ProMedia THX 5.1 Satellite Specs?

[Necrosis]

My system has been on the blink for awhile now (erratic satellite op). I was going to get another BASH chip but I don't see the point if the amplifier will die eventually either way. Honestly, I really don't need a 5.1 system on my computer. My question is what are the satellites specs? I have a plan to use them in a home theater setup, and want to be sure I don't overdrive them.

[nashbridges]

They are rated at 60 watts each and 6 ohms impedance, if you need to spec out an amplifier. My amp broke and I'm using the satellites on a Sony STR-DHR 500 receiver and they sound fantastic even though it's a relatively cheap surround receiver.

Klipsch Promedia 5.1 spec web page here:

http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/promedia-ultra-5-1-specifications/

I'm currently researching new plate amps for the subwoofer, but in the meantime I have the receiver driving a cheap 70 watt subwoofer. Since Klipsch built a great box and bridged two 8 inch woofers, I'm going to replace the factory amp with something so I can use the subwoofer with the Sony receiver.

Honestly, this is an outstanding system absent the abysmal design Klipsch used for the amp. There's no excuse for failure rates like this.

[Necrosis]

I'm running them now on an older Pioneer receiver (can't remember model) which has switchable impedance. They work very good but wish the center channel was a little bit larger due the room size I can hear it's limitations. Currently they're running w/ an Infinity 400W amp, and the combo sounds just a good if not better than the original Klipsch setup. Now I need to figure out what to do w/ the control pod & subwoofer. I'm still thinking about repairing it for the heck of it since all it would need is the Bash chip.

Thank you for your reply, and sorry for the late response. It's been a very busy month.

[Tetsu96]

Can you elaborate on the specific amp you used to replace it and details associated with it (compatible size? / how did you wire to the sub speakers - alternating phase or both in same phase). Also - should that match up fine or is there the chance of blowing the sub out, and if that's the case, would it be real obvious before getting to that point? I've got an amp / control pod which are mostly good except for one dying satellite speaker channel (speaker itself fine), but I like everything enough to keep it all and ebay the amp / pod combo once replacement amp is installed.

TYIA

[nashbridges]

I bought a the Sony STR-DH500 because it was a cheap 5.1 receiver. It replaced the the control unit of the Klipsch satellite speakers. Here's a picture of the back of it:

The satellite speakers are hooked up to the appropritate jacks. The subwoofer out hooks up to the new plate amp I bought, which is also BASH powered.

Here's a picture of the new BASH amp in the subwoofer box before I got the wood blank installed to cover the blank space. I had to use a Dremel to trim out 1/2 inch on either side of the existing recess in the wood so the new amp would fit:

The line level inputs were great, but the LFE input coupled to the single subwoofer RCA output on the receiver gave me the best sound for TV and the computer. Since the receiver was doing the work, here's what worked for me:

• Sony receiver satellite settings: All speakers set to small
• Crossover frequency set on the receiver: 130
• Frequency cutoff on the sub amp: Highest possible - the receiver handles the cutoff
• Phase: 0 degrees. My subwoofer is close to the rest of the speakers, but position is everything. You might be better off switching it to 180 if the sub is placed far away or on a wall.

I wired the sub speakers with the same wiring Klipsch did. It's a dual fire sub, so they have a positive on one sub speaker, a negative on another, and a crossover cable running from the negative on one speaker to the posive on the other. You still only have two wires, Red and Black, that will accept input. The new amp had two wires, Red and Black, and I connected them to the red and black wires in the sub. Very easy.

The new amp will blow out the speakers if the volume gets too loud, but since I have the receiver handling it I'm not terribly worried. I have the volume on the plate amp set to 80%. I get more trouble from the amp when the cables aren't plugged in, and I had a bit of worry when the volume was set all the way up and I touched the RCA cable. It shook the floor with a ground leak.

I can send more description if you would like. This is what is working for me.

[nashbridges]

OK, those images were cropped. Here's some smaller ones:

[yoyoma]

Thanks for sharing...I will end up doing this after getting a dremel. After much research for good bang for the buck, I went with a Yamaha HTR6240 5.1 "B-stock" reciever off E-bay for $195.00. I wanted Blue Ray HD sound decoding (for future upgrading) and better power/sound that the Sony spec so the extra $40 I think will be worth it. For me, the HD sound decoding was more important than spending more for a 7.1 reciever.

[abris]

Well, I just sold my SVS cylinder. So, I was bored and hooked up my old Promedia sub to a Yamaha receiver. I ran the sub out from my receiver to the analog 5.1 input of another and then speaker out directly to the positive/negative sub wire connectors. They run through the port slot with the original bash plate amp still in place. It sounds awesome. I already tried the Bash 300S and it was just ok for me. The extra receiver cost me only $60.

Since it sounds so good I am going to invest in a mono NHT subwoofer amp.

[yoyoma]

Wow, so a $60 external reciever powereing your promedia ultra sounded better than the Bash300S! Did you try tuning the Bash amp? What receiver is this you tried and what RMS power are you sending to the sub?

Well, I just sold my SVS cylinder. So, I was bored and hooked up my old Promedia sub to a Yamaha receiver. I ran the sub out from my receiver to the analog 5.1 input of another and then speaker out directly to the positive/negative sub wire connectors. They run through the port slot with the original bash plate amp still in place. It sounds awesome. I already tried the Bash 300S and it was just ok for me. The extra receiver cost me only $60.

Since it sounds so good I am going to invest in a mono NHT subwoofer amp.

[nashbridges]

Well, I just sold my SVS cylinder. So, I was bored and hooked up my old
Promedia sub to a Yamaha receiver. I ran the sub out from my receiver
to the analog 5.1 input of another and then speaker out directly to the
positive/negative sub wire connectors. They run through the port slot
with the original bash plate amp still in place. It sounds awesome. I
already tried the Bash 300S and it was just ok for me. The extra
receiver cost me only $60.

If I had another receiver to do the work for the sub, I would have tried it. The Sony I bought isn't very powerful, so I needed SOMETHING to power the sub - my receiver wasn't going to cut it.

I'm curious what you found lacking about the BASH 300S? It's not the world's best amp and I'm hardly an expert, but I can't say I've been disappointed with it so far. It took a bit of tweaking to get it to sound like I wanted, but they certainly give you enough control over everything to tweak it to your heart's content.

If I recall correctly, someone else in the forum used an extra receiver to power their sub like you did and they were happy with the results. It's definitely another avenue to try and it's probably a lot simpler in the end than replacing the amp in the sub.

[abris]

I use a Yamaha 5460 receiver to power the sub which I believe pumps out 100 watts per channel, which is all I need (front right speaker level out). I also put a small amount of poly fill in the enclosure to minimize any boominess.

The BASH 300s is certainly fine as an amplifier; I just could never keep air from leaking out of the extra space due to the short height of the amp--I even had a custom piece made to cover it. But, I did note a significant bottom end gain by using the left line-level in on the 300s instead of the LFE. It's because the amps crossover setting doesnt work for the LFE.

[nightcabbage]

Someone from Klipsch informed me that the 5.1 Ultra sats are 8 ohms.

[astrallite]

It's not really that important, and most satellites run closer to 10-16 ohms. Little satellite speakers are not going to drive an amplifier into clipping.

[nightcabbage]

It's not really that important, and most satellites run closer to 10-16 ohms. Little satellite speakers are not going to drive an amplifier into clipping.

Really? Hmm, I have really only seen 8ohms for most of the ones I've looked at.

[astrallite]

Have you ever looked at an impedence curve before?

[nightcabbage]

Nope. From what I understand, you can get away with driving say 6 ohm speakers on an 8 ohms receiver, but 4 ohm speakers is pushing it and you might overheat some parts if you've got the volume cranked. And then going the other way, you can always drive higher impedence speakers (say 16) on something like an 8 ohm receiver, but you're only going to get about half the wattage?

Question: if these are 8+ ohm sats, why do the connectors on the back of the Ultra 5.1's built in amp say something about 4 ohms?

[astrallite]

http://www.soundstageav.com/speakermeasurements.html

Take a look at the impedence curves. Tweeters take almost no energy to drive. 100hz-1KHz (the range that the woofers produce the most output at) look like 5-6 ohms nominal in most speakers measured here. There are very few speakers that are true 8 ohms in the critical midrange area.

There is no such thing as 8 ohms receivers or 6 ohms receivers. The receiver is the amplifier, not the resistor. The speaker is. Amplifiers produce amperes. If it can't supply enough amps for a heavier load, it will overload. If it overloads easily, it's a cheap receiver.

There are two ways that you can blow speakers. The first is to overload the amplifier, which sends a square sine wave that will blow out the tweeters (woofers have greater heat dissapation so they will typically survive this). The second is to surpass the excrusion limits (xmax) of a woofer (tweeters generally are less likely to blow from this since high frequencies do not require large excursion).

A satellite speaker will is not going to present a heavy enough load to clip/overload an amplifier because you will reach the xmax limits of the woofer/midrange driver LONG before you drive the amp to clipping. Ohm rating is not worth even thinking about.

Here is the typical impedence curve of a 3" midrange driver. It's not going to present a problem for an amplifier to drive.

[nightcabbage]

Thanks so much for that explanation astrallite. I'm not going to pretend it wasn't just a bit wasted on me (I'm such a n00b to audio and the tech behind it), but I think I get the gist of what you're saying: I don't need to be worrying about such things with these small speakers.

Why the heck do both my Yamaha receivers have the option to "switch" between 6 ohm and 8 ohm "output"? Is this just marketing junk?

(I hate being unknowledgeable on a subject I'm interested in. If we were talking computers here, I'd be all over it!)

[astrallite]

The 6ohm rating is some kind of FCC requirement. All the 6 ohm rating does is cut down on output of the speakers. It's actually recommended to NEVER use a lower ohm mode as you can easily drive a speaker into clipping with this artificial hard cap placed on the power output.

[Danzo]

I failed to notice the impendance of Promedia satelites on Klipsch website but i will believe you guys, 6 Ohm it is o/

I wonder what it would be like to connect Forte II as front Left and Right and, say, KV3 as centre to the Bash sub box;