Receiver/ processor advice.

[Blair387]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this group and this is my first post. So in the past I've been running a 7.1.2 set up in my living room, but unfortunately I had to sell that house and right now I'm in between living situations. But my long-term goal is to have a 7.2.4 set up in my home theater room.

So right now currently I have a Yamaha 3070 AV receiver that I'm using to power everything. But I've been doing a lot of research lately and I'm really thinking about getting a dedicated amplifier to run all my speakers because I've heard they make quite a bit of difference. My question is for anyone out there that could that help I would appreciate it, is my Yamaha receiver is rated to power 9.2 channels but it says it can process up to 11.2?

I tried doing some research last night on forums and youtube, but I was still kind of confused if a 7.2.4 setup would even be possible or would I have to go get a full dedicated 11.2 receiver or processor? Reading through the manual on yamaha's website says that you would have to get a separate two channel amp to get those remaining channels powered? But my plan was to buy either a monolith amplifier or emotiva is the research I'm doing on. I know monolith is fairly new to the game and making amplifiers and speakers but I understand the components they use who built the amplifiers by ATI I believe has been around a long time and those things weigh nearly 95 lb so I'm sure they're really good quality. I'm trying to decide between a 7 Channel amplifier for all my mains and let my AV receiver power my 4 Atmos speakers? Or if I should get an 11 Channel amplifier to power everything?

I'm sorry for the long post, I just had one other question. I've never ran dual subs before in my setup so how would I go about hooking up two subwoofers since my Yamaha receiver only has one subwoofer out port?

Thank you all very much

 

[TheWarrior]

Welcome!

I have a RXA3060 that I use the internal amp for rear surround duty, with external amps for the front L,C,R. Until you find value in a dedicated processor or preamp, make use of at least some of your receivers amplification, particularly for rear or height surrounds - you'll save money with a 5 or 7 ch amp vs 11ch.

The Monolith amps have been getting great reviews, but I also can speak to Emotiva as two UPA-1's have been flawless for almost 10 years now with our heavy usage. See what kind of good deals or post Independence day sales you can find - or wait til Black Friday.

An RCA Y Plug will allow you to connect two subs, but you will need to measure the SPL at your listening position(s) and adjust each sub individually.

I also advocate power protection, such as an APC H15. We live in an area that sees lots of power fluctuations with constant construction and what not. The H15 uses an active relay to monitor Over and Under voltage so all connected components are always getting exactly what they need.To me, its cheap insurance and I just lost the first one after 7 years - once the relay goes, the unit is toast. Hot tip - make sure you always turn it off before plugging or unplugging anything!

 

[lovinthehd]

Power amps may have a benefit in your use, may not. What speakers? How far away are you from them? How loud do you listen?

7.2.4 is possible with a 2ch external amp since you have 9 amp channels on board and can process 11 total channels (aside from LFE). I see two subwoofer pre-outs on the 3070....

 

[TheWarrior]

Power amps may have a benefit in your use, may not. What speakers? How far away are you from them? How loud do you listen?

7.2.4 is possible with a 2ch external amp since you have 9 amp channels on board and can process 11 total channels (aside from LFE). I see two subwoofer pre-outs on the 3070....

You're right, the 3070 does have dual sub outs.

I didn't bother looking, but was disappointed if OP was right because my 3060 has dual, which would suggest they downgraded for the newer model... Glad thats not the case!

 

[lovinthehd]

You're right, the 3070 does have dual sub outs.

I didn't bother looking, but was disappointed if OP was right because my 3060 has dual, which would suggest they downgraded for the newer model... Glad thats not the case!

Are the dual sub preouts separately adjustable for level/delay on either model, tho? I didn't dig that far....or is it only the 3080?

 

[Blair387]

Hey everyone thank you for the reply. I guess I must have missed over that part where my Yamaha AVR has dual sub outs I thought I only saw one but I must have mistaken.

Yeah my plan was to look into getting a dedicated power amp because I was told that using separates will definitely expand the soundstage most importantly for the three fronts, which take the most abuse and need the most clean power.

So I'm kind of leaning more towards the monolith 7 channel amp since it pushes 200 watts to all channels. And I would use that to power my front left and right and Center, and the two side and two rear surrounds. And then I'll probably end up using my Yamaha for the remaining four in ceiling Atmos speakers and if I hook up dual subs that should give me a 7.2.4 setup in total.

I was just curious if that was going to be possible since my AVR says it only powers 9 channels but it's capable of processing 11, so I figure there's a way around it somehow.

Thanks all for your help. Yeah I thought I was going to have to use some sort of splitter cable to run a second subwoofer but now that you guys said that there's dual sub out so I'll have to take a look at the back of the receiver again. I must have missed it.

 

[lovinthehd]

Soundstage is what's baked into the recording as well as how your speakers/room recreate it. Not the amp.

If at your current listening levels you're running into distortion or clipping issues, then maybe a higher power amp would help. Keep in mind takes a doubling of power to gain merely 3dB spl. Not that it's a bad thing to offload some work off your avrs amps in general either.

The way your avr can process 11 channels is if you add the external amp for the two channels it can't power itself. It's in your manual as to how to configure in any case.

If your avr cannot separately adjust level/delay, then all it has is essentially an internal splitter instead of you adding an external one (I didn't dig into your manual to see if your model has that feature or not particularly).

 

[TheWarrior]

Are the dual sub preouts separately adjustable for level/delay on either model, tho? I didn't dig that far....or is it only the 3080?

level yes, if memory serves, delay was transposed as distance....

 

[lovinthehd]

level yes, if memory serves, delay was transposed as distance....

Delay/distance...same thing.