Vinza

Since a few months I updated my Onkyo TX-NR676 into a Marantz SR7012. And now I wonder if it is worth the money to go for an external amp for my LCR? My LCR are RP600M and RP500C, all three speakers 100 watt RMS and 400 watt Max. The Marantz SR7012 has in 2 channel driven 125 watt per channel at 0.05% THD. In 5.1.4 configuration this is minimum 70% of that value, guaranteed by Marantz, so that would mean 87 watt per channel at 0.05% THD. So for music listening in stereo configuration there is a little headroom in the SR7012, with its 125 watt and the 100 watt RMS from the RP600M. But in full dolby movie watching the 87 watt is a little low to get the full potential. Not that I watch movies that loud, but it might be nice to have a bit more headroom there and also release the SR7012 internal amp's from some duty. All help and thoughts are more than welcome!

Thanks for your reply!

I do about 60% movies and 40% music listening via tidal HiFi. So actually both HT and Stereo listening.

What is HT?

Oké but what kind of amp and power per channel would be recommended for my LCR?

For some time now I'm in doubt if it will be worth it to go for external amplification on my living room setup. Met setup is 5.1.4, with RP600M, RP500C and RP500M as 5 ear level speakers, my 4 height channels are older Jamo S60 Sur (87 Db sensitive). My AVR is an Onkyo TX-RZ830 with a reasonable amount of power. When I listen to music in two channel / stereo mode, I don't have the feeling my Onkyo is short on power. However I'm wondering if it is worth it to go for external amplification to have better and fuller sound in Stereo mode and in the mean time also have more and quicker power to my speakers when watching movies in 5.1.4 configuration. On the other hand I don't want to give the RP600M to much power, since they are rated for 100 watts continues. Any advice or thoughts are more than welcome!

Your setup will be very much like my setup, I have RP600M, RP500C and RP500M as my five ear level speakers. For Atmos / Height channels I use 4 older Jamo S60 Sur speakers, but that doesn't matter for your AVR choice. You first have to decide if you might be going for external amplification is a later stadium, so that means an avr with pre-outs for your speakers, so not only for the subwoofer. Also you have to decide what type of sound you want, a little warmer sound comes from example a Marantz, Denon is just very good, me personaly I really like Onkyo, so I have an Onkyo TX-RZ830. Also you have to think if you later might want to for 5.1.4 insteat of 5.1.2 or 7.1.2 or something, so it is important to see what the avr of your choice will be able to process in total. All AVR's will never give much more than 100 watt per channel, especially not when there more channels driven than 2. Maybe an AVR will say 105 watts per channel when 2 channel driven, but with 5.1.2 setup, so 7 speakers asking power for the avr, there will only about 60/70 watt per channel available. Meaning you might want to go for an avr with the pre outs I mentioned earlier, so you are able to add external amplification in a later stadium.

Went for the RP-500M’s as surrounds.

Last week finally finished my setup for now. Of course there are still some goals, but for now I’m really happy with how it turned out in our livingroom. Samsung 55” 4K tv Onkyo TX-NR676E Sony DVD/HD player HD Rayon HD Media player Humax digital recorder and tv module Sony PlayStation 3 LG Blueray player RP-600M as FL and FR RP-500C as Center RP-500M as SL and SR Jamo S810 Subwoofer

Onkyo TX-RZ820 should be possible as well, can't link Amazon because I'm in Europe

It that size room and at that distance away, assuming you watch from the bed, the 600M is possible, but the 500M will not disappoint as well.

Totally agree!

Oké now 502S on +2 Your reasons sound logical, was in doubt because in my setup the surrounds are not on the best position due to our livingroom settings.

I don't think you will notice the difference when playing music or watching movies on reasonably normal levels. I guess you are from the Netherlands, and if yes, you probably have neighbors who have their house attached to your house, so extremely high levels of Db are not going to be happening without issues. Also you need to keep in mind that to play 3 Db higher you will need to double the wattage, so double the power for 3Db extra. Your current Denon has 80 watt when 2 channel driven, the 3600h has 105 watt when 2 channel driven, so 25 watt extra on top of the 80 watt will give you maybe 1 or 2 Db extra volume from your speakers. I would say definately not worth the money. Only thing is what pbphoto says, if you also want to add external amplification, than the 3600h gives you the pre-outs needed for that. But then we are talking also the price of bying a external amplifier. I would for sure first try your current AVR, and then after a month or so, decide what to do.

In the same sence that my car also needs more horsepower.... Yes I agree, but in my livingroom it is not going to hapen that I will have bigger speakers, this has something to do with my wife not accepting bigger speakers than currently. I was lucky enough to be able to do this setup, she wanted Sonos..... so I'm already very happy I got to go with the Klipsch set I currently have. However the surrounds need to be bigger and from Klipsch, so that's why my question is whether to go for RP502S or RP500M as surrounds in my 5.1 setup.