Need help upgrading my fathers system, Power questions

[Charles Horvath]

Brand new here so a little bit about myself. I'm a college student who has recently fallen in love with live shows and quality stereo systems. I purchased my own budget 2.1 system earlier this year:

JBL ES20 Bookshelf Speaker (Pair)

BIC America F12

Denon AVR S-500BT

I've been very happy with the bookshelves and the sub but the receiver promised many features with very poor execution. For instance the audio output is locked to the video input selected. I cannot recommend it.

I'm looking to upgrade my fathers system for christmas, he told me money is not a huge deal as long as I do my research for him. Its currently 2.1 system and he wants new bookshelf's. I was hoping to also add a center speaker to the system. Ideally, we could keep his receiver in place because we have ~5 inputs running through the walls that are AVR connections. These are the bookshelfs/center I hoped to get him:

Polk RTI A1

Polk CSI A4


First of all, are these good choices? I've read great things about both. That being said, I'm not sure his old Denon AVR-65 receiver supplies enough power. It has 70 W per channel at 8 ohm impedance. The bookshelves may squeeze by but the center needs far more. I've been looking at power amps to pre out either all three or different configurations... but these amps are absurdly expensive.

Could I pre out the bookshelf's with a 2CH and somehow divert all of the receivers power to the center/existing sub? Would that occur naturally or is a 70W per channel forced to split the power over the channels?

Alternatively, 3CH amps seem especially expensive, maybe a 5CH amp would do the trick? Any reasonably priced models come to mind?

Is there a method for power I haven't yet considered?

I'm trying to make my dads Xmas sound great and its time I turned to people who know what they're talking about. Thanks, Charlie

PS: I apologize for not linking the components, interesting rule.

 

[fmw]

70 watts per channel is plenty for most home audio applications. If that weren't true in your case, your father would already be complaining about the sound. If you want to upgrade the sound of a system, the almost universal answer is speakers and room acoustics. I have no experience with the speakers you want to buy so I can't comment on those. If you think they would appeal to your father, then they are probably fine.

 

[slipperybidness]

Brand new here so a little bit about myself. I'm a college student who has recently fallen in love with live shows and quality stereo systems. I purchased my own budget 2.1 system earlier this year:

JBL ES20 Bookshelf Speaker (Pair)

BIC America F12

Denon AVR S-500BT

I've been very happy with the bookshelves and the sub but the receiver promised many features with very poor execution. For instance the audio output is locked to the video input selected. I cannot recommend it.

I'm looking to upgrade my fathers system for christmas, he told me money is not a huge deal as long as I do my research for him. Its currently 2.1 system and he wants new bookshelf's. I was hoping to also add a center speaker to the system. Ideally, we could keep his receiver in place because we have ~5 inputs running through the walls that are AVR connections. These are the bookshelfs/center I hoped to get him:

Polk RTI A1

Polk CSI A4


First of all, are these good choices? I've read great things about both. That being said, I'm not sure his old Denon AVR-65 receiver supplies enough power. It has 70 W per channel at 8 ohm impedance. The bookshelves may squeeze by but the center needs far more. I've been looking at power amps to pre out either all three or different configurations... but these amps are absurdly expensive.

Could I pre out the bookshelf's with a 2CH and somehow divert all of the receivers power to the center/existing sub? Would that occur naturally or is a 70W per channel forced to split the power over the channels?

Alternatively, 3CH amps seem especially expensive, maybe a 5CH amp would do the trick? Any reasonably priced models come to mind?

Is there a method for power I haven't yet considered?

I'm trying to make my dads Xmas sound great and its time I turned to people who know what they're talking about. Thanks, Charlie

PS: I apologize for not linking the components, interesting rule.

I agree with fmw.

But, I'm fairly certain that we can get you better speakers than Polk for a similar price.

What is the budget for the L/C/R set of speakers? Or, how much were you planning to spend on those polks?

 

[3db]

First off, Welcome to Audiohlics.

I've been very happy with the bookshelves and the sub but the receiver promised many features with very poor execution. For instance the audio output is locked to the video input selected. I cannot recommend it.

I'm not sure what you mean by the above. I interpret this to read that you can only get audio from the selected input. If that's what you mean, all AVRs in the primary zone work like this.

I'm looking to upgrade my fathers system for christmas, he told me money is not a huge deal as long as I do my research for him. Its currently 2.1 system and he wants new bookshelf's. I was hoping to also add a center speaker to the system. Ideally, we could keep his receiver in place because we have ~5 inputs running through the walls that are AVR connections. These are the bookshelfs/center I hoped to get him:

Polk RTI A1

Polk CSI A4


First of all, are these good choices? I've read great things about both. That being said, I'm not sure his old Denon AVR-65 receiver supplies enough power. It has 70 W per channel at 8 ohm impedance. The bookshelves may squeeze by but the center needs far more. I've been looking at power amps to pre out either all three or different configurations... but these amps are absurdly expensive.

Could I pre out the bookshelf's with a 2CH and somehow divert all of the receivers power to the center/existing sub? Would that occur naturally or is a 70W per channel forced to split the power over the channels?

Alternatively, 3CH amps seem especially expensive, maybe a 5CH amp would do the trick? Any reasonably priced models come to mind?

Is there a method for power I haven't yet considered?

I'm trying to make my dads Xmas sound great and its time I turned to people who know what they're talking about. Thanks, Charlie

PS: I apologize for not linking the components, interesting rule.

What is your budget for speakers? How big is the room that your Dad's setup is in and how loud does he usually play it at?

 

[slipperybidness]

Also, what are the speakers that he is currently wanting to upgrade from?

 

[Charles Horvath]

Wow thanks for the timely replies.

His current System:
Denon AVR-65
American Acoustics D2550 which claim to pull 39 W rms and 78 max.
Definitive Technology Prosub 100.
He's not interested in replacing the sub but I'm open to ideas because it too looks dated.

I'd say overall budget is $1200 for the bookshelfs/center. If we need to buy a power amp this budget can be increased. My father usually plays at about a 4/10 volume wise but he does occasionally crank it. Not painfully loud but maybe 8/10. 50/50 split movies and music.

Here is an imgur album of the system/room:
http;//imgur,com/a/R8suZ (make the , a . and ; a : )

The room is quite tricky actually. The TV is on the left side of the room and the left bookshelf is above it and a little to the left as you can see. One thing not pictured is the open expanse behind me in picture 4. It opens up to our main hallway and kitchen (hardwood floors, 9 foot ceilings). I'd love to build a perfect setup for him but my mother is quite picky about her decorations so unfortunately the speaker positions can't change too much. Still will take all the placement advice I can get.

The real trouble is where to place the center. If we choose one that is no more than 5 inches tall then it could go in front of the TV. Another option would be lower in the TV stand (not sure how great that would be acoustically). Or perhaps mounted/hung on the underside of the top of the TV stand. As noted in the picture, the mantle is unfortunately not an option.

Back to Power:
The power amp seen under the receiver powers ceiling speakers all around the house. The outputs are all taken though. 70W per channel certainly seems a lot but the 20-120 rating or a center that requires 90+ certainly has me worried. Thoughts?

I'm not sure what you mean by the above. I interpret this to read that you can only get audio from the selected input. If that's what you mean, all AVRs in the primary zone work like this.

Ahh that does sound reasonable. It is built around hdmi's though and I cannot find a way to game with music playing other than bluetooth. And the bluetooth technology does not work quite as well as modern bluetooth devices. Also issues with having to consistently restart the receiver for video to appear.

Thanks again everybody

 

[Charles Horvath]

Really don't know which speakers to purchase and christmas is obviously near! Any help is appreciated.

 

[TheWarrior]

Well, here I go again!

http://www.philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

Dennis Murphy took a kit speaker, redesigned the crossover, and is selling them for almost no mark up. He really does just have a love for the hobby, and simply wants to share with others!

For $200, these will show you how much you've been missing. The bass from these monitors will almost certainly be cleaner and 'punchier' than the current sub, although won't play quite as low. I would check with Dennis, but I don't see why a third could not be used as a center channel.

Seriously, I think I've just recommended these 3 times this morning. But when you take big company advertising budgets and marketing department decisions out of speaker design, you get Affordable Accuracy!