Receiver for paradigm studio 20 v3 (1 Viewer)

[ChrisBrander]

This is a question for my friend who recently bought a pair of Paradigm studio 20s and a Denon 1804 receiver. He was thinking of upgrading to a Yamaha 1400 because he's concerned about power output of the Denon with the paradigms. He's also thinking of buying the CC470 to go with his mains and has even more concerns about his 1804 being able to drive that monster as well. The 1804 is 90W per and the 1400 is 110W. He's still within the 14 day return on the Denon, so upgrading will only cost him about $150... What does everyone think?

 

[John Garcia]

I would definitley go for more power with those speakers.

 

[JasonBrandon]

It is unlikely that those receivers actually deliver their claimed power during real-world conditions. Also, the difference between 90 and 110 watts is negligible. It takes approximately twice the wattage to increase output by 3 decibels. Lastly, the digms tend to have very low impedance so they require a steady power source. You can check S&V for an article discussing this aspect.

 

[John Garcia]

This is not true. If it were 5 watts, I would call it a draw, but 20 honest watts is quite a bit. I moved from a 105wpc Marantz 6200 to 125wpc Marantz 8300 and the difference was very noticable. When I again moved from the 8300 to monoblocks for the mains, the difference was even more obvious, though it was also a big jump to 180wpc. Your room is also a large factor in this though.

Yamaha is not on my short list, but they do have very good amp sections, and I suspect it will deliver at or near it's rated power. I would be concerned about the 1804, though it will likely come close to it's rating as well, I just don't think it will be enough for those speakers in a typical sized room.

All the Studios are 8 Ohm nominal ("compatible" according to Paradigm), so they are not low impedance. The do require plenty of power though, and sound even better when you feed them with plenty of it.

 

[AlanZ]

I agree with John.....my studio/100's sounded good with 85 Parasound watts, but sounded much better with 200 Outlaw watts. The studios need clean power,and lots of it

 

[JasonBrandon]

The Paradigms may be a nominal 8 ohms, but you should note that they dip very low when you look at their response across a broad frequency range.

 

[John Garcia]

Well, then the 1804 must put out some where around 15wpc.... The reality is, for a 90dB efficient speaker, to achieve 85dB ref level, that 35w should be enough in a typical size room.

 

[ernie.bin]

if it helps, I'm driving my v2 studio60s/cc/20s with an 1802 and while maybe not optimal, still blows people away.

very sweet sounding, with more headroom available once I get a more powerful receiver