MONITOR 70 QUESTION; max wattage/rms/bi-amp/ 7.2 OR 9.2

If you're talking about bi-amping off of your Onkyo, you might as well not bother. All of the power from the Onkyos comes from the same power rail, pretty much negating any benefit you might get. In other words:
1) Though it says 135w/ch, that's only with 2 channels driven. The all channels driven wattage of most Onkyos won't exceed about 65-70w.
2) Bi-amping with the Onkyo AVR basically just channels the same amount of power to multiple locations, so you're neither going to risk sending the speaker too much power or gain any benefit from it.
3) If you're crossing them over at 80Hz, it's rare in the average room for your speaker to require more than 65w anyway. In fact, even with near-reference listening, if you're letting a subwoofer handle the bass, the likely average of power used by a speaker as efficient as a Monitor 70 is around 30w.
4) If you feel that the Monitor 70s are underpowered, the best option would be to get a 2-channel amp, at which point I would recommend trying the crossover in your AVR for the mains at 60Hz if you do any 2-channel listening. Otherwise, they're fine at 80Hz... especially if you upgrade to a better subwoofer like your sig says.

I hear and read so many poeple saying that bi-amping is a waste of time, but I will have to go against the grain here and from my personal experience say that it DOES work. The difference is not collosal by any measure, but ask me which I prefer?!

I have the m70's in my 2ch system bi-amped. I got my arse chewed out on audioholics forum for saying that I heard a difference when there supposedly was non, so I set my speakers back to regular wiring for a few weeks. Then I switched them back to bi-amped. And I don't know what to say, other than, the highs are crisper and clearer and the bass is tighter and deeper.

I suppose not all receivers are setup the same, so most receivers may not privide any more total power to the speaker. But in my case the sr7002 has "discrete" amps and I think because power in each channel does not drop off when you connect more speakers, the channels can be doubled up to feed more power to one speaker.

I mean, lets think about this: Marantz designed the receiver with bi-amp capability, even built in a physical switch on the back to enable this function. Polk desinged their speakers to be bi-amp capable. I really don't think manufacturers would spend the effort to build these functions into their products, if they really were completely useless. That doesn't make sense!

I will not get into an argument here with anyone about this either. I hear what I hear, you can't prove otherwise to me through a post on a forum. So for what it's worth, I do believe that bi-amping works, but possibly not with all equipment.

Note: That's why I specified that was the case with the Onkyos in my post. With a Marantz, I don't doubt that there might be some benefit. Onkyos, on the other hand, (and especially with this year's line, which is gimped all the way up to the 1008 compared with the x07 series) have a tendency to be over-rated as far as what they can actually put out. But as I said before, the average room with efficient speakers will not require that much power, especially if the speakers are being crossed over at least a half-octave above their -3dB point anyway (and more so if you're crossing over a full octave above, as the OP is with his Monitor 70s). Bass is what requires the most power to drive, which is why dedicated subwoofers are your friend when it comes to most consumer-grade AVRs. They take the majority of the load off of the AVR and give it the headroom it needs to cleanly drive the mids and highs. I'm running a 9.1 system off of my Onkyo TX-NR1007 with all channels crossed at 70Hz to a SVS 20-39CS+ sub, and I don't feel that I'm underpowering any of the speakers on their own, even when my rig is cranked up half-past-ridiculous.

But like ES said, all it costs you is some speaker cable to try it. If it works for you, great, even if there's a heapin' helpin' of placebo effect going on.

The first question is... Why do you think you need more power to the Monitor 70s? Is there something about the sound that's making you think this, or are you just wanting to do it just to do it? Because I assure you that, while an external amp will probably do the trick, it is rare that your AVR will be asked to send more than 65w sustained to the mains in an average sized room. Most of the wattage requirements outside of that are for transient bursts, which the Onkyo can deliver as needed (see the Onkyo's dynamic power rating). Additionally, the surrounds require very little power as they don't receive nearly as much content. In fact, during movies with surround, your center channel will be the speaker that gets the most content - more so than even the mains.

I think your best bet is to get that ED sub in place, run Audyssey's MultEQ setup (I can help you if you're curious on the best way to do that), then see how it sounds before you buy any other equipment. That subwoofer is going to make a massive difference in the sound of your rig, and I still say that your AVR is more than capable of powering the Monitor 70s if you're using a good subwoofer.

So why do you think you need more power to the mains?

tonyb wrote: »

Your splitting hairs dude and worried about non essentials. Either receiver is more than enough for your Monitor 60 or 70 as they both are very easy to drive. Don't fret on the bi-amping off a receiver thing,not worth the time or effort. Just hook them up and go,your over thinking things that don't need to be at this point.

A big +1 to that. Bi-amping from an Onkyo is like pouring the same amount of water through two pipes instead of one. Rationalize it all you want - you're still getting the same amount of water out the other side.