tommyboy Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 You paid $90 for your Rotel amp?? Yes Sir! I watched it on c list for a couple months. He started off at 265; then 225; then 175; then a negotiable 150. I offered him 90, and he said no at first, but the next day he called me back and said he'd take 90.................. Florida's unemployment rate is sky high right now, so it's the time to buy out here!!! He said his wife had just got laid off at her job, so........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted March 26, 2009 Moderators Share Posted March 26, 2009 He started off at 265; then 225; then 175; then a negotiable 150. I offered him 90, and he said no at first, but the next day he called me back and said he'd take 90.................. Florida's unemployment rate is sky high right now, so it's the time to buy out here!!! Can't agree with you more. Lots of great deals out there right now. Just gotta be looking and have some cash available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokarz Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Yeah, if you're in a large city then it's a good hunting ground, but if you're in the surburban areas, not much to see. I've been trying to sell my Yamaha AX596 without any luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokarz Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Curious. If you have a 5.1 receiver that's rated at 100 wpc, but then you add an external amp to power the front l/r. does that mean your 5.1 receiver now has 500 total watts to drive the center and surrounds, so each of those channel will receive roughly 167wpc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesV Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Curious. If you have a 5.1 receiver that's rated at 100 wpc, but then you add an external amp to power the front l/r. does that mean your 5.1 receiver now has 500 total watts to drive the center and surrounds, so each of those channel will receive roughly 167wpc In the spec. it will say how many wpc with the number of speakers attached. I will try and find one to show you for reference. James Ok here is an example. See how with 2 channels its 160 and 130 with 7 channels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbon summit Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 And from what I've read about my Yamaha 663 I'd be suspicious of any published power ratings from the manufacture or a retailer selling them. Google your model and find a review where it has been bench tested and you'll see the real numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Curious. If you have a 5.1 receiver that's rated at 100 wpc, but then you add an external amp to power the front l/r. does that mean your 5.1 receiver now has 500 total watts to drive the center and surrounds, so each of those channel will receive roughly 167wpc? On my Pioneer, they CLAIM 130 wpc; with 2 channels driven. The more channels you drive, the lower the power gets. So even though they claim 130 wpc, it may drop to say............ 70 or 80 with all channels driven. A separate amp, is only an amp, as where a receiver has a lot of other "jobs" to take care of. My amp run at a minimum of 90 wpc, but it's a true 90 wpc. I say minimum of 90 because under a demanding load, it would push more than that. And since my receiver only pushes the surrounds, they get more power sent to them also. I guess you could say 130 watts each, as that's what my Pioneer pushes with 2 channels driven. This is why when a receiver costs say, 2,500 bucks, a lot of audio heads would just take the separate route. (pre/pro and a separate amp) For the same amount of money, you could get better performance running separates. I'm no expert when it comes to why or how it improves the sound and performance of a system with a separate amp, but I do know this. I thought my system sounded good only running the receiver. But once I added a separate amp, it really brought the system to life if you know what I mean............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I guess I never really answered your question. Yes, with the ROTEL running the right, center and left, my receiver can push the extra wattage to my surrounds................... (the claimed 130 wpc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbon summit Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I read a review of my receiver ultimateAVmag.com and they had this to say about my 95wpc X 7: This graph shows that the RX-V663’s left channel, from Multi input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads continuously at 1 kHz, reached 0.1% distortion at 166.7 watts and 1% distortion at 190.7 watts. Into 4 ohms, the amplifier reached 0.1% distortion at 218.0 watts and 1% distortion at 245.9 watts. With five channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads, the amp reached 0.1% distortion at 60.0 watts and 1% distortion at 74.9 watts. With seven channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads, it reached 0.1% distortion at 47.3 watts and 1% distortion at 57.8 watts. Yamaha's stated distortion of 0.09% was reached at 46.9 watts with seven channels driving 8-ohm loads. This is roughly half of the 95Wpc specified by the manufacturer, which could be why the AVR seemed to run out of gas at higher listening levels. YMMV, but for the 663 I think Yamaha was a little misleading in their rated power!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbon summit Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Read this on the Emo thread at AVS right after I posted about my 663. Over rating receivers must be a common topic. The latest issue of Sound & Vision reviewed the Sony STR-DA5400ES receiver ($2000), which is one step below their flagship receiver. It has a stated power output of 120watts. These are the actual numbers Sound & Vision found: 1 channel driven: 177watts 2 channels driven: 160 watts 5 channels driven: 64 watts 7 channels driven: 45watts. 45watts per channel when driving a 7.1 system is quite a bit different than the advertised 120watts. Conversely, they also reviewed a Marantz receiver (SR6003 - $1000), which is advertised as delivering 100watts per channel and found the following: 1 channel driven: 155watts 2 channels driven: 130watts 5 channels driven: 111watts 7 channels driven: 96watts So I guess Marantz is a name you can trust, and Sony, Yamaha and probably many others at that level are questionable!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokarz Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 guys, thanks for the info. this is certainly most helpful. by the way, the Onkyo 806 is selling for $600 shipped. is this a good deal or should i wait until it reaches the $400-$500 range? the 806 has preouts, so definitely something i am looking for. the 706 also has preouts and is selling for $600, but why would you go for the 706 when you can get the 806 for the same $$$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Ya, Marantz and Harman Kardan have good reps for claiming their real wattage. Other manufacturers; not so much......... As far as your question about the Onkyo; I don't know much about them, so I'll leave it to someone who does to answer that for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Shortstack, how do you like the new ROTEL? How much did it improve your sound? Also, you need to post a pic for us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstack31489 Posted March 26, 2009 Author Share Posted March 26, 2009 i havent really had time to try out my new amp or new sub yet...i watched one scene from the dark knight last night and i was blown away...i am going to try to test out the new gear tomorrow and i will try and write a full review of both Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstack31489 Posted March 26, 2009 Author Share Posted March 26, 2009 what size do i need to set the pics too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted March 26, 2009 Moderators Share Posted March 26, 2009 If you insert them into your post, make them no more than around 700 pixels wide or the entire image will not be shown. If you simply attach an image, it will resize it and the user can click on the image to see the full high res image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Sunday it was 75 degrees, then Monday and Tuesday we had a blizzard!!! Thats South Dakota for you. So I had a few extra days off to play with my son and my toys. I unhooked my speakers from the XPA-5 and hooked them up to the 663 again just to see if it was worth getting an amp or not. I am the king of buyer's remorse but in this case I'm happy with the improvements. The music has more life, a fuller sound with an amp. I mean it wasn't night and day but the difference is there. It sounded ok before and it sounds even better now. I have had the XPA-5 over a month now before I unhooked it and listened to music I'm familiar with and then listened again for a while without the amp. Then hooked the amp back up and listened again. I know there are guys on here who say an amp is a waste of money but I think it really helps. I still wish I had a Rotel 1095 to try for a few weeks... I've talked to guys online that have gone from the bigger Rotels to Emo and they say if you were blindfolded you'd never hear the difference so I guess I'll give up on that part of my buyer's remorse too!!! Now do I replace the 663 with a UMC-1 when it is released???? I did something like this a little while ago with my B&K Reference 200.7 amp vs my Denon AVR3802. I always thought my setup souned really good with the 3802 (which, as far as receivers go, it is no slouch), but when I hooked up my B&K amp, it was like "Holy $#!+!!!!!". The difference was dramatic. It was like my speakers just opened up and really let the music come out! I was flabberghasted at the improvement I was hearing. Now, granted, the B&K was not exactly the cheapest thing out there at nearly $3,500, but still. I hooked the Denon backup just to make sure I was not imagining it and listen to much of the same material again, and it seem so flat and lifeless. I hooked up the B&K again and again, WOW!!. Even to this day, I am still amazed at how awesome this setup sounds, although now, the Denon AVR3802 is getting kinda long in the tooth. I am eyeing a B&K Ref 70 pre/pro as an upgrade, but first - need to make some house improvements before I drop the cash on that beast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I do wish I would have gotten a Samsung or LG that you can steam Netflix right to it. That would be handier than moving my son's xbox 360 to the living room to do it. We have separate ac adapters and input cables for his xbox 360 and wii in his room and the living room so its a few second fix when he wants to play games on the big tv. Plug two plugs in the back of the game console, hit "play xbox 360" or "play wii" on the Harmony remote and he is off and going (or I am ) so using the xbox 360 for Netflix isn't that big a deal but it would just be even better to have a BD that did it but probably not worth the money to sell the one I have and get another. Why don't you just get one of these Roku Netflix Players? They are only $100, plus it would save you from having to keep hassling around with the xbox 360. Just a suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstack31489 Posted March 27, 2009 Author Share Posted March 27, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 jeepers, nice stack-o-gear but you're really cheating your sound field with that narrow speaker placement. Have you tried placing the towers about 1.5-2 feet wide of the screen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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