Amp confusion

[King J]

my setup consists of -rti10's, csi5, fxi3, & psw 505. onkyo 905 as my avr. now im looking into seperate amps & ran into a problem. im looking at an Emotiva xpa5 & xpa3. is this going to be too much power??? i want to use the xpa5 for the low input on the 10's & center & surrounds, then use the xpa3 on the high input on the 10's & center. now is this too much or should i just power everything with just the xpa5 & be happy. comments and input are greatly appreciated. thanx

[mdaudioguy]

Power everything with a 5-channel amp and let that sound settle in on you for a while. Read up on bi-amping, so you can make a well-informed decision on it later. Personally, I think it's unnecessary, and in your case (gear very similar to mine), the difference/improvement will be negligible. Enjoy!

[reeltrouble1]

I would recommend you begin with an Odyssey or NAD two channel amplifier and let your receiver power the rest of your speakers.

The Emotiva are bright your treble will sound as if it is simply on top of what ever you are listening to not a part of it. Those particular Polk speakers rti10 are already forward sounding enough.

RT1

[dcmartinpc]

I think in that setup, running the XPA-5 will be plenty. No reason to BIAMP those IMHO. The XPA-5 is a good budget amp and it is at a decent price right now. Have you considered used amplification at all? There are many good deals on used amps that I think would outperform the XPA-5...

The other thing you have to remember is that RTi's are inherently bright, and Emotiva amps tend to be bright, so it can be a rough combo...

Ooops.... Beat me to it RT1!

Don

[Erik Tracy]

I think in that setup, running the XPA-5 will be plenty. No reason to BIAMP those IMHO. The XPA-5 is a good budget amp and it is at a decent price right now. Have you considered used amplification at all? There are many good deals on used amps that I think would outperform the XPA-5...

The other thing you have to remember is that RTi's are inherently bright, and Emotiva amps tend to be bright, so it can be a rough combo...

Ooops.... Beat me to it RT1!

Don

RTi's are not bright....they have sparkle!

[tonyb]

Even an older B&K would work nicely.

[cfrizz]

There is no such thing as too much power. Your ears will give out before the speakers do. So amp up and enjoy. Welcome to Club Polk.

[xcapri79]

my setup consists of -rti10's, csi5, fxi3, & psw 505. onkyo 905 as my avr. now im looking into seperate amps & ran into a problem. im looking at an Emotiva xpa5 & xpa3. is this going to be too much power??? i want to use the xpa5 for the low input on the 10's & center & surrounds, then use the xpa3 on the high input on the 10's & center. now is this too much or should i just power everything with just the xpa5 & be happy. comments and input are greatly appreciated. thanx

With your combination of equipment, I would recommend that all you will need is the XPA-3 amp to power your front end and power your surrounds with your Onkyo 905. The Emotiva amps are fine amps, I own several, but there is the law of diminishing returns here and your Onkyo is more than capable to power the surrounds. In your case, biamping will provide little noticable improvement and isn't worth it.

[heiney9]

RTi's and Emotiva can be a very forward and bright sounding presentation. Perhaps good for HT but definitely not for music if you are looking to get the best possible enjoyment for extended listening sessions.

H9

[King J]

thanks for all of the input. its 90% ht & 10% music. one last question/option though, would an xpa2 on the towers & the xpa3 on the centers & surrounds be cool or should i just stick with the xpa3 for the fronts and call it a day?

[Jetmaker737]

I'd get either the 2 channel or the 3 channel. You don't need both with that setup. Personally I'd pass on the Emo (I have owned one), but I do understand the price is right on those things plus you get a warranty, etc.

If you intend to upgrade your speakers in the future then maybe the 2+3 or the 5 channel amps make sense.

[dpowell]

Even an older B&K would work nicely.

That or a Parasound will tame the highs somewhat.

[mdaudioguy]

thanks for all of the input. its 90% ht & 10% music. one last question/option though, would an xpa2 on the towers & the xpa3 on the centers & surrounds be cool or should i just stick with the xpa3 for the fronts and call it a day?

That's exactly what I had. It was not worth the money. A 5-channel will do the same for far less. I scaled back to what I have now without diminishing performance, and had some extra cash to spend on other toys.

[xcapri79]

thanks for all of the input. its 90% ht & 10% music. one last question/option though, would an xpa2 on the towers & the xpa3 on the centers & surrounds be cool or should i just stick with the xpa3 for the fronts and call it a day?

Stick with the XPA-3 for the fronts. You also have thirty days to return it.
Compare the sound to running all the speakers directly off the Onkyo.
Let your ears decide.

I found that the Emotiva amps worked really well with the RTi12 speakers.
I first used the XPA-5, then later picked up a pair of UPA-1 mono amps.
I listen to them almost every night.

The UPA-1's are nice amps to consider.

[jinjuku]

Still don't get why a person would use an amp to correct a few $$ in parts problem when it comes to the RTi line up (for music listening).

Pad down the tweeter with a different resistor to tame the high's. As I understand the Polk line up the RTi's are Polks top speaker really meant for HT so they would understandably be designed with an aggressive top end. The LSi's are more the musical.

When I built my ZDT3.5's I made sure to have 2 extra resistors for the tweeter circuit that were above and below the median value. This allowed me to tweak if I found the top end either to aggressive or rolled off too much.

[rdb2001]

I would go with a 2 channel amp and a 3 channel amp. But I also listen to alot of music. I personally went with a seperate 2 channel amp for my fronts and a 5 channel amp for everything else. For my system there was a noticeble difference when I added a 2 channel amp to the 5 channel. The 2 channel amp has more omph, more kick, more detail, more everything. Both of these amps are from the same B & K reference line with just about the same watts per channel. So I would do a 2 and a 3 or 5 channel amp. To me there is a difference. YMMV

[veerapaneni]

b&k 200.5 or 200.7 is my choice. you get them for decent price in Used market.