Will this work? Pro amplifier for mains + A/V receiver for the rest

[Kain]

Since many people have said that high-powered amplifiers do wonders for the RF-7, the idea of getting a pro amplifier for my RF-7s is bugging me. Since money is a concern right now, I am toying with the idea of getting only one QSC PL325 (that outputs 500 watts per channel at 8 ohms) for my RF-7s and letting my A/V receiver power the center and two surrounds. Ideally, I would want to get three QSC PL325 amplifiers (one for the RF-7s, one for the RC-7, and one for the RS-7s) but that will not be possible right now.

Since I have a pretty "hard-hitting" A/V receiver (top-of-the-line Harman Kardon AVR 8000/8500) I would assume it should be fine powering only the center and surrounds and that the system shouldn't suffer too much due to the power difference between the mains and the center/surrounds (unless I am wrong about this).

What is your say in this?

[smokarz]

there are some here that use QSC amps and really like them.

but for the price (~$1,200), you have lots of choices....

and i believe feeding your front 3 with the same power is prefer.

have you look at a 3 channel amp? Emotiva, B&K, Parasound?

[CECAA850]

It would work fine and also give you the opportunity to see if you like the QSC sound. Your system overall will be limited to the receivers output on the rest of the channels. Just be sure to calibrate your speakers after you add the amp. If you use it for 2 channel listening, you can air it out.

[Guest " "]

the black u connector at the bottom center for main left and main right would come out. your amp would connect to pre out. BUT, if the gain of the channels don't sync well, your surround image would not be properly orientated.

[Kain]

Thanks for the replies.

Let me say that one of the main (or really the main) reason why I am trying to upgrade to separate amplifiers is because I usually find my system to sound a bit too bright/harsh at high volumes. They say it is the RF-7's 2.8 or so ohm dip at certain frequencies that causes this because most A/V receivers cannot cope with that dip and this causes clipping resulting in harsh high-frequency sounds.

I tried something today that I found interesting. I put in my old AVIA DVD and played some pink noise on the left, center, and right speakers individually. I found that the center (RC-7) sounded less bright/harsh during this testing than the left and right (which are RF-7s) speakers. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever found the RC-7 to sound bright/harsh, mainly the RF-7s (could be wrong though!).

Can you say this concludes the idea that clipping is causing the brightness/harshness of the RF-7s? The RC-7 seemed to have a different (warmer) tone than the RF-7s even though they share the same tweeter.

[Guest " "]

Not at all. That receiver has plenty of power. Assume that you added a 500 watt amp, what would you do next? do that first. One thing you can try, is swap the RC-7 and one of the RF-7's and see if you opinion of the warmer sound stays in that speaker position, or moves with the speaker to a new location. This will help understand if room conditions have anything to do with the sound characteristics.

[Kain]

I did the test while standing only a few feet from the speakers. Wouldn't the sound hit my ears before it hits the room at this distance?

[CHASLS2]

I plan on going with a 3 chan amp to drive my RF7's and RC7 and let the AVR drive the RS7's.

[superedge88]

I went the route of going with used Marantz MA-700 amplifiers for my front three, only cost me about $600 and each amplifier isn't pushed anywhere near the output they its capable of. Super inexpensive way to get high quality amplification, and each channel is separate from each other, so separate power supplies instead of one power supply attempting to power three channels. As many pointed out to me when I was asking about proper amplification for my KLF-30's, the KLF's have high sensitivity (so do the RF-7's) so super high powered amplification is not necessarily needed. So you could end up saving a lot of money by just going with small mono block amplification for each channel and spend the money you were going to spend on the big pro amplifiers on a different Home Theater upgrade(s) Just another route you could go.