A good receiver for Speakercraft speakers (1 Viewer)

Hi, I'm new here and looking for a good receiver to pair with the following setup:

4 Speakercraft AIM8THREE ceiling speakers, a Phase Technology PC-2.5 center, and a Phase Technology power 10 sub. I'm looking for something economical, so under $1,000 preferably. Any other suggestions for audio quality improvement are welcome.

Thanks for your advice.

The Phase Technology PC-2.5 center is 4ohms nominal impedance is it not? What do you have your Speakercraft AIM3's set at? (I believe they are 4/6/8 ohm capable?). I'm not sure how powerhungry the AIM3's are but they are listed at 150 watts... Normally in-ceiling speakers aren't power hungry but these puppies may surprise. Since you have a 5.1 set-up, do you need future 7.1 capability for Dolby TrueHD?

 

That said, you could probably get away with any of the usual Onkyo, Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer AVR's available but if you want more robust amp sections to handle the 4 ohm impedance power demands, H/K tends to fare better.

 

If you want something different, consider getting and Emotiva UMC-1 ($699) pre/pro and pair it up with an Emotiva UPA-5 ($549) 5-ch amp. However, this is probably overkill...

 

Finally, another option would be to look at offerings from NAD and Cambridge Audio but those cost quite a bit more that $1k.

 

JB

Thanks for the help.

 

You are correct, the Phase Technology center is 4ohms impedance, and I would like to be able to set my Speakercraft AIM3's at 4ohms as well. Interestingly, the AIM3's are listed at 150 watts, but the owners manual states: "Power Recommendations: 5 - 100 watts (undistorted)." Does this mean that I should not get a receiver that provides more than 100 watts per channel?

 

I would also like the ability to go to a 7.1 in the future. Giving this information to Best Buy, they recommended the Onkyo TX-SR608, but I noticed the impedance is listed at 8ohms per channel. Is this a problem if I want to run all my speakers at 4ohms? I did notice that they Onkyo manual states: "If the impedance of any speaker is 4 ohms or more but less than 6, set the minimum speaker impedance to 4 ohms."

 

Let me know if this would be a good receiver for my setup or if you would steer me in a different direction. I am looking for a receiver that will produce a strong punch for my Speakercraft speakers (epically because I don't have any towers).

The only proplem I would see with the Onkyo is their reputation to run hot at presumably 8 ohms while a 4 ohm speaker would draw power more making it worse.

 

However, I can't see how your speakers would be particularly demanding and the Onkyo should perform adequately. I run 4 in ceiling speakers (2 in kitchen and 2 in dining room) as well as a pair of PSB T5 speakers (living room) off of a 2ch NAD L53 rated at 50 wpc going through a splitter with no issues. However, the NAD has a much more robust amp section than most mid-level AVR's and probably relates more closely to 100-150 wpc claims.

 

The other consideration is that you'll be sending most of the power hungry bass signal to your sub taking the load off the speakers which means the Onkyo should be more than adequate.

 

JB

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the info, it is very useful.

 

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