Should I Get Seperates? (1 Viewer)

[SteveMo]

I have a Denon 2802 and the Polk RM 6600 series without the sub and my center channel went to my rear and my new center is the Polk csi40. My two subs are running of a y spliter into individual Marantz MA500 Mono block amps.

I'm not sure if I should get the next 7 MA500 Mono blocks or look for something by Denon. I know they made something I just forgot where to find them for sale.

I think I would need the matching rears and do something with the old center then to have 7.1 which is more than am I am wanting to spend so that would have to come much later if I could find some titles with 7.1 channels.

Anyone know any good 7.1 channel mixed movies?

If my speakers can only handle up to 120 Watts and the Marantz Mono Blocks are pushing out 120 Watts than am I pushing my luck? The Polk manual recommmends 80-120 Watts for best performance and my Denon puts out 90 Watts so that seems about right but last time I tried a 120 Watt setup with an Onkyo I blew 4 out of 5 speakers. I am not sure if the Onkyo 797 just messed up my speakers because of the harmfull frequencies resulting in a non adjustable crossover or if it hurt it due to low power. I have heard the Onkyo have trouble reporting th actual Watts per channel when tested by audiophiles. The Onkyo also fried when I watched Jurrasic Park becasue of the flags I asume so that may have also done something to the speakers.

I want to take care of my speakers while enjoying a nice reference volume so what should I do?

 

[Selden Ball]

Steve,

Upgrading to more Marantz amps can't hurt, starting with your front mains and maybe the center channel. Offloading them from your receiver will make it easier for the receiver to drive your surround and rear speakers with a clean signal.

Speakers are usually damaged by underpowered amps, not by overpowered amps. When you turn up the volume on a weak amplifier, it starts "clipping". When the output voltage should be increasing for loud passages, instead it suddenly stops at whatever maximum voltage the amp can supply. This creates lots of inaudible high frequency noise that causes tweeters to overheat and burnout.

When rating amps, you have to look for the phrases, "20-20Khz, all channels driven simultaneously into 8 Ohms". If any of those words are missing, you have to assume the receiver can't do it. Less expensive amps often are rated at 1KHz, only one or two channels driven into 6 Ohms. They can't supply the rated power at low frequencies, they can't drive all channels simultaneously at the rated power, and they produce more power into 6 Ohms than into 8 Ohms.

Hopefully someone else can recommend quality -EX and -ES movie titles. I have a small room and a 5.1 system, so I haven't paid much attention to that feature.

I hope this helps a little.