Paradigm studio 100v2 opinions

[Glassblower21106]

I live in a 100+ year old home where the electric is 2 plugs a bedroom upstairs if your lucky. My downstairs living room set up is my pride and joy sounding set up. Pioneer sc07, paradigm v1 p90s, and then the curve ball, an old pair of Mtx house 12s with horns, but I bought 2 fosgate car subs dv4ohm so I could get back to 8. I’ve always had a 3200 paradigm sub hooked up running Neo 6 music with whatever for a center. I’m 90% real loud music.
Now, I just stole a set up from a lady. (Rich lady, and I gave her asking price and said it was worth more to her). Paradigm studio 100s v2, studio center channel, servo 15 v1, and a marantz av9000 and mm9000. For $500. Not a nick in any of it. Looks out of the box new. My question is. I just hooked up the studio 100s to a denon 4308ci I bought for the kit. I’m asking if using the marantz mm9000 to drive the studio 100s through the denon , and throwing the av9000 in the garbage is going to be a better option than selling the marantz pair, or bi amping the denon. I haven’t had the studio 100s hooked to my sc07, but the 4308 doesn’t impress me power wise from what I’ve seen. Like I said at the beginning, I dim lights at -20 easily, so the post amp is going to be even more electrical draw off the same wall outlet. Thank you all

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Does this house have all old 2-prong outlets with no grounds? Do you own it and can you afford to upgrade the house wiring if it's original?

I'm asking seriously because it would be awful if you damaged your equipment or started a fire because of the ancient wiring in the place.

 

[PENG]

but the 4308 doesn’t impress me power wise from what I’ve seen. Like I said at the beginning, I dim lights at -20 easily, so the post amp is going to be even more electrical draw off the same wall outlet. Thank you all

If the Denon failed to impress you power wise, then I think something is wrong. That Denon is one of the most powerful AVR. Please see post#27 for the soundandvision.com bench test results (you can't find the results on their website any more as it is probably too old):

Denon AVR 4308CI owners... A sound quality question. | Page 2 | Audioholics Home Theater Forums

The Studio 100 V2 are not so easy to drive. If you listen at loud level, without the help of a subwoofer and a crossover of 80 Hz or higher, even powerful receiver such as the 4308 may struggle. The problem is, you get only 3 dB difference for 2X the power output so you will need a powerful amp rated 300 W into 8 Ohms and 450 to 500 W into 4 Ohms to make a noticeable difference.

You can try using the MM9000 to biamp the front left and right speakers and use the 4308 to power the remaining channels and see if that helps.

 

[lovinthehd]

I don't see that the MM9000 has significantly more power than the 4308. What kind of bi-amping?

 

[CajunLB]

When budget allows maybe start looking into class d amps and more efficient speakers if they sound good to you. Hell of a deal you found.
My suggestion is only trying to get you more sound out of the limited wall power that is av to you.

 

[Glassblower21106]

Thank you for the responses. I’m new here and I feel like I know my stuff. The 4308 has gen 1 WiFi, has a beautiful onscreen menu, but my sc07 makes the denon sound like a Rockville amp. Lol (not that I’ve heard one) and I stress the sc07. I come out of the amp, into the bottom set of the p90 bananas , and come out of the top set to the mtx 12s. The sound is unreal beautiful. I did put the servo 15 downstairs, and the studio center. Those both made a wild difference. The servo 15 is miles ahead of the 3200. On TV and music. Even upstairs the 100s seem to almost make the 3200 disappear, but I feel like there is still a HZ gap. Maybe from 25 to 60HZ is a blank space the way my downstairs seems like it doesn’t miss a single HZ.

 

[Glassblower21106]

My denon and the marantz say it will drive at 4 ohm. I’ve never had or hooked up a post amp, so I don’t know if I could bi amp the mm9000 at 4 ohm, or if that will just send too much to mid range and tweeter. I might just be half drunk, and am used to what I’m used to with the room. I just hear a HZ gap for sure. The 100s are in my bedroom, (without 11 foot ceilings like the downstairs). I did hook the 4308ci downstairs in the sc07s spot. That is why I’m not impressed. Can I use multiple channels, and go 4 ohm from the mm90000 through the denon?

 

[lovinthehd]

You have a full set of pre-outs on the Denon (and probably your Pioneer) to use external amps as you wish. I'm not sure what you mean by "bi amp the mm 9000 at 4 ohm".....almost sounds more like bridging question than bi-amping (and you can check the Marantz' manual if it is bridging you want to do, but generally you lose some low impedance capability that way). AVR/passive bi-amping would still use the passive crossover in the speaker and provide the same signal to both inputs of the speaker, overdriving it with passive bi-amping isn't that different from simply overdriving them without passive bi-amping (in that you're still using the passive crossover in the speaker to protect particularly the upper range drivers).

Here's an article on bi-amping in any case (I generally only consider active bi-amping as the one worth doing myself) https://www.audioholics.com/frequent-questions/the-difference-between-biamping-vs-biwiring