nixonrsx

Mind me asking who makes your entertainment stand? Looks nice.

Alternatives, I would look into Elemental Designs. Two of the A5-350's, A7S-450's or A7-350's. Any two of those for less than the Rythmics. I own one A5-350 in a open style 20'x20' room and it is great, I would consider getting another if I felt like I ever needed another. The Rythmics are very nice, I just believe you can get more for your money.

I have less than 1/2" clearence on both sides of my XPA-3, and about 5" above. No problems whatsoever. Emotiva says you can easily stack amps on top of each other. You should be fine.

Amazon has a pretty darn good deal on some RB-61 II's in cherry, I am not sure what your price range is....I need to resist new surrounds hahah....

Adele -- Live at Royal Albert Hall. If you like female vocals is really doesnt get any better.

I mentioned in the first post they are hooked up to a Harman Kardon 3490 stereo receiver, so they are gettting a solid 120w. I have also had them hooked up to a vintage Marantz, an older Yamaha, and the Athenas sound better on all of them. My roommates and I listen to about every genre of music except classical, and they do well with everything.

Haha, I actually have both pairs of speakers in my house right now, althought the KSF 8.5's are for sale and I havent used them for about 3 years now. The Athenas are a much better speaker in my opinion. I have had both of them hooked up to a HK 3490 and the Athenas have a ton more bass, are front ported and have a nice lively sound, and play very nice at all levels.If you get them and dont like them Im sure you can easily sell them for the same price if not more. I bough the entire set used, towers, center and surrounds for $200 and sold off the center and surrounds for about $180 total very easily. I really like them for my billards room hooked up to the HK and iPod dock. Good luck, let us know how it goes if you get them.

Thats a nice upgrade there, congrats. Personally I would recommend hooking them up to your Yamaha and see if you like it. If you feel like something is lacking or get that what if feeling I would reccommend the Emotiva XPA-3 for your front three, and let the Yamaha run your rear channels. That is what I am doing with my RF-7's and RC-7 and it is awesome. I have an older Yamaha receiver and am looking to upgrade it sometime soon as soon as I find something that I really like. Good luck..

I would suggest not listening to your RF-7s' when they are hooked up to the XPA-2. lol There is a pretty drastic difference and you will probally want a new amp. Good luck.

I use an Emotiva XPA-3 pushing 200 watts at 8 ohms and 300 at 4. Its a three channel amp so I have it on my RF-7's and RC-7. It will play as loud as I want it to for as long as I need it to. I use my receiver for the surrounds. I would have to think the Parasound (very nice amp by the way) would easily be up the task in your situation. How big is your room? If you are looking to save a few bucks have you looked into Emotiva amps? Great bang for the buck. Good luck.

Your not gonna damage the speaker as long as you listen at reasonable levels. You do have a pretty big room though, but you do sit pretty close to the center channel. If you do get the RC-64, try it out for a little while and see if you like it in your room. If it seems like you have to turn the volume up really high to get the desired sound then you can start looking into external amps. If you really only want to get a single amp just for the RC-64 I would look into the Emotiva UPA-1.

Hmmm, if you are leaning twoards warmer or natural tones, there is pretty much no Klipsch speaker you are going to like. I have actually owned both of these speakers, and they are both still in my house, although both are for sale as of right now. However of the two, the RF3's are "warmer" than the KG4's, although not even close to the warm or neutral side. I would definitly try to listen to both of them first if possible. Good luck.

Hmm, well is there any particular reason you want to buy the sc-35 if you are not going to be using it for what it was designed for? Seems like a monster of a receiver for just using 2 channel audio. You could try the vsx1120k and see how you like it with the RF-7II's and if you feel like something is lacking and want to try out the XPA-2, Emotiva has a trial period. What blu-ray player do you have? You could look at an Emotiva USP-1 and XPA-2, but that is just a strict stereo preamp, so you would just run hdmi to your tv straight from your blu ray and cable box. Good luck.

Congrats on your purchase, you sound pretty excited. I would say that most if not all sub $1000 receivers will not be able to push the RF-7II's to the maximum potential, depending on your room size. If you really want to use 3D on your tv then yes, your not gonna wanna get the UMC-1. However, you can still get an Emotiva amplifier if you choose, all you need to do is find a receiver with 5.1 or more "pre-outs" so you can connect it to the amplifier. If you are going to be using a center channel I would recommend a mid level reciever with pre outs and a Emotiva XPA-3 to power the RF-7II's and whatever center channel you decide to use. Are you planning on using any other speakers? Subwoofers? How big is your room? Lets us all know and we can give you some more advice.

Thanks...this lil sucker sure did surprise me I must say.

I only have 2 optical ports...When you said you could get the frequency to show on the front of the Panny, how are you getting it to do that? Maybe mine cant do that..

Which optical in port do you have the cable hooked into on the XR-45? I didnt mess around with it long but couldnt get it to work on "CD" input. edit...I got it to work with the optical cable on the cd input, but I could not get the PCM numbers to pop up on the Panny, even when switching to the PCM FIX format...It just says PCM on the front screen. Which one should sound better? The optical cable with the optical setting or the optical cable with the PCM setting?

My XR55 does it automatically, its under the Basic Operation section of my manual. It say "Enjoy a higher quality sound during stereo (2-channel) playback by playing the sound through the amplifiers used for multi-channel sound sources. DUAL AMP does not work when; all of the speakers are turned off, during multi-channel playback, when you are using Dolby Pro Logics II, DTS NEO. My light automatically comes on. I guess I will have to try it on my 4ohm speakers and see what this amp has.

Ha, nice to see you got a little upgrade for free. I hooked mine up for a few minutes, had to fix ALL the settings to get it back to normal. I decided against bi amping for now because I forgot my Athena AS-F2's only have one set of terminals on the back. This light little Panasonic sounded pretty darn awesome I must say. It was able to easily push my Athenas to some pretty high levels with good overall sound. It was handleing them just as easy as my HK 3490 was. I only listened to the Mumford and Sons cd but it sounded really good, nice bass, mids, and highs. It definitly had some more juice left but it was all I was willing to push it right now. Pretty impressive. I may hook it up to my RF-7s or the KG4's, but that will be for another day. Good luck with yours.

I just got it home, its in really nice shape, have a manual too...You can bi-amp the XR55 also...So I think I am gonna try that out and see what happens.

So you just answered my question with the above post, one just went one sale on craigslist down the road from me. It is the Panasonic SA-XR55, so you are saying this one is beefier and will sound better? Thanks for your help. It will only be used for 2 channel. Oh, and to the OP, I also have an HK 3490, so when I get the Panny hooked up I will try and post some of my impressions. The one I am picking up is mint condition, with remote, and silver for $150.

Seeing how that is pretty much Onkyos top of the line I would give it a listen first, see what you think, see if your comfortable with how hot it is going to run and then go from there. Even though all of Emotivas amps are on sale for the holidays. If you are looking for more, I would suggust going with the XPA-3 for the fronts and let the Onkyo take care of the rest. Should be pretttttyyyy awesome! Good luck.

I dont know how loud you are gonna wanna listen to your system, but you may want to consider an external amp to take some of the load off that Onkyo espically if you are gonna run 7.1, I even use one and I am only running 5. I know the Onkyo is THX certified and all but it is only putting out 68 watts when it is driving 5 and 7 channels. That Onkyo is gonna run super hot if your pushing is hard with 5+ speakers.

Those are Elemental Designs (eD) A5-350's....Wish I had two, but one will do for now.

I hear what your saying, and we all have our opinions. Personally I dont care if there is only a slight hiss within 12 inches of the horn, I mean that is with no music playing. I never have my speakers powered without playing something. Again, Im just giving another point of view. If you older and have any sort or hearing loss your not gonna hear it anyway. lol