If I take two speakers out of my 7.1 system, would that give me more power?

[55katest55]

For the other speakers (couldnt fit it all in the title, sorry )?

I got Monitor70s, and im using (i know, i know, ill get a new one when i can) the receiver from my Onkyo HTiaB, which is rated at 130W @ 6 ohms. I hear they need decent power to run well, and i dont buy the specs that Onkyo has for this AVR. So would removing the two rear speakers help me at all?

I dont really care for the rear speakers that much as there arent a lot of 7.1 mixes and i dont think the algorithms that send sound to the rears arent that convincing so i could remove them if need be.

Also, Whats the cheapest I could get a decent amp for? Really for only the front two/three speakers. Any ideas? I wanna eventually buy one but dont know anything about pricing (other than all ive ever seen is that theyre about $1K).

 

[j_garcia]

The answer is: not exactly. You will have more available headroom to the rest of the system, however these are probalby the least demanding channels in the system. You aren't going to gain power, just free some up, but the difference will not likely be significant. Getting more power out of a HTiB is really not going to happen. The best you'll get is to step down to 2.1.

You need to check your receiver, because if it doesn't have preamp outputs for the channels you want to amplify, then you can't easily add an external amp. I wouldn't add an amp to an HTiB anyway, I'd just get a new receiver that had decent power to start with.

 

[markw]

Not that you would ever notice.

First, the bad news: If you read your receivers spec sheets CAREFULLY, You'll notice that all that wunnerful power is stated when only two channels, not all of them. Each time another channel is used, it cuts down on the power to the other channels. So, even with "only" five channels driven, it's still pumping out way below what it's rated for at two channels.

Now, the good news: Rarely are all five (or seven) channels called on to pump out max power simultaneously, so it's not really too much of an issue.

This is not the first time this subject has come up. For a more complete discussion, check out this thread. It's long, but it'll answer your question fully.

 

[smurphy522]

55katest55 - all replies are valid in the fact that you will not actually have more real power and likely not to hear it. Increased headroom (think power reserve) will give louder explosions and the like more impact.

In order to get the most accurate replies you should state a little more detail in the OP; such as the model of Onkyo HTIB (like HT-S6300, Etc) or similarly the model of the receiver component of the HTIB (like HT-R680, Etc). This gives the forum community the details needed to give more pertinent feedback.

By Monitor 70s is it assumed you have Polk speakers, correct?

With a efficiency rating of the Polk speakers being ~90dB they will play significantly louder and with higher quality (due to better quality drivers) than the speakers that Onkyo provided (rated @ 79-81dB range).

If you are using a powered sub-woofer one thing that you should be utilizing in order to realize the most wattage and sound quality from your system is the bass management. Read the manual for proper set-up and you can also reference the article about set-up from Audioholics here.

Best of luck!

 

[M Code]

For the other speakers (couldnt fit it all in the title, sorry )?

I got Monitor70s, and im using (i know, i know, ill get a new one when i can) the receiver from my Onkyo HTiaB, which is rated at 130W @ 6 ohms. I hear they need decent power to run well, and i dont buy the specs that Onkyo has for this AVR. So would removing the two rear speakers help me at all?

I dont really care for the rear speakers that much as there arent a lot of 7.1 mixes and i dont think the algorithms that send sound to the rears arent that convincing so i could remove them if need be.

Also, Whats the cheapest I could get a decent amp for? Really for only the front two/three speakers. Any ideas? I wanna eventually buy one but dont know anything about pricing (other than all ive ever seen is that theyre about $1K).

By switching OFF the back L/R surround loudspeakers will provide 28% more power supply capacity to the remaining 5 channels...
How much more actual power to be delivered would be difficult to calculate as it depends upon several factors including source signal, loudspeaker load specifications and what settings are in the AVR's bass manager...

Just my $0.02...

 

[j_garcia]

By switching OFF the back L/R surround loudspeakers will provide 28% more power supply capacity to the remaining 5 channels...
How much more actual power to be delivered would be difficult to calculate as it depends upon several factors including source signal, loudspeaker load specifications and what settings are in the AVR's bass manager...

Just my $0.02...

Less power is consumed by no longer being allocated to those channels, but nothing is added. Each channel is still only capable of its max power.