Current receiver is 50w. Will I notice a difference with upgrade?

[JoeDeeze]

Hey everyone,

I currently have a Marantz 1501 Slimline receiver that is rated at 50w per channel. This is pushing Energy CF 30s, a Veritas center channel, and Veritas v-s surrounds. I am thinking of upgrading my receiver.

Right now the room my equipment is in is small at about 13 by 15 feet. Would I notice a big difference upgrading to a more powerful receiver? What sort of differences will it make besides being louder?--Will the bass be better, or will the system just sound better overall?

I'm curious because I'm wondering if i should upgrade the receiver or my front towers at this point. My budget for a receiver is $600 to 700.


Thanks!

[Canada]

The dynamics of your system will be better, lower lows better highs and less distortion but most receivers around $ 600-700 won't offer more power than 50 wpc all channels driven, so I wouldn't see the point of upgrading your receiver unless you want HDMI 1.4 ports or just more HDMI ports in general.

[JoeDeeze]

Thanks for the reply. Do you think it would it be worthwhile to upgrade to the Marantz SR6007? 110 watts per channel. That would probably be my limit @ $750 on amazon.


Thanks

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by JoeDeeze

Hey everyone,

I currently have a Marantz 1501 Slimline receiver that is rated at 50w per channel. This is pushing Energy CF 30s, a Veritas center channel, and Veritas v-s surrounds. I am thinking of upgrading my receiver.

Right now the room my equipment is in is small at about 13 by 15 feet. Would I notice a big difference upgrading to a more powerful receiver? What sort of differences will it make besides being louder?--Will the bass be better, or will the system just sound better overall?

I'm curious because I'm wondering if i should upgrade the receiver or my front towers at this point. My budget for a receiver is $600 to 700.


Thanks!

hey joe, your towers are 90db efficency as is your center if it's the V-5.2 model; the surrounds are a close 89.5db. they should all be pretty easy on a receiver. given the speakers and the power your currently pushing, i'd say that the best improvement for your system is a good sub. your speakers are ok for power as long as you don't have them crossed over too low. for your room size (nice size room by the way) if you had to keep your current receiver then i'd say cross the front 3 over at 80hz and cross the surrounds over at 90 or even 100hz and if you have a good sub, let it do the low end for everything. allowing power to push the mids and upper freq's without too much issue.

it would be nice if you had a receiver with a bit more juice, but, if you have a good sub, you can work with it and your current receiver. as for louder, the volume knob makes it louder. of course a more powerful receiver will give it the ability to sound just as clear at a slightly louder level. are you not able to drive your speakers to close to or at 75db for movies not including peaks (which only last momentarily)?

if volume is really an issue and if you do have the sub doing most if not all the low end as i mentioned, then, perhaps it's time to look at other receivers. if your receiver is listed as 50wpc then it's very probable that you only getting a fraction of that amount when watching a 5.1 movie. perhaps it's time to upgrade. i'm not going to do your homework for you. get your pen and paper out and do research. try not to max out your ceiling, look for something in the 5 -$600 range, there is plenty to choose from. almost will give you better more wpc all channels driven then your probably getting right now. go, put the time in and find at least 2 - 3 receivers that meet the feature set you may want and have power listings that are high and they should have good customer reviews as well as a couple of good pro-reviews too.

let me give you an example, first, i don't like to listen to things at incredibly hi volumes. my bedroom is 11.5 x 13.5 and i have a 5.1 system in it using an Onkyo 525 receiver. my front 3 are 90db's and my surrounds are 94db's all crossed over high, all at 100 and i have a 12" sub and i can watch tv and movies at very good levels and the receiver doesn't break a sweat. again, i don't need nosebleed volume levels and i still have a great movie watching experience in a room that's not too much smaller than yours. just something to think about. no, i'm not pushing you towards the Onkyo 525 (nothing wrong with it either) i'm just using it as an example that i can speak for with current experience.

best of luck, keep us posted.

[JoeDeeze]

Solarrdadd,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I appreciate it a lot.

I actually don't like to listen to music at really high levels either. I can play up to 75db very easily. I actually really like my Marantz receiver.. I think it has really natural sound. I guess I am just looking for a "fuller" sound. I am starting to think it may have to do with my sub settings. I have an Acoustech H100 sub. Perhaps I need to reset the crossover on my sub? It has a physical cross-over knob on the back, can you recommend a proper setting for that?

I set the crossovers on my front speakers to 80hz. They were set at some really weird settings based on the auto setup with the microphone. The center (which is the V-5.2) was at 130 hz and the towers were at 40hz. Hopefully your recommendation fixes this.


Thanks for the help

Joe