New and needing help with Energy CF-50 5.1 (def conn 5)

[The Bad Guy]

Hi Everyone

I am new here and am in need of some help (hopefully I am posting in the right section..sorry if not).

Anyhow-I am about to pick up the Energy Def Conn 5 home theater system (consists of 2x CF-50 towers, 1x CC-10 center channel, 2x CR-10 rears, and 1x ESW-C10 subwoofer) and am wondering if the receiver I have is going to be able to power it properly. I am currently running a Yamaha HTR 6160 paired up to the Energy Take Classics (which BTW are amazing little speakers for their size...they just don't quite have the horsepower I'm after). Will this receiver drive my new speakers ok? I am not really sure how to understand speaker specs and how to properly pair receivers and speakers. I've read that under-powering speakers can cause the receiver to cause clipping issues which in turn causes damage to the speakers...which as I am sure you can all imagine I really don't want happening.

If someone could let me know what they think, I would be very grateful. I tried asking this stuff at Future Shop and the sales rep just asked me "Oh what kind of receiver do you have?" and all I could get out of my mouth was "Yama..." before he cut me off and said "Oh Yamaha, yes very good receiver!" -it was painfully obvious that he knew little if anything about this stuff-he just knew how to run my credit card through and smile. SOOOO... needless to say, I am feeling a little like I'm stuck in the middle of the ocean right now. I really like my current Yammy, and I don't want to have to go plunge yet another $750-$1200 into a new receiver, but if faced with the possibility of damaging my brand new speakers (which I don't even have yet-still waiting for stock to come in) because I'm not using a strong enough receiver, it's a no-brainer...I'll have to. Also, if I do need a new receiver, what specs should I be looking for? I'll be looking for another Yamaha, but a Marantz might be nice too.

I tried to post the links to my stuff on the respective manufacturer websites, but because this is only my first post, it won't let me (you need to have posted at least 5 messages in order to include links on your posts)...I'm terribly sorry for the trouble.

Thanks in advance to anyone and everyone for your help... can't tell you how much I appreciate it...

 

[AVRat]

Generally speaking, yes the 6160 should be sufficient. However, if you want to crank them up to reference volume in a large room, then probably not. You can use the 6160 initially to see how it performs usually with no harm done. If the sound doesn't sound right at the volume you like, then more power may be required.

 

[The Bad Guy]

Thanks, AVRat, for the input. Reference volume is 0.0 on the receiver, correct? I currently have my 6160's vol. maxing out at -10.0 (the take 5 classics start to get a bit scratchy on the highs at around -17.5 or so). so i'm thinking I may just leave it like that...at least for now - there's 100 hrs of break-in required so nothing strenuous is going to happen for about a week and change anyway. If after the break-in is done, and they don't sound strained at -10.0, I may bump the max vol. up to 0.0 and see how that goes...not going to push it, though.

If you personally were in my shoes and you got this system, what would your ideal recever be? Or what would at least catch your eye? Hoping you won't say Harmon-Kardon, LOL. I find their receivers look kinda like 1980's gear-meets Apollo 13, and the knobs on a lot of them feel almost flimsy somehow too...that's just my personal opinion, though-don't mean to knock the HK fans of the world.

 

[music2myears]

cf-50 - receiver advice

bad guy, i recently purchased the cf-50 surround sound system and i have been pulling my hair out to find the appropriate receiver to power the speakers. Then i came across your post and wanted to email you for any guidance or advice you may have, but I needed 5 posts and thus I'm posting a reply for any guidance i may get from you or the group. Any help would be great?

At the end, which receiver did you end up buying? i was looking at the marantz slimline but it only has 50 watts per channel. the pioneer elite vsx32 has 100 watts per channel.

did you bi-amp the speakers?

how do you like the speakers?

did you hang your surround sound speakers on the wall? I've been looking for speaker stands but I cant find anything that supports the weight and most stands mount from the bottom of the speakers not the back.

again, any guidance would be great. thank you very much!