Vegas_Berto Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 (edited) I’ve just purchased a pair of RF-7 iii’s. My Denon receiver is underpowered for these power hungry puppies. I work in pro audio and happen to have a Crown DCi 4|600 amp with DSP. They’re connected and sound incredible!! Obviously my amp doesn’t have a pre-amp out or any way to split the incoming signal. Looking for any pointers on how to better add the sub to this setup, instead of the y-splitter I’m using at the moment. It works, but I’m $9000 into this system and would like to know if I’m connecting the sub the smartest way possible. I googled for a pre-amp splitter but haven’t had any luck. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Edited June 2, 2018 by Vegas_Berto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K5SS Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 What Denon Receiver and how many channels are you using it for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlthess40 Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 You don’t need a lot of power for those speakers. If you are trying to use more then 100 watts your going to go deaf. Plain and simple. Those are very efficient and detailed speakers and work great with as little as 20 watts. Ask youthman. He has the series II and III and he even has a ton of YouTube videos about them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlthess40 Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 You can use a 12volt line level preampSpeaker cables in and rca outYou can get great units used for car audio and have great specs so they will not add any noise into your systemCompanies that make them areAlpine. Pioneer. Matt’s audio. Sony. Soundstream. ( one of the better ones )PPI and the list goes on and on. You just run your speaker cables from your receiver to the line level unit and it will change it to rca outputs with level control and subwoofer controlsThese pics are just a fast look up of a cheap unit. And these are passive. What you really want is a powered unit that will have some type of crossoversLike the one in the 3rd pic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 3 hours ago, K5SS said: What Denon Receiver and how many channels are you using it for? Yes, very important question. Welcome to the forum @Vegas_Berto. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadBlue Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 Hi Vagas, I'm going to assume, by looking at the specs on that amp, that you are set up for 2 channel listening with left and right passive subs, and you are using the amps DSP controls to set up your xovers/channel. If so, I don't see anything wrong with your set up as long as you're just lookin for that "rock the block" system. If you also want to be able to sit and do some "critical" listening, then I would change things up starting with the amp. But before getting into that I'll state what experience I have had with my RF-7iii's. First I tried using an Onkyo avr rated at 100 watts/ch 2ch driven and found, just as you did, not enough power. Now for the ppl who say "but these are Klipsch and very eff,100db 1w/1m, and don't need that much" all I can say is these are not Heritage,there a diff animal and even on a diff lvl from the rest of the Reference line. Next I went with a Crown XLi-1500 amp(330w/ch @8ohms)...WOW!!...now these puppy's are starting to bark :)....but this amp starts to clip at about 50% power,leaving both me and the speakers crying for more. So I got another Xli-1500,set them both to bridged mono and used them as 900w/ch @8ohm monoblocks. BINGO!! All the power and headroom I could ever need...just don't let yer drunk friends near the volume . My subs are active so I just used the sub out on preamp and set xovers on the subs. This leads into me getting a pair of LSll's(but applies to any decent speaker)..learning a new way of listening to music and why you should change amps "if" you want to get into more critical listening....and diff ways to set up your subs. ...and leads to a dozen or more threads on the subjects...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K5SS Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 I was asking because the newer model, upper end, Denon receivers have been performing very well on 2 channel bench tests. I think the X4400 puts out something like 150 RMS watts per channel into 8ohms. If you feed those babies 150 clean watts and you aren’t bogging down the other channels, your ears would likely submit before the power does, in most rooms. Yes, I also understand that an amp would probably add some dynamics but there is also something called diminishing returns that quickly comes into play, if you are already giving them good clean power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vegas_Berto Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 On 6/1/2018 at 10:16 PM, K5SS said: What Denon Receiver and how many channels are you using it for? AVR-991... not sure why that matters though. Using that for my desk speakers; R-15M and R-8SW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vegas_Berto Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 On 6/2/2018 at 1:44 AM, willland said: Yes, very important question. Welcome to the forum @Vegas_Berto. Bill AVR-991... They sounded great with the receiver but I'm running receiver at +2 and it tops out. Anything over +2 and I'm getting digital artifacts. I'm guessing the A/D threshold on the receiver input circuitry is right at 0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vegas_Berto Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 @carlthess40 I appreciate the response. I'm looking for just a clean split. I don't want anything with any type of crossover circuitry. I want to use the internal crossover on the sub. Regarding your first response, I don't plan on playing these at full volume very often. The Denon AVR was enough power that I could enjoy the speakers but I noticed the AVR was tapped out on headroom if I did want to play at a higher output. The Amp is currently running 3-60 watts for normal listening. I've had coworkers come by to listen and demo the setup and we've cranked it now to about 210 watts, and I have to say it's incredibly impressive how the drivers have zero distortion, and I'm able to enjoy at high volume. You're right... I could go deaf, but I've been working in pro-audio for long enough to know to take care of my ears first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vegas_Berto Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 On 6/2/2018 at 5:13 AM, RadBlue said: My subs are active so I just used the sub out on preamp and set xovers on the subs. What preamp do you use? I've never used the Xli series amps, but I can't complain about the DCi that I'm using. I'm bi-wired to the speakers [Left to amp channels 1&2 and Right to 3&4]. I'm using the DSP on the amp for crossover. They speakers sound incredible, and incredibly articulate at high levels. I'm reading 33hz on my Phonic RTA from the RF-7s. I manually adjusted up to 54hz on the amp and filtered the sub at 60 (and flipped the phase due to position in the room) and WOW. The whole reason for my post was to find a better way to split the source signal from 1 Stereo signal to 2.1 so I can send line level to the R-115SW Sub instead of the y-cable I'm using now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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