sully141 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Right now i'm debating on buying a 2 or 3 channel, to go with my Onkyo 809 avr. some of the options are emotiva xpa-3 which is 200x3 for $599 free S&H, upa-5 which is 80x5 but if i 3 channel it its 133x3 for $399 free S&H. Or just buy a 2 channel. my floors are 150 rms but the center is rated at around 90 rms and the surrounds are 75 rms. the onkyo volume is at 60 when watching movies, so i'd have to say its working hard for my 7.1 setup. the onkyo is supposedly rated at 135 watts, I guess the big question is if i do the 2 channel will that leave enough power for the center and other 4 and will it sound good, or if i should just go 3 channel and let the receiver handle the surround. money is a concern the most i'd want to go is the xpa-3, Or the really big question is should i just leave everything alone since I own the klipsch icon series from best buy and maybe the onkyo 809 is pushing them just fine. soon i'll be buying a Outlaw lfm-1 ex to make a 7.2 setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 upa-5 which is 80x5 but if i 3 channel it its 133x3 It does not work like that, using only 3 of the 5 channels will really give you no noticeable increase in power at all and if played hard enough that there was an increase (which would be playing it very hard) it could be damaging to the amp. Using the XPA-3 for the front 3 (left, right and center) then using the receivers power to power the surrounds works very well. This is what I did with my first venture into separate amplification and I was very happy with the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Your Icon series speakers aren't particularly power hungry. Your Onkyo is very capable of driving them on its own. If you have all your speakers crossed over at 80Hz or higher and are letting your sub handle the rest the receiver has plenty of power to driver your speakers. Also, you might want to re-consider the Outlaw. Adding a second sub can be very difficult to balance. If you add an Outlaw to your SW-450 it will be even harder. Always best to go with identical subs if you add more than one. Don't get me wrong, I love my Outlaw LFM-1 Plus and it would be a huge upgrade from your SW-450. Best advice I could give would be to sell your SW-450 and either get two LFM-1 Plus' or two LFM-1 EX'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Right now i'm debating on buying a 2 or 3 channel, to go with my Onkyo 809 avr. I agree that the Onkyo should be plenty to drive the system. I have the Icon V system and added an amp for the towers. The amp was 200 watts/8 ohms. I thought the amp made the system sound better at high volumes due to better control over the speaker cones. If you have the upgrade bug, get the 3 channel amp. I also had the SW 450 and felt it was a very nice sub. I always thought that my towers would benefit the most from an amp but, I think the smaller speaker benefited more. My VS 14's rated 50watts/200watts benefited more than the towers on an amp rated 200 watts. They kept up with my RF 7/ RC 64 without a strain. I still own most of my Icon V system and love them. IMO, the smaller, less efficient speakers may benefit from an amp more than most of the larger speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sully141 Posted March 4, 2013 Author Share Posted March 4, 2013 Thanks for the help, maybe i'll hold off for a little bit, and consider options. its just seems like something is missing when watching movies. something with the sound so i figured maybe a amp would help out, since some of the reviews i read about the onkyo 809 says that it will only put out 80x7, so i figured the emotiva help out the front and give more to the back. Is having the volume at 55 when watching movies a good cause for the emotiva xpa-3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Where you have the volume set at doesn't really have any bearing on how hard the receiver is working. What do you have the speakers/receiver calibrated to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 A good sub is need for all HT's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sully141 Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 The onkyo calibrated everything, but i changed it, to full band for my towers, 80 hz for the center and surrounds. the dB's for sides is -3.5, just changed center -3, everything else is around -4.5, the sub is at -5. the calibration had the distance right but had 40 hz for everything I changed that and it had the center at -3.5. the thing that bugs me is that voices in alot of blu rays can barely be heard so i keep turning the sound up but the surround gets to loud. the equalizer settings i left alone so that is set to off. the onkyo will switch itself to the proper surround sound when the blu rays start, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 Wouldn't be a bad idea to change your towers from full band to 40Hz or higher. Your VF36s are already 3dB down at 36Hz anyway. Doing that will route the appropriate bass to your sub and free up more power for your receiver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 I had that exact same system, very nice by the way and the VC 25 is a great center channel. One trick that works to bring up the center channel dialogue is to lower the front speaker 3 db and not keep uping the center. This will decrease some of the background noise from the main speakers I have seem a lot of people up the trim on the center channel with less than satisfactory results. I xo everything at 80-100 Hz and set all the speakers to small. This may eliminate some cancellation issues.You may have some other acoustical issues in the avr setup or with the room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InVeNtOr Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 + for correct settings. if you set your mains up right, it will sound like you have a phantom center. i was going to only have my front mains this go around, but i'm going to try the whole 3.1 experience. not sure how long it will last, but i'll see how it goes. i have to first set everthing up right and get all my cables done. when i just had my onkyo 805, i thought something was missing, so i bought a LPA-1. i bi-amped and was content (for a while) with the results. i then un bi-amped because i didn't want to run double the wires for the front 3. i did loose a little there, but not enough to warrent the extra hassel and cost of more wire (i was in the process of changing out the current speaker wire for "better" wire). i still felt i wasn't getting everthing out of my system. i even had a crossover upgrade at this point. i took evreyone advice and chose a "warmer" upgrade, but still wasn't happy. it wasn't until i chose the right caps (for my likes), umc, and xpa-3, along with all the upgrade cables before i was actually happy. it also took a lot of fine adjustements and setting to get everything right. keep in mind i had an open livingroom so there was only so far it could go. if you feel you are "missing something" try to get your settings right, then try possibly an amp. some might suggest a different receiver. you may just not like the sound of an onkyo. i didn't like mine in 2CH music. HT, it was "good". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.