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Amplifier/ receiver recommendations


ShelbyGT350

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Current setup:

KLF 30/ KLF 20 / KLF 10

C7 Center 

Subwoofer:SVS PB16 ultra

 

Current amplifiers:

Parasound-HCA 1206

 

Sunfire Cinema Grand- 5 channel/ 200w per channel


Receiver:

Marantz-SR7005

 

Wanting an amplifier with more power. Something that can power the KLF 30’s and a set of CF 4 speakers once we find a set. 
Found a Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature 5 Channel for $1,900 on eBay. I’ve heard that this amplifier makes a hum with Klipsch speakers. So want recommendations before buying any new amplifier/receiver. 
Thanks for the help!

 

 
 

 

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6 minutes ago, ShelbyGT350 said:

What’s the watts per channel? Our current setup is 200w per channel at 8ohm.

 

 

The CF4 is an 8 ohm speaker, this means your amplifier is producing 135 watts not the rated 200 watts into a 4 ohm load, well unless you plan to parallel the 4 speakers into a 2 channel setup but your home theater amp tells me this isn't the case and you are using 4 speakers for surround sound.

 

I have a similar powered amp for sale, not sure why you need more power but it has more bells and whistles for integration into a home theater setup, it is a Pioneer Elite VSX-90TXV and it is dead quiet on very efficient klipsch speakers.Here are the details;

 

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3424/476124747VSX-90TXV.pdf

 

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If you are looking for multi channel amps, maybe you can find a Sherbourn PA-7/350 for sale. They offer 350 watts per channel for seven channels which should be plenty to drive any speaker. I own eight Sherbourn amps currently and they are built like tanks, and very reliable.

 

if looking strictly for stereo, I currently run Emotiva XPA-1 monoblocks with 500 watts each into my KLF-30's. If you can find those you would be fine, however they are only single channel amps

 

 

Tim

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FWIW a little tidbit of information to think about.

 

The higher powered the amplifier is the worse it sounds at lower output powers because it will actually have higher order harmonics at a higher level present at the critical lower power where most do their listening with Klipsch speakers. This is why so many have done away with the arc welder power amps especially with Klipsch speakers because they are so efficient you just do not need the power. Take a look at the product literature and you will never see an FFT graph of these high powered amps for 1 and 10 watts output, they only show distortion figures for rated maximum power which tells us nothing how the amp will sound in the real world. It's just the nature of feedback with these amps, they need it to get the low figures at high power but at low power it actually makes for bad sound. So unless you are a commercial movie theater I would stay away from these types of amps. Of course if all you do is watch movies disregard what I have said, I mainly am talking about music reproduction quality.

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54 minutes ago, henry4841 said:

Nelson Pass' signature. One of his companies called Firstwatt says it all. Goes on to say "who cares what it sounds like at 100 watts if it does not sound good at 1 watt" or something to that effect. 

 

Exactly why his amplifiers have become so popular with music enthusiasts, they sound great in the power band we commonly listen to our music at especially with efficient speakers.

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2 hours ago, teaman said:

If you are looking for multi channel amps, maybe you can find a Sherbourn PA-7/350 for sale.

 

 

Caveat Emptor. I had one of these, blew up twice. Second time Emotiva would not even entertain repairing it. Fortunately they gave me credit to buy a current Emotiva product. BTW all I was doing with it was run an RF7 II/RC64 II HT. Should not have been a strain on the amp.

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The Sunfire is driving the KLF 30 speakers. 
Going to be getting a set of CF 4 speakers and will need another amplifier to power those. Still on the search for a set of CF speakers though. 
The parasound can’t keep up with any of the bigger speakers, not enough power. Going to be selling it eventually.

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I can understand the need for more power with many speaker offerings being in the mid 80's for sensitivity ratings but to put it into perspective the 135 watt amplifier will put the Epic CF4  at 123db which is uncomfortable and for many painful volume. I just can't imagine needing more than that for in home use. There is never any free lunch in engineering and not to be a broken record in repeating that for a 300 watt amp you will not be in the sweet spot with a 102db sensitive speaker. Very few amplifiers have a linear diminishing distortion content the further you reduce the output power, this is the hallmark of what you want in an amplifier. The way they get a 300 watt amplifier to put out that power with such low distortion actually causes increased upper harmonic distortion at lower power output levels, it isn't linearly diminished distortion vs power, or the reciprocal a linear increase in distortion vs increase in power out. For an 86db speaker and 135 watt amp you will more likely run the amp in it's sweet spot at moderate levels.

 

When anyone tells me that their high power amplifier isn't cutting it with very efficient speakers I half the time think they may need to bring the amplifier to a tech to make sure it is functioning correctly.

 

Take your hearing seriously as when you get older and lose it from abuse you will wish you hadn't.

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7 hours ago, captainbeefheart said:

I can understand the need for more power with many speaker offerings being in the mid 80's for sensitivity ratings but to put it into perspective the 135 watt amplifier will put the Epic CF4  at 123db which is uncomfortable and for many painful volume. I just can't imagine needing more than that for in home use. There is never any free lunch in engineering and not to be a broken record in repeating that for a 300 watt amp you will not be in the sweet spot with a 102db sensitive speaker. Very few amplifiers have a linear diminishing distortion content the further you reduce the output power, this is the hallmark of what you want in an amplifier. The way they get a 300 watt amplifier to put out that power with such low distortion actually causes increased upper harmonic distortion at lower power output levels, it isn't linearly diminished distortion vs power, or the reciprocal a linear increase in distortion vs increase in power out. For an 86db speaker and 135 watt amp you will more likely run the amp in it's sweet spot at moderate levels.

 

When anyone tells me that their high power amplifier isn't cutting it with very efficient speakers I half the time think they may need to bring the amplifier to a tech to make sure it is functioning correctly.

 

Take your hearing seriously as when you get older and lose it from abuse you will wish you hadn't.

While not nearly as technically savvy as @captainbeefheart, this was illustrated in very plain terms to me once I got my UMIK-1 and REW.  Believing that a baseline understanding of the acoustics of my room and listening preferences is crucial in improving my listening experience with the tools offered in REW I set up the system and listened to my favorite songs at both moderate (kids are home) and the loudest that I listen when no one else is home and it is getting late in the evening.  I found that all these years my maximum continuous listening level was in the vicinity of 88dBA on a slow response in REW (and obviously, peaks above that).  During normal kids are home listening it was significantly less.

 

Considering I use Heresy's in a low ceiling room, wall (not corner) loaded, with subs, sitting about 10' away - per one of the SPL calculators online I'm using less than 0.25 of a Watt continuous when I have it cranked, going on up to 2 Watts to hit peaks at 98dBA.  Sure, I can crank it up the unhealthy levels in excess of 100dBA - and have done so while wearing hearing protection - but even at 88dBA with no protection it is just physically exhausting after about half an hour.

 

For Reference, the NIOSH maximum exposure at 88dBA is 4 hours, so I made a mental note about that observation [for reference, OSHA allows greater than 8 hours at 88dBA].

 

Like it was said above - take your hearing seriously.

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Most are unaware of how little power horn speakers require. Most are trained to think from your first dip into audio is that more power means better sound which is a fallacy that true audiophiles learn. Power ratings are what sells and believe me the manufacturers know this. It is only when you get into high end audio that quality and design becomes more important than power rating. What really became aware to me of this fact is when I started seeing SET 300b amplifiers with 5 watts per channel selling for $25,000 or more but mostly in Japan. With SS amplifiers more power is going to be required because of the way tubes vs SS clips but you will find 25 or 30 watts sufficient for our speakers. This is not to say that a cheap 25 watt amplifiers is going to sound good. Cheap 25 watt amplifiers are just that, made with cheap parts and not a lot of effort put into design. 

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Whatever you do, stay away from Emotiva Amps. I had an XPA-5 and the first one did not work. The replacement never worked properly and would shut down if pushed hard at all. I did not want to go through the hassle of shipping another heavy amp so I just lived with it. I used it to power my front stage, an rc-64, a pair of RF-7's, and a pair of RF 82's. As these speakers require very little power it should have been a breeze for any decent amp, but it turns out the Emotiva is cheap junk. 

It died after 7 years.

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20 hours ago, babadono said:

Caveat Emptor. I had one of these, blew up twice. Second time Emotiva would not even entertain repairing it. Fortunately they gave me credit to buy a current Emotiva product. BTW all I was doing with it was run an RF7 II/RC64 II HT. Should not have been a strain on the amp.



Is Sherbourn made by Emotiva?

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