on the new Theater in about 6 weeks.

Oh, and for the room, I'm swapping out the 1/4 inch drywall for 5/8 inch and upgrading the insulation, adding a drop-ceiling with more insulation above, and installing a floating cork floor. Going to try to keep the sound in the room. I'm also fabricating my own diffuser panels for the walls to keep the sound IN the room from bouncing around too much. I even custom built my own in-wall cabinets for the LC265i fronts I'm using.

S_rangeBrew

jeeper_nick wrote: »

(Great username, btw - hilarious movie.)

In my basement right now, awaiting the completion of the modification of the room I am converting into the theater, is the Onk876 and an Emotiva UPA-7. I just had to jump on their sale price once I saw it - fell completely in love. It looks like one of the monoliths from 2001, and took two Fed-Ex guys to carry it to my pickup!

So now I have the stellar video processing power of the Onk and 200wpc of clean 4ohm power from the Emotiva ready to unleash on the new Theater in about 6 weeks.

Oh, and for the room, I'm swapping out the 1/4 inch drywall for 5/8 inch and upgrading the insulation, adding a drop-ceiling with more insulation above, and installing a floating cork floor. Going to try to keep the sound in the room. I'm also fabricating my own diffuser panels for the walls to keep the sound IN the room from bouncing around too much. I even custom built my own in-wall cabinets for the LC265i fronts I'm using.

NICE! And my wife thinks I'm overboard! Nothing wrong with more amp power! I have a tiny 13'x15'x8' sealed room. I'm currently using a THX Select certified Pioneer 1014TX, which has no problem powering my Ascend 340SE fronts and HTM-200 surrounds to ear-bleeding levels. And I still want more, so right now the 876 is at the top of the list. I'm planning on some nice rigid insulation bass traps in the corners and first reflection points. Then an Infinite Baffle sub with 4 18" subwoofers and 2000watts of amp (even though the 12" 120watt sub I have now makes the walls shake) ...

So much fun.... so much money that will never go into my child's college fund.

Dyslexic

Sweet....I picked up the Onkyo 876 and its killer with my PS3 and Panny Projector (ae3000) - I need to ask what you think of those LCi in wall speakers.....I was thinking about the LCi-RTS THX In-walls......but no reviews to be had.

S_rangeBrew

Man, I would love to put in-walls up. My room is so small, they would really help. It's just that In-walls that can stand up to my Ascends would cost an arm and a leg, from what I've seen.

unclestoolie

Funny, a little over a month ago I opened a thread about driving almost this exact speaker load with an Onkyo TX-SR 806, which is rated at a mere 10 Watts per channel less. This guy gets kudos and told what a great receiver he has chosen, for the most part. Yet, the majority of responses to mine led me to believe I was a damn fool for going by the manufacturers specs for outputs. So much information, so many opinions......

mhw58

wutadumsn23 wrote: »

The Onk will have no problem running those speakers, as spastic pointed out that receiver is a beast and pretty much Onkyo's top of the line receiver (behind only the 906) I have an Onkyo (806) and I love it, I have always had a soft spot for Onkyo gear myself.

I've been thinking of getting the Onkyo 806 or 876 myself. How does the bridging work on the fronts for the 876? I have Polk SDA 1C's which only have one set of posts so they can't be bi amped, can they use the bridging of the 876? Have you had any issues with the 806 and blue dots on your video? I've read about that problem in other threads.
Mike

Advantage

Nick,

I realize this thread is pretty stale but looking for your opinion. Well, I finally finished our basement project. I am curious if you ever tried pushing your speakers just with your Onkyo 876 versus the Emotiva UPA? If so, did you notice a difference in terms of sound quality or dynamic range?

I am also running a similar setup in my basement. Currently, I have 2 - LC265i's, 1 - LCi-C, and 2 - LCi80's with a SVS PB13-Ultra for my home theater. I am using the Onkyo 3008 to power them with no problems. I am also using this AVR to drive 6 pairs of additional speakers (3 pairs of LC80i's; 3 pairs of LC65i's) throughout the rest of the basement. Each pair of speakers are connected using an impedance matching volume knob control and fed back through 2 separate Niles speaker selectors to the AVR. (We never have more than 3 pairs of these speakers on at the same time.)

I have had SERIOUS parties in which I have had 3 pairs of surround speakers playing and my 5.1 system at 70+ db's with no issues at all. The AVR doesn't have problems pushing these speakers; in fact, it never even gets hot. It gets warm to the touch but that's it.

So, I am wondering based on your configuration if my LC265i's would benefits from external amplification? The output doesn't seem to be the problem with the Onkyo 3008. I wonder if the dynamic range would be improved with an Emotiva. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

reeltrouble1

I have really enjoyed experimenting with all sorts of gear and personally found that a comparison between Emo sound and shoving bamboo shoots under my finger nails revealed that listening to an Emo was a far more painful experience.

The other peanuts in the gallery though should feel free to remove their shells and chime in with unabashed adorations of disagreement based upon their experiences.

RT1