Wattage needed for new Paradigm Studios (1 Viewer)

[Rob_Smurf]

Greetings,
I am in the process of upgrading first my receiver then speakers. Speakers I want are the Studio 40s/center/ADP surrounds(4). The Denon 2803 is a perfect match of what I need and price point. I am starting to worry the 90 watts/channel will fizzle out when I get the speakers. It would be suicide to suggest to the boss that after all that, we would need an external amp to make the new speaks sing.
So would I be better off choosing the 3803 at 110 watts, or living with the 2803 and getting another amp a year down the road? We use it 90% for movies. My current room is smallish (10x13) but that will change during the life of this system. Finally I would say that we don't listen to them loud at all. On movies now we turn my Denon 1400 to about -18 with some 4ohm Infinity Deltas.
TIA,
Rob

 

[Lewis Besze]

You need to double the power to achive 3db in loudness,so to go from 90w to 110[provided they can actualy reach that with all channels driven]isn't going to do much for you.
Your room is smallish,and if you use a powered sub and highpass the speakers[as they should be],the 2803 is all you need.

 

[Jason.Soko]

Current drives speakers, not wattage. My amp puts out 70x2 but with these current ratings.

Maximum Current - Peak 16 amperes
Maximum Current - Continuous 9 amperes

Easily able to drive most any speaker. Pay no attention to watts, it is a nice big number that means very little.

 

[John Garcia]

If there is a choice, or a question, in terms of power delivery, always err on the side of too much rather than not enough, so I would say the 3803. IMO, one could benefit from even more (real world) power than that with Studios. You WILL get more ultimate power out of a separate amp than a receiver of similar power rating (don't forget about adding in the cost of additional interconnects you will need too). All in all, the 2803 with an external amp will perform better than a 3803 by itself.

 

[Mike Veroukis]

Not to worry, the 2803 will drive the 40's just fine. I think if you decide to play bass intensive things at super high volumes you might run into problems, but for normal listening (especially when listening to two channel stereo) you should have no problems at all.

Having said that, to experience the full potential of the studio series speakers you'd benefit from an external, dedicated amp. And like some have suggested, wattage isn't as important as current, so a 75Wx2 rotel might smoke your Denon, however many would still recommend about 150W - 200W even with a high current amp. In other words, the 3803 will be a nice receiver over all, but if your only reason to buy it is for that extra 10 Watts, then I'd say save your cash and start contributing to an external-amp fund as that truely is the way to go (and remember, used amps are pretty reliable and a fair bit cheaper and so it isn't as cost prohibitive as one might first assume).

Anyway, the reason I even entered into this thread was because I thought the "new" in the thread subject refered to the new v3 Studio series comming out from Paradigm...

- Mike

 

[Rob_Smurf]

Thanks all for your comments. Unless I decide I need the video switching, I'll stick with the 2803. From what some are saying I guess it's a good thing I can ge the v.3's! I can't wait for some pro reviews - I hope the big mags will review them soon.