What receiver for RF-7's?

[undergroundskate]

I'm looking at buying some RF-7s and I don't know how much power to give them. I don't want to spend a lot of money on a high-end amp and I will probably go with a Yamaha/Denon/Sony stereo receiver. From what I've heard, it is easier to damage speakers by not giving them enough power, more so than overpowering them. What should I be looking for in wattage?

I also considered getting a multichannel receiver in case i want to add surround sound at a later date. Any advice?

[Speedball]

Hi,

I started with a Denon 100 watt receiver then added a 120 watt seperate amp and there was a good difference. Once i auditioned a 250 watt carver amp in my system and it was very enjoyable. Seems like the more S.S. power you feed them the better they sound. Never heard a tube amp pushing them although there are a few guys around who do and are very happy. Maybe someday I'll go the very high powered pro-amp with a tube preamp.

Don't be afraid of overpowering them, just simply use sense with the volume control.

GoodLuck and enjoy whatever you choose.

[Tarheel]

Post number 1...Welcome to the forum Undergroundskate....Don't know about RF-7s but I hear they are great speakers. I have hybrid La Scalas built by forum member Bluesboy and they are very efficient. The 7s should need a bit more power I would think. With all the experience on the forum someone is sure to give you some good info shortly.

Chuck

[Fish]

If you give us a budget we'll do our best.

[MrDecibel]

I am using a Denon AVR3805 with my RF7s right now and they sound great. It's rated at 120 WPC. I have an external amp, but haven't hooked it up yet. I still cant believe how great these speakers sound with only a small amount of power. Check out Cruthfield.com --they have great deals on open box items. I bought my Denon from them and got $300 off because it was an open box item and had a scratch so small i needed a magnifying glass to see it.

[JetJockey]

Get the most power you can afford, from what I understand, those RF-7's in particular like tons of juice flowing as do most big speakers like my 83's and they are going to get it. My new amp just came in and am going to pick it up now, news at 11..[]

[CECAA850]

I push mine with a H/K 7200 and it sounds great. I must admit however that I've got a chubby for a Gemstone.

[kaiser SET say]

Some ideas[^o)]

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[SPW]

I have a pair of Heresy speakers, RB-5's and RF-3's. I recently purchased the Outlaw 2150 Stereo receiver @ 100watt/ch. Very nice open sound stage with the Heresy's. The RB-5's almost hopped across the room. Highly recommended.

[Saturn5]

I just bought a new pair of RF-7s myself and I'll be getting a new receiver to go with them pretty soon.

I was thinking about the Pioneer Elite VSX-82TXS. It's 130Wpc x 7 channels, but I've read that you can reassign some of the channels and even use the 2 rear surround channels as fronts and then bi-amp the front L & R speakers, leaving the rest for a regular 5.1 setup. I wasn't able to verify that on Pioneer's website, though.

Any opinions on that receiver? It has the features I'm looking for, HDMI switching, upscaling, etc.

[oldbuckster]

Pioneer makes good products.....130 per is good for a grin.....you'll like it....Brand New????????

[Saturn5]

Yeah,the VSX-82TSX is one of their current models. I've seen them for around $800-$1000. Although, I've also been reading about the Outlaw 1070 and it looks really nice, too. It's $899 new, so that's right in the same range, or a bit cheaper than the Pioneer. It specs at 65Wpc x 7 channels, but from the reviews I've read they say they are 65 "REAL" Watts.

I've heard some great recommendations for Outlaw amps, etc. on here before. Anyone have any experience with their AV receivers?

[Fish]

Most current $1k ballpark avr's are decent with loads of features and do very good HT.If music is more important than HT( look at the Outlaw,Rotel type offereings.These type units deliver better music presentation and still do great HT.Whatever you do try a few at home,it 's the only way tell which you'll like best.I've owned just about any 1k avr over the past several years in my 2nd set,they all sound different to me,some really good and some unlistenable,imo.

[bertsummerkids]

I use a B&K 200 watt per channel amp for my rf7s and noted much improvment in power and quality than the 3802 denon i was using before. I still use the denon 3802 for center and surround duties and couldnt be happier with this setup. I dont think getting an isolated amp for center and surrounds would make much of a difference for money it would cost.

[Submarine]

I have a Yamaha reciever - RX-V2400 that I bought new 5 years ago. It has 120 watts x 7 and a zone 2/3 pre-amp outs if you want to add a multi-channel amp for separate rooms in a home. It has many features. I especially like the built-in room calibration feature. With it, you place the Yamaha's microphone in your main seating position and hit auto-run.

It calibrates all your speakers for variences in your room, your speaker locations, and seating position. The result is a balanced, "flat" response. Very nice feature.

I like Yamaha's sound processor. It also accepts "multi-channel" inputs for use with my OPPO HD 981 disk player. From the OPPO to the Yamaha, I have multi-channel, digital coaxal, and RCA outs connected. The video HDMI out is going directly to the TV. In the OPPO, I have the HDMI audio turned off.

Since the Yamaha does not have HDMI, I called OPPO for assistance. OPPO stated they had no percieved signal loss with up to 50 feet of 22 AWG HDMI cable. Here's the place the recommended: http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240

50 feet of 22 gauge HDMI cable will cost you about $50.00. This way, video goes directly to your TV, and sound directly to your reciever.

The tuner in the Yamaha is fair - I connected a older Tandberg to the CD input and I'm very pleased.

It has pre-amp outs for 5 channel surround. I have considered adding a larger multi-channel amp for my main system. A Rotel 1095 is highly recommended by many. The Yamaha has 1 volt pre-amp outputs for 5 channels, and 2 volts for the subwoofer pre-amp output. The 5-channel Rotel has a input sensitivity of 1 volt to match the Yamahas' pre-amp 1 volt output signal in its processor.

The key to selection is to match the pre-amp output voltage with the input sensitivity of the new multi-channel amp. This match will allow the new amps to achieve the rated watts. Many are much better at this than me. Some amps sound warm and some sound bright.

After I added 2 HSU MBM-12's (mid-bass modules) and a REL Storm III subwoofer, I was very satisfied with the Yamaha's internal amps.

You can find a used Yamaha for very good prices. Mine was like # 2 or #3. They're top reciever has a 7 channel pre-amp "outs" with amplfier return "ins". This external loop is usually reserved for higher end recievers.

The sound fields in the Yamaha processor reciever gets very good ratings/reviews. Internally, you can set almost anything and I've found customer service to be very helpful. Hope something here helps.

Here's a link: http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=200220&CTID=5000300

[SWL]

I don't want to spend a lot of money on a high-end amp and I will probably go with a Yamaha/Denon/Sony stereo receiver.

Just make sure you get one that has pre-outs.......you're gonna want more power for the 7's later on when you have the money. 400-500 wpc from an external amp brings the RF-7's to life.

I have three pairs........they rock. [Y]