is Marantz 7007 enough for polk rti a9's biamped?

[gajenn]

I'm returning the b&w 684 and other b&w spkrs that make up the 5 system set, just not wowed by them..upgrading to polk rti surround system with rti a9's as fronts. if i bi amp them with the Marantz 7007 will that be enough power or will i need to pick up the emotiva xpa 2?

 

[lsiberian]

Should be fine. Why are you moving to Polks? Have you tried Salks yet?

 

[j_garcia]

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/amps-pre-pros-receivers/84459-bi-amping.html

 

[gajenn]

I haven't tried Salks or a bunch of others as its not so easy to find them, and I wanted to try these polks for awhile. My last HT system had the KEF Q900 q600 q800,which was quite nice but sold them prior to moving. So try bi amping them first,then maybe if not happy get the xpa 2? I was very tempted to go with KEF's new R series but cost kept me from goin that way.

 

[j_garcia]

Are you running out of power now? Meaning, how do you know what "enough" is? If distortion is not currently an issue, an amp isn't going to benefit you as more power is mainly a benefit when lack of it is becoming an issue. Biamping off a receiver isn't likely to make a huge difference either, and at the point where you need a significant step up in power, just getting an amp with enough power is the proper way to go about it.

 

[PENG]

I'm returning the b&w 684 and other b&w spkrs that make up the 5 system set, just not wowed by them..upgrading to polk rti surround system with rti a9's as fronts. if i bi amp them with the Marantz 7007 will that be enough power or will i need to pick up the emotiva xpa 2?

I would pick up the xpa 2.

 

[gajenn]

peng that seems likely down the road...ill be getting the a9's the end of the week, so a bit of breakin period,then seeing how satisfied ill be with them biamped..and then more than likely from what i've heard and you folks have said here, the xpa 2..the powersound sub i got does the job on the lowend and the oppo 103 is sweet with the panny 65gt50..just speakers to get right at this point.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm returning the b&w 684 and other b&w spkrs that make up the 5 system set, just not wowed by them..upgrading to polk rti surround system with rti a9's as fronts. if i bi amp them with the Marantz 7007 will that be enough power or will i need to pick up the emotiva xpa 2?

I think you will be changing speakers again pretty fast. I would say you are downgrading.

When those three bass drivers kick in below 120Hz the impedance hits the basement and with highly adverse phase angles to boot.

A passive crossover at 120 Hz is never a good idea. The speakers will still need a sub as the speaker is 3db down at 30 Hz. We have had lost of reports on these forums of these speakers being bass shy. Even if you set the crossover to the sub at 60 Hz you have crossovers at 60 and 120 Hz which is only an octave apart. This makes for very difficult integration as there will be bandpass gain and a peak 90 Hz which will be hard to deal with.

The biamping will gain you nothing as all the power will be on the LF amp and not enough on the HF amp to raise spl even 1 db. Even if it could which it won't both amps come off the same power supply.

If you want to upgrade, you need to take a different road.

I have never been a huge enthusiast of the B & W 600 range, but they are far from terrible speakers.

For the money you are about to spend you can do much better.

 

[lsiberian]

I think ordering the Salks is worth the risk. We are talking a different level product than anything you've probably heard. I think Polk's glory days have passed them by and so should you.

 

[gajenn]

I was looking to keep cost of 5 speakers about 2k....polks seemed a good shot but I haven't heard them. the 600 series b&w aren't bad, just have a muddled mid range and not very detailed treble, but not "bad"...so ill give the polks a shot,and maybe sell them and try something else if not happy.

 

[PENG]

I was looking to keep cost of 5 speakers about 2k....polks seemed a good shot but I haven't heard them. the 600 series b&w aren't bad, just have a muddled mid range and not very detailed treble, but not "bad"...so ill give the polks a shot,and maybe sell them and try something else if not happy.

I also think the B&W would sound better overall. My comments on picking up the xpa-2 was made thinking that you had already got those big Polks. If you haven't yet may be you should reconsider. The LSIM series are better speakers but they will also appreciate the extra juice the XPA-2 can deliver.

 

[lsiberian]

I was looking to keep cost of 5 speakers about 2k....polks seemed a good shot but I haven't heard them. the 600 series b&w aren't bad, just have a muddled mid range and not very detailed treble, but not "bad"...so ill give the polks a shot,and maybe sell them and try something else if not happy.

Okay so you aren't willing to try Salks you haven't heard, but are willing to try Polks you haven't heard? This isn't making any sense. You can do much better for 2k than a set of Polks IMO. Plus you could always keep the B&W surrounds and just update the fronts.

Ascends, EMPTek, SVS, Salk, Philharmonic, KEF, Infinity, Energy are all options you should consider. FYI you can hear Polks at Best Buy. Be sure to check out the Andrew Jones Pioneers too.

There are so many better options at 2k IMO that you'd be crazy not to give them a go.

 

[gajenn]

Isiberian you seem anti-polk,which is fine but till I've heard them I'm not going to judge. I had a HT set of kef's before this,the new Q's with the q900 and q600 w/q800's surrounds,and it was awsome. At the time I was shopping for them the polks were also in consideration and now that I'm getting new speakers I thought I'd give them a shot. If I'm not 100% happy I may get the new R series, or the PSB image 6...but that's only if I'm not satisfied. One thing about speakers is they are totally subjective,well mostly anyway, so what sounds great to one,will grate on anothers ears. Appreciate all feedback btw, getting others opinions is really helpful. Are there any other amps out there in the price range of emotiva and equal quality?

 

[twoeyedbob]

What are the reviews like on the polk's ?
Fair enough if the reviews are 'all' good then ignore what's being said,but there's no point coming onto one of these forum's and ignoring advice from folk who obviously have more real life knowledge than most.
In theory speaker's are subjective ,..i mean i'm sure there is someone out there who swears that his binatone alarm clock radio is the pinnacle of sound reproduction..

Fwiw...bi-amping with a receiver will make 0.02 % difference
(at most) so dont make any big plans around it.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk 2

 

[gajenn]

Most all of the reviews I've read on the rti a9's are very positive which is why I'm interested. If I had tons of time and money I'd try salks and aperions and kef r's etc etc...I do appreciate feedback, but in the 70's I had over 75k invested in my 2.1 system,so there is a bit of experiance here,I'm a senior who has loved hifi for a long time. This home theater thing is pretty new to me and I'm lovin it,and the myraid of options out there, but being on somewhat of a budget I'm tryin to get a descent sounding system for not a ton of $$$

 

[fokakis1]

My a9's played fine powered by my receiver (140 wpc) when they were crossed @60Hz. When I added an Emotiva XPA-3 it opened them up a bit and allowed me to run them on Full band. The difference was more noticeable on movies. Also, my wife and I auditioned the B&W 6 series and CM series and in our opinion the a9's looked and sounded better. Hope this helps.

 

[gajenn]

thanks for that fokakis1, nice to hear someone has a good experiance with them, seems an xpa2 is getting close to being ordered, almost everyone says they need a lot of power to shine. Can't wait till Mondays delivery...

 

[j_garcia]

To be honest, I think the RTiA line is the most neutral of their entire lineup right now. If I had to buy Polk, that's the line I'd get because I already owned some LSis previously and they seriously did not have enough benefits over the RTiA line to be worth the additional price tag. Speakers are definitely personal preference and you may like the 9s, but there are a LOT of solid speakers in this price range.

 

[brianedm]

I have the rti a7s and really like them. I'm always contemplating upgrades because I'm told that what's out there can be a lot better. We'll see. For now I'm happy with what I've got. I think they're solid speakers, especially for HT.

 

[j_garcia]

I am not a Polk fan, but the RTiA line is not bad. Below that, they are disappointing and the LSis were a pretty big letdown as well, or rather not to my taste.