Trying to get 7.2.4 out of a Pioneer Elite SC 97

[Fred37]

Just built a room with 7.2 and 4 Atmos speakers in the ceiling. I was surprised to find out the Pioneer Elite SC 97 receiver will only drive 2 of the 4 ceiling speakers unless I add a stereo amp and run it off the RCA out.
What I need now is a simple, compact stereo amp. Just 2 RCA in and 2 speaker out and 20 watts or so that sounds good. Anybody got a $100 solution?

 

[fuzz092888]

Just built a room with 7.2 and 4 Atmos speakers in the ceiling. I was surprised to find out the Pioneer Elite SC 97 receiver will only drive 2 of the 4 ceiling speakers unless I add a stereo amp and run it off the RCA out.
What I need now is a simple, compact stereo amp. Just 2 RCA in and 2 speaker out and 20 watts or so that sounds good. Anybody got a $100 solution?

New? Used? What speakers will this be driving? Do you run MCACC? If so at what volume level do you usually watch movies at?

First we need to determine how much power you need and what your tolerance is in order to meet your price requirements.

 

[Latent]

it is a 9 channel AVR so there is no way to drive 11 channels with it's internal amps sorry. Driving Atmos speakers alone would not require much real power and any power-amp would do the job and there are going to be lots of second hand units you can find to do the job. If you want the best performance and power then it is actually better to use the mode 7.2.4ch front pre-out and then you can get a decent stereo power amp to power front speakers and this will take lots of power load off the AVR as it only has to drive lower power surround channels mostly. This setup also helps if you want to listen to 2 channel stereo sometimes as well.

 

[Fred37]

Thanks Latent, you are spot on. I don't need much power, don't have much space and don't want used.
Seems simple enough but I just can't find a compact 2 channel amp at a reasonable price.

Thanks Warlord but these are Def Tech ST-L towers and an 8080 center all with built in subwoofers and the manufacturer does not recommend MCACC. I used my Radio Shack SPL meter and it sounds fine, loud as hell in fact. I just want to drive 2 Def Tech in ceiling DI 6.5Rs. Bet they never need more than 10 watts to produce the Atmos effects.
Mythos ST-L towers, Mythos CS8080 center, 4 SR 8080 bipoles and 4 DI 6.5R in ceiling
Pioneer Elite SC97, JVC DLA X950R projector

 

[Latent]

If the space limitation is a real issue their may be an option to mount the power amp out of the way. You can mount it anywhere as close to the in ceiling speakers as you can get it. Top of a cupboard in the adjacent room or anywhere else out of the way. Then you just run a long line level rca and a 12V trigger line to this location. It doesn't have to be in the same rack visible to IR remotes and all that like other equipment.

I'm not 100% sure what the power requirements for your atmos speakers is going to be as atmos is more than just an 'effects' channel in reality and can produce full range audio output if the source dictates it. When that alien ship lands behind you these speakers may be pushed a bit. And the DI 6.5R's are not low power speakers with 10-200W power rating and they can do some bass output as well with a recommend crossover setting of 60hz. You can raise the crossover up much higher to reduce their power requirements but I don't know if I would be comfortable unless they had 40-50W of power amp driving them. With Atmos they will hardly get any audio 99% of the time but the other 1% may be action scenes with overhead stuff and these speakers take over possibly all of the audio output for small periods. When you are using just the channels inside a multi channel AVR you don't have an issue as only a few channels will be driven hard at any one time so it has no real problems unless you are listening and very high SPL.

 

[ack_bak]

What about this for a little over $109:
http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/yamrs201bl/yamaha-r-s201-natural-sound-stereo-receiver/1.html

 

[ack_bak]

For something more compact:
http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-apa100-class-ab-stereo-amplifier-60-wpc--300-590

 

[Fred37]

Thanks ack_bak. 2 sweet solutions! The Dayton is exactly what I've been looking for. I'm a bit old school so the first spec I look at is the weight. haha. 10lbs means it's probably a solid little amp with a good sized power supply.

Thanks Latent. I see you spent some time thinking this through. Appreciated. I agree, more power would be better. Ideally the same as the Elite's 140 watts but I have to draw the line somewhere. Also, this room is buttoned down and I don't want to pull everything apart. Raising the crossover is something I'll keep in mind. After everything is setup I plan to lower all the levels except the 2 to the amp powering the Atmos speakers in question, put on a scene with lots of Atmos content, crank up the volume and listen.

 

[Fred37]

So the Dayton amp arrived today and I thought it would be a good idea to test it. I connected it to my 30 year old JBL 18 ti's. Cranked the amp and streamed Tidal through it for 30 min or so. Wow, very happy with this little amp. Seems like 60 watts a channel to me. Sounds good and it hardly got warm. I will connect to the Atmos system in a few days and I'm sure it will handle those Def Tech in ceiling's no problem. Thanks again ack_bak.

 

[Fred37]

Today I connected the Dayton APA100 into the 7.2.4 setup. They way the Pioneer works it will be driving the SR 8080 dipole surround back speakers. After watching Terminator 3 I can say that it works great. I definitely recommend this amp for this application. One issue did arise though. One of the Mythos ST-L towers rattles when the powered woofer works hard. Tapping on the lower passive radiator revealed the problem. Something was touching the back of the radiator. Def Tech support confirmed that it is likely a wire from the amp that sits just behind the cone. Shipping it back for repairs would be a huge hassle so I'm going to take it apart and tie the wire back. They seemed to think it wouldn't be that difficult.