RTi12 connected to Denon 3802 question.

[trend1]

I just purchased the RTi12 speakers hooked up to my Denon 3802 and they sound great to me but after doing a search here in this forum I read that the Denon 3802 isn't powerful enough to really drive the RTi12. My newbee question to you all is by buying a power amp does it make the RTi12 sound better or just louder? I can crank up the Denon 3802 with these speakers and they are very loud to my ears! More than I will ever crank them up to.

Thanks for your help!
Tony

[Tour2ma]

Tony,

Before answering your question let me remind you that you opened with this statement about your 12's, "... they sound great to me."

That said, the 12's are a very nice, full-range speaker. IMO More power will bring more performance out of them. Louder, no, not if you already reach playback levels as loud as you like to listen.

But cleaner, fuller? Very likely, especially on the bottom end. You may even find that you like the occassional listening at levels above your old maximum, because the distortion is lower.

My suggestion is to enjoy what you have now, and down the road, when the "audio itch" that you just scratched returns, look at amplification alternatives.

[trend1]

Tour2ma thanks for your reply! Do you have any suggestions on power amps? The "audio itch" is here! Is $300 a good price range for a good quailty amp?

Thanks again, Tony

[Tour2ma]

Tony,

First a bottle of calamine lotion is a much cheaper solution... but if you must scratch...

I am thinking that your Denon is amenable to bi-amping your mains with the Denon's internal amps driving the highs and an outboard amp the lows. Could be wrong here though, but if I am not, the price of admission just got lower. Being open to used adds many options as well.

There are any number of threads hereabouts on amp choices that have been paired with Denon AVR's. They likely include the usual suspects, Adcom, Carver, B&K, Rotel, etc. In selecting one it is worth comparing a few specs to your Denon, e.g., sensitivity, gain, slew rate.

Ideally a Denon amp might come along, but a spec comparison is still wise.

Carvers on ebay right now are at prices as low as I have seen. I don't follow the others mentioned closely enough to comment on them. Audiogon is another place to look.

Power-wise for a bi-amp, look for something that's 100 to 200% the power of your AVR. For a stand-alone amp, start with double and up.

[trend1]

Tour2ma, Thanks for leading me in the right direction! Looks like I need more money, more research and some calamine lotion.

Tony

[RVJII]

Originally posted by Tour2ma
In selecting one it is worth comparing a few specs to your Denon, e.g., sensitivity, gain, slew rate.

Ideally a Denon amp might come along, but a spec comparison is still wise.

As you can see, I've currently got 12's running off of 2 Outlaw mono blocks. It still bothers me that I am essentially "wasting" 2 channels of my Onkyo. Two questions for you:

1. How close do the specs have to be so that I wouldn't notice a difference if I were to use the Onkyo on the highs and the Outlaw's on the lows?

2. If I was able to use the Onkyo in such a bi-amp set up do you think that there would be a overall loss in SQ on the other channels due to and increased demand on the receiver?

Just curious to get some input before I start tearing things apart.

[jdhdiggs]

RVJ:

I don't think you need to worry about noticing much difference in sound if the external amp is only driving the lows. Assuming you have a HT setup, you should already be in the "worst" condition as far as matching amplifier sections by having your Onk power some speakers, your M-blocks powering others. Besides that, low frequency charactoristics ar a little harder to discern for most people from brand to brand so you would be fine going to bi-amping, in fact it might cause your speaks to blend a little bit better than the rest of your speakers.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about matching if the amp is only going to be powering your lows, really doesn't matter in that range.

HOWEVER, it's not a bad idea to match as best you can so that you don't run into issues later if you maybe decide to get an even larger amp for the fronts and use the amp you're looking at now to maybe power your center or something or an extra set of surrounds...make sense?

[Tour2ma]

Tend to agree as well. The spec review is more cautionary. It certainly doesn't hurt to do the comparison, but I don't remember reading about anyone here ditching an amp because it did not match.

Of the three specs mentioned, sensitivity and gain would be most likely to produce a mismatch by virtue of an SPL difference. Again whether it would be perceived or not is another matter.

RVJII,
Read something one time on what percentage variation could be heard, but long forgotten now. Want to say it was an old Sterophile issue...

All I can say is if your AVR is capable, try it and judge for yourself. With the Onk on the highs only the added draw, I would not expect it to perceptively degrade the other channels.

[RVJII]

Thanks for the input guys. Looks like I'll be tearing everything down in the next couple of weeks to give it a try.

One last question, do you see a problem in the unequal power? That is that I'll have 110 to the highs/mids and 200 to the lows.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Originally posted by RVJII
Thanks for the input guys. Looks like I'll be tearing everything down in the next couple of weeks to give it a try.

One last question, do you see a problem in the unequal power? That is that I'll have 110 to the highs/mids and 200 to the lows.

Nope...in fact your lows will need more power anyway...