Not enough power??cerwin vega ve 12's

[onkyo606]

Hi,
i recently bought a new onkyo txsr 606 and a pair of cerwin vega ve 12's. im new to the receiver world and have some qustions about getting more power to my two speakers. i wanted the home theatre receiver for the movies but also have some parties and want the loud bass. my receiver is only putting out 90 watts per channel. and i have them hooked into the two "front speaker" inputs. these are rated for 300 watts rms and i know not having enough wattage and distortion will ruin a speaker before having too much wattage will. is there an amp they make that i can power up my two "front speaker" inputs with to jump the wattage up?? how should i go about this? thanks

 

[Matt34]

Behringer A500

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHA500

 

[onkyo606]

i just checed out the amp. looks like it would suit waht i need. says it puts out about 130 per channel. do you think that is sufficient of should i throw in a couple hundred dollars more and get more of a punch for the money?

 

[j_garcia]

Unfortunately, the 60x series receivers do not have preamp outs. You need to step up to the 70x line to get them, so an external amp will not be a plug and play option here.

The A500 would be plenty for them though.

 

[onkyo606]

is there any way to rig up a external amp on the 606 series. id hate to have paid $400 for this to have made a bad choice and need to upgrade to a 706 to meet me needs.

 

[j_garcia]

There is a device more common in the car audio realm that steps amplified signals to line level, appropriately called a line level converter. You plug it into your speaker outputs and it converts to proper voltage via an RCA out. I haven't tried one with a HT receiver, but theoretically it should work.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=302-307 $65 seems pretty steep just to do this though, and I am not sure the quality of signal that it will give you.

Then there is the cheap method, and this is more like what is seen in car stereo: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=265-026

 

[onkyo606]

well i checked out a site on those line converters and from what i understand thay should work with what i need. but doesnt look like they put out the watts that the a500 does. maybe im reading about them wrong but thats what i gather from it. do you have any info or suggestions on any other line converters or amps like the a500 that might put out and get me closer to the 200 watt range? id like to do this right the first time and get a sufficient wattage.

 

[j_garcia]

I am not sure about the capability to handle a certain input power, but the idea behind converters like this is that they strip out the power from the receiver and give you the kind of voltage needed to drive the amp. This is the same thing that is found in subwoofers that have speaker level inputs - the internal amp is doing the work, not the receiver. So the receiver's power goes nowhere; the external amp is getting signal only and the amp is doing the work.

For more power, you could get 2 A500s and bridge each one for a total of around 500w each. Or move up the Behringer line and look at the EP1500 or EP2500, though these might add yet another connection issue to the equation as they don't accept RCA I believe, but the 1500 would give you 260W@8 Ohms.

How long have you had the 606? Is it still in the period in which you can exchange it for a 706? That would likely be a better way to go in terms of having the preamp outs. I know that isn't exactly the easiest road either though, from what it sounds like.

 

[onkyo606]

i bought the receiver about 3 weeks ago but unfurtonaltly it was off ebay so there is no returning it. im kicking myself in the *** now cuz i would return it for the 706. it was brand new in the package for 400 with free shipping. i looked up some more on the a500 and looks like it has enough power and i might go with that if im not gonna run into problems hooking it up. like i said im new in the receiver world and need something sufficient but not something i need to have expeirience in hooking it up.