Will I experience any gain by getting separates for my speakers?

[tommyboy]

My HK is only rated at 65 wpc. My receiver claims 130 wpc. The difference in sound on my F2's between the two is night and day. The F2's just seemed to "come alive" driven by the HK. I couldn't imagine only running a receiver now.........

[UFObuster]

Good advice above, get a good sub.

Then, here is a copy of a new post I just did to "draynes" who posted "new avr and new klipsch owner has a few questions":

To "draynes"

"Since I have the RF-7, RC-7 in front and I use a pair of the RF-5
for surround and a single RC35 for a rear channel (6.1), I thought I'd
give you this feedback.

I had an Onkyo receiver (85 watts per in
5.1) when I first bought Klipsch (the RF-5 for fronts at that time).
When I added the RF-7, RC-7 combo later (moving the 5's to the surround
position), it really strained this system. It was LOUD for sure but
not as good sound quality as I expected. Did a lot of chat
here...dismissed some good advice and upgraded the Onkyo to a more
powerful Yamaha (an RXV model around 120 wpc). Better.

I had a
little buyer's remorse over that Yamaha and went back to the shop with
a Klipsch Forum idea: I took out a Rotel RB-1080 2 channel (200wpc)
and used it for the RF-7 with the Yammi as a pre-amp. The Yammi
continued to power the center, surround, and back. The difference was
the most significant change in my history with this stuff. Apparently
(citing this forum), the RF-7 has a very wide impedance range going
very low in some demanding passages and thus requires more power than
you might think. It also helps to have the single dedicated amp and
power source for these fine speakers.

So, my advice would be:
find a very good (but not necessarily high powered) AVR with all the
new 'goodies' saving some $$ by shaving watts. Get a dedicated amp (a
good quality new/used at least 200 watts for your front RF-7...taking
the big load away from the AVR, it will handle the rest with much
better outcome). You can probably do this for not a lot more money
than going very high-end AVR alone. Your system will be more
flexible, the RF7s will be much happier, and you'll have a nice
2-channel rig in the middle of your HT system and left over channels
for one or two back speakers.

This is the advice I would give to
anyone really hooked on all the great options available in newer AVRs
paired with some Klipsh speakers(RF-7 in particular). Separating the
front pair just gives the whole system a jolt.....and worked very well
for me until I finally upgraded again and use a separate RMB-1075
(120wpc) for the center,surround, and back. But this last step only
gave me a subtle improvement (regarding power). The BIG daddy move was powering those
fronts the right way.

Good luck and have fun."

Incidently, I see several posters above whose advice I followed in this story, Arky in particular (thanks), and several others. The "impedance" issue is real and better explained in another post above.

Good luck and have fun!

Roger

[winchester21]

This is a great thread- Dont think I have seen a better discussion on a highly debatable subject.

[Deang]

One sub is good, two subs are much better. I would do that first. Up next should be the Emotiva xpa-3.