Hello-
My FIRST question here and I'm NEW.
Welcome, I hope I can be of help.
I took a year of university physics but electricity-WEIRD-"right hand rule"(what's the left hand rule?), I know the equations, or at least I cannfind them in my book.
I know that fish out of water feeling.
Presently I have a Sony STRDN1040,
I'll come back to this later.
POLK; PS125SW, set of MONITOR II 70S and a set of RTIA9s.
The RTIA9 outclasses both your Monitor 70 series IIs and the PSW125.
I am running the MONITORs through my "surround" channs and the RTIA9s though the FRONT speaker channels. But BOTH SETS of speakers are in the front. So, in fact, I have quasi 2.1 system with 2 sets of speakers. The arrangement sounds amazing.
That's an interesting arrangement, certainly it sounds like a wall of sound as long as the receiver's not running out of steam, but I'd chance that it is. This is where I come back to the Sony receiver. The STR-DN1040 is an entry level to mid level receiver and is more feature based than quality centric. The Sony receiver has a very small power supply, even compared to comparably priced models from other manufacturers such as Denon, Onkyo, and Yamaha. Because you're running two pair full range towers off a puny power supply I'd guess you'd be lucky to be getting 40 watts going to each speaker before the receiver starts running into serious trouble.
I know what you're thinking when I say this and I'll post the specifications here so I can explain it.
Sony said:
(165W x 7 @ 8ohms 1kHz 0.9% THD with 1 ch. driven
VERY deceptive rating to the laymen. Basically they're saying that while a tone is being generated (1kHz) and being played through the receiver on a dummy load (not an actual speaker, but a resistor) the receiver can at least momentarily output 165 watts into ONE of it's seven amplifier channels with a distortion of 0.9% THD (generally anything over 1% is considered unacceptable distortion for a full range amplifier). So basically they're trying to appeal to the slightly educated home audio buyer down to the Joe Schmoe who only understands one thing "More watts means louder sound".
That receiver, with it's smaller than typical power supply and typical Sony caution, probably only manages 30 watts a channel with the 4 channels being driven. This I am basing on Sony's history of caution in regards to overload protection because they recognize that a large number of buyers that favor Sony as their brand for audio equipment like to get a little overzealous with the volume control. If their product breaks routinely because of ignorant abuse of their products they become "unreliable" products in their target audience. They'd rather be labeled "reliable but not the best sounding" than "really awesome sound, when it works". I believe this is probably do to Japanese ideology and their pride in producing reliable products.
I've listened to numerous high end speakers. The Def Techs had an enormous sound stage and tight low bass.
I imagine you must have been listening to some of their powered towers. Well they're partly powered. Their big towers have powered subwoofers integrated into them. Definitive Technology powered towers are a mid-fi home theater receiver's best friend because the receiver and the speaker split the power requirements.
The Martin Logans had an ethereal quality to their sound. No doubt this was due to their ribbon tweeter.
Could well be, unless you were listening to their electrostatics.
I first heard this effect when I was 17 in a pair of Infinity RSIII. I was hooked on-if not "high end"-then at least "OK -end" sound systems.
My first personal experience with high fidelity was also with Infinity speakers. I still have and use them to this day. I love them.
I played trumpet for 12 years and have an gift for tone. I never worked on it. It just was. I am nearly pitch-perfect. But everyone who I have met who is truly pitch perfect are kinda...odd. So, I say "nearly" pitch perfect.
What an odd thing to say.
I wanted to buy a set of Triton Ones. And might someday. I do like Sandy Gross' work.
Similar designs to the Definitive Technologies large power towers, so it stands to reason they'd be something you would like.
My problem is the RTIA9s. My little Sony just doesn't have the power to move its drivers. The speakers take between 50-500 watts.
The receiver you're using doesn't have the dynamic power you need, especially while running two pair of speakers.
I am not interested in a 11.2 system. At most I will have a 5.1. I don't watch many blockbuster films, so my emphasis is on audio and visual is secondary.
Have you ever had a 5.1 system setup or just stereo?
Seems recievers-even expensive, high end models don't have sufficient power in my view. They do have numerous add-ons and features but power? No.
You might be surprised how much more power some of these receivers have over your current model even if the specifications you're looking at seem to indicate otherwise. We can probably help you with that.
Then I saw a review on Amazon of someone using a Crown amplifier to power their sound system. To my joy the things have MASSIVE power and are relatively cheap.
The XLS Core series amplifiers are a very popular recommendation and they're very cost effective. Unfortunately as someone else said in this thread your current receiver is not compatible, you'd have to get a preamplifier or at least a receiver with a full set of preouts.
But HOW does one set that up?. Is it a smart thing to do, electrically? Is there loss of higher frequency output?(I've heard this from some people who've tried it. Also from Marantz; "Beware ClassD amplifiers because you'll experience high frequency loss in your music. BTW we do have a ClassD amplifier, M1, that we make and has NONE of those problems because of our engineers fixed it.")
If you buy junk maybe, but an example like Crown XLS Core would not have this issue.
And someone mentioned that there are videos on this site on how to correctly hook up a preamp to one of these classD amps?.
I believe it was mentioned already, but the Crown XLS Core series have regular RCA (Phono) inputs, connecting them to a preamplifier would be a breeze. If you bought a professional amplifier that only had TRS and XLR inputs there's inexpensive one piece adapter solutions to adapt phono to TRS and or XLR (Balanced).
I am fearful that I will lose the great sound thatI have in my lil' Sony if I change to a new system. The Sony just isn't able to power the whole system.
You're not going to be disappointed if you upgrade that receiver. I'm sure it sounds fine, but for the most part most receivers sound pretty much the same until they're operating less than optimally, which it sounds like yours is doing regularly when you listen at higher volumes.
That was A LOT longer than I wanted it to be.
It's taken me the better part of 2 hours to put together this response, but I don't mind.
But maybe I'll just have to ask once and everyone will know exactly what I'm attempting to do. And then all chime in with your disperate and PASSIONATE (oh, I've read through the forums!) views.on how to guide and help?.
Thanks in advance,
Mike
I hope that some of this was informative and opens a few doors and gets you asking some good questions.
