RF-7II AS CENTER?

[SonicSeeker]

Would I benefit from another RF-7II for a center in place of
the RC64II. I now have a yamaha RX-Z11 with RF-7II'S for front and surrounds an RC-64II for a center
KSP-S6's for rear (7.1) and KSP-S6's for front fill. Would it be worht my
time to add an external power amp or amps to the 4 RF'S and the center and would I get the
hiss?Also Do you ever get hiss when you hookup external amps, the reason I ask is
I have a yamaha dsp-a1 that I hooked up an external decoder using the
back two surounds to add a rear speaker and had to use 3 ma-500's to
drive them and I would get the dreaded hiss sound.

[cornfedksboy]

Would I benefit from another RF-7II for a center in place of the RC64II. I now have a yamaha RX-Z11 with RF-7II'S for front and surrounds an RC-64II for a center KSP-S6's for rear (7.1) and KSP-S6's for front fill. Would it be worht my time to add an external power amp or amps to the 4 RF'S and the center and would I get the hiss?Also Do you ever get hiss when you hookup external amps, the reason I ask is I have a yamaha dsp-a1 that I hooked up an external decoder using the back two surounds to add a rear speaker and had to use 3 ma-500's to drive them and I would get the dreaded hiss sound.

LOL! Read the recent thread titled "Alternate to RC-7." It's debatable what benefits you would get by using towers for the front three, but IMO, if you already have the 64, getting an RF-7 would be a waste of money as the benefit would be slight. As for Amps hissing, this is caused by a ground loop. There are others that can tell you about that better than I, but basically you have to spend a lot of time trouble-shooting and re-working your system to find what's causing it. If you can identify the problem it can be fixed.

[psg]

A ground loop gives you hum, not hiss.

My Dad bought a Yamaha that looks that dsp-a1 (and the remote is identical) 15 to 20 years ago. Age could make it hiss. Prior to that Yamaha used to make outboard processors; my Dad had one for "pro logic surround sound" (prior to Dolby Digital). Those things have a high noise floor so a lot of hiss.

[SonicSeeker]

I believe you are spot on. The channels the yamaha powered were silent and the channels the ma's powered out of the processor had the hiss.

[willland]

Do you ever get hiss when you hookup external amps, the reason I ask is I have a yamaha dsp-a1 that I hooked up an external decoder using the back two surounds to add a rear speaker and had to use 3 ma-500's to drive them and I would get the dreaded hiss sound.

I had (2) MA-500's and (5) MA-700's and none of them ever caused a hiss no matter what source or preamp/receiver I had running in my system. They were quiet as a mouse. It sounds like the DSP-a1 may be the culprit. Must have a high noise floor. My NAD T773 receiver causes a tiny hiss that is only slightly audible during very quiet passages, otherwise I do not even notice it. I know it is not my B&K amps because with other preamps they are more quiet than a mouse.

Remember also that Klipsch speakers, especially RF-7II's, are very efficient and will only amplify even the slightest hiss.

Would I benefit from another RF-7II for a center in place of the RC64II.

An RF-7II as a center would be "perfect" but definitely not more practical or as cost effective as your RC-64II. I am sure your RC-64II does a jam up job because I know my RC-64 sure does. While your Yamaha RX-Z11 is the flagship model and has a very potent amp section, a nice beefy quiet 7-channel amp would be a great direction to go. (5) MA-700's to power all (4) of your RF-7II's and your RC-64II would be awesome and move your (2) MA-500's to the rear.

I have a B&K Reference 4430(3-channel 200w/ch) that is for sale but another forum member is deciding between it and another sellers amp. It is very powerful, neutral/warmish and very quiet.

Here is a fantastic option at a super price.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1317191935&/B-K-Components-Reference-7250-

Bill

[psg]

Do you ever get hiss when you hookup external amps, the reason I ask is I have a yamaha dsp-a1 that I hooked up an external decoder using the back two surounds to add a rear speaker and had to use 3 ma-500's to drive them and I would get the dreaded hiss sound.

I had (2) MA-500's and (5) MA-700's and none of them ever caused a hiss no matter what source or preamp/receiver I had running in my system. They were quiet as a mouse. It sounds like the DSP-a1 may be the culprit. Must have a high noise floor.

Easy enough to find out... Connect the speaker to the MA amp without any source connected at all and turn it on. A friend was giving me a killer deal on a Monster Signature amp but I passed on it because of excessive hiss.

[Heritage_Head]

Would I benefit from another RF-7II for a center in place of

the RC64II. I now have a yamaha RX-Z11 with RF-7II'S for front and surrounds an RC-64II for a center

KSP-S6's for rear (7.1) and KSP-S6's for front fill. Would it be worht my

time to add an external power amp or amps to the 4 RF'S and the center and would I get the

hiss?Also Do you ever get hiss when you hookup external amps, the reason I ask is

I have a yamaha dsp-a1 that I hooked up an external decoder using the

back two surounds to add a rear speaker and had to use 3 ma-500's to

drive them and I would get the dreaded hiss sound.

When I first got my emo amp I got super bad hiss and noise

that I could hear from my lp 12’ away. When I called them they were actually

pretty rude about it and blamed my speakers. I was going to send the amp back but before I did

I tried running a long cord and used a different wall outlet and the noise went

away(lol I wish they would have just told me that instead of blaming my

speakers). I still get hiss though but can only hear it if I get about a foot

away. But its clean hiss and not noisy. I never heard hiss from my avr when it

sat in idle. They told me emo amps have a floor gain of about 40db so that’s the

hiss I hear. It is one of the disadvantages of having super high sensitive speakers.

They don’t hide anything good or bad.

[pite]

RF-7 II as Center: Dolby Laboratories suggest to use 5 identical full-range speakers for 5.1 setup for tonal/timbre matching. And then, there are few forum members who have used main speakers as R-C-L. That being said, there are quite a few things going in favor of RC-64 II which are as following,

1) Closed Box design, with no rear port opening to worry about

2) Possibility to tilt

3) RC-64 II has a tapered array crossover that helps creating a nice blending between Left-Center-Right speakers

4) Four 6.5" woofers will have a faster response compared 10" woofers of RF-7 II

5) At MSRP the difference of US$300

6) It's tonal/timbre matched with RF-7 II

7) The RC-64 II is shielded while RF-7 II is not!

8) Horizontal versus Vertical – Although, location might NOT be an issue as you are willing for this change. In most cases it’s nearly impossible to accommodate RF-7 II as center speaker.

I'm always tempted to use RF-7 II as center, but with all these pluses and Real-World-Rock-Solid-HT-Performance, RC-64 II deserves its place as 'CENTER' speaker in our Home Theater!

Hiss Issue: One possibility is to try different mains connection (110vAC plug on a different house circuit to eliminate ground loop issue), while other is a mismatching impedance of your equipments. The later is killer as it might not be easy to fix. While it’s rare, you might have a defective electronic circuit/part within one of your unit.

[Zen Traveler]

Would I benefit from another RF-7II for a center in place of the RC64II...

You would definitely have a seamless match across your front soundstage, but given that the RC-64II was designed to be the center channel with your mains the benefit would be minimal unless you have a transparent screen. Fwiw, I saw on AVSForum a person who had 3 RF-7s across and I thought it put his monitor too high.