BonsaNut

I completely agree! I get frustrated when there is a lot of what I'll call "system creep" where someone asks for opinions about a $1200 pair of speakers, and someone else responds with a negative opinion of said speakers because they "aren't as nice as" a pair of speakers costing 4x as much. Orly? I was just reading a post about someone asking about a $600 sub, and someone else offering up a $5000 sub solution as an alternative. We've got a little bit of a chicken and egg conundrum here. The OP wants to upgrade his speakers, but he may be getting ahead of himself, in terms of what his receiver can handle (personal opinion). Of course, we can always just say... great speaker upgrade but your next step may be a new A/V receiver, or an independent amp to drive your LCR. I also think there is a general misunderstanding that more watts = louder sound, when what people really need to consider is more watt headroom = better sound. Well... I hope that he reads my comments as constructive point of view - something else to put in the hopper as he builds his system.

I think perhaps people are missing my point, or else I'm an extremely poor communicator. There is a lot of discussion about volume. To me volume does not equal quality of sound. I personally never want to spec a system where the amp is required to approach 100% of its capacity in order to drive the speakers at the lowest end of its design spec. When you talk about maxxing out the OP's avr "for that brief moment" how about you never max it out? How about you never get above 50% so you get pure clean sound without distortion that can effortlessly manage the dynamic range of a THX Ultra setup? I guess it's just a different approach to system design. My main stereo amp, a Yamaha MX1000, is rated for 265 watts per channel @ .003% THD. I don't want to get anywhere near the high end of that capacity, let alone "max out" the amp just to reach my studio monitors' continuous watt rating. Just smooth, clean sound... effortlessly. That's all I'm saying. The OP is free to do whatever he wants. Everyone has a different opinion. To me it's like buying a Ferrari with a Prius engine. You'll strain that engine to the utmost just driving the car around the block. Forget trying to even come close to reaching the potential of what the car was designed for. People are saying... "yeah but you can still get it to 100 mph... maxxed out." They seem to forget the car was designed to go 225 mph. How does it accelerate with a Prius engine? What does it sound like at 100mph? How long can you drive it 100mph and what is the experience like? And does it feel like what you expected a Ferrari to feel like?

Thanks for the response. I have never bought speakers that I haven't auditioned first.

Well... I was trying to make lemonade out of lemons Or out of lemons and oranges. I think he is trying to do too much with too little... but again, just my opinion.

I'm not denigrating the quality of his receiver. I am just saying that he is working with a 7 amp receiver rated at 105 watts per amp. I think he won't be happy with the sound he will get from RP280F's or RB8ii's (specced for 150 watts continuous, 600 watts peak). Even RP-160M's as surrounds are on the big side at 100 watts continuous, 400 watts peak. If he is in love with that receiver, and in love with those speakers, I would actually go with a 3.1 setup and bi-amp the LCR channels. Then he'd be working with 210 watts. My opinion, but I don't want to recommend a setup where he ends up under-driving his speakers and then wonders why he isn't getting the best sound out of them.

Given the options, I would just go with the splitter.

My personal opinion... you are way under-amped to be considering any of these speakers. And if you can tell where your subwoofer is in your room... you have a crappy subwoofer that is throwing too much woofer. At or below 80 Hz it is impossible for human hearing to determine the direction of sound, since the wavelength is too long and the phase difference between the ears becomes too short for directional evaluation. That is why the THX and Dolby-Digital crossover frequency of 80 Hz for sub-woofer / woofer was chosen. Rather than buy two crappy subs, buy one good one that doesn't bleed into your middle ranges.

I would really like to hear from someone, anyone, who has actually HEARD Pro-6504-L's in a theatre setup - and what their opinions were. Secondly, if the same person has actually HEARD Pro-7800-L's in a theatre setup, and how they would compare the two speakers. I can't find these on display anywhere in Southern California, or I'd travel the miles to experience them first-hand. I can't find any online first-hand reviews, either. I am assuming someone on this site has heard them, and I would love to hear your opinion.