More power to front speakers possible ?

[kevinokev]

With my current setup is there any way I can get more power to my front subs ? Currently running a 7.1 setup (so I though bi-amping would be out...)Please check out my gallery to see in more detail what is being used. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'm confused!

Are you talking about your speakers or your subs?

John

[Grand Bob]

Looks like you already have a powered sub. Just turn the volume on it up to max and hope the amp doesn't distort!

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by John72953

I'm confused!

Are you talking about your speakers or your subs?

John

Hey john, I'll gather he either meant to say speakers or he was refering to the woofer Low Freq portion of his existing front L & R.

Either way you need to add an external amp. I (john, you knew this was coming) recommend using an XPA-3 amp. http://emotiva.com/xpa3.shtm
you can use your receiver to power your surrounds and as a pre/pro for the amp. I can tell you without any hesitation, this will give those speakers power they have not had yet. You will hear a difference and that is a no question. you'll have to do some re-arranging of your gear but it can fit. perhaps putting the dish & the blu player in the same cube will do, oh yeah, the wii needs to go too! i think it will work out nicely. Also, the reason I recommended the XPA-3 over the XPA-2 it will keep your front 3 balanced and you need this during HT use. it will also be very good for you if you just listen to stereo music. both instances you will hear a big difference. You also might think about getting a more beefer center to really take advantage of the additon of power you will be adding. You wll be very happy with the hugh amount of power you'll be sending to those front then.

best of luck. keep us posted.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

Hey john, I'll gather he either meant to say speakers or he was refering to the woofer Low Freq portion of his existing front L & R.

Either way you need to add an external amp. I (john, you knew this was coming) recommend using an XPA-3 amp. http://emotiva.com/xpa3.shtm
you can use your receiver to power your surrounds and as a pre/pro for the amp. I can tell you without any hesitation, this will give those speakers power they have not had yet. You will hear a difference and that is a no question. you'll have to do some re-arranging of your gear but it can fit. perhaps putting the dish & the blu player in the same cube will do, oh yeah, the wii needs to go too! i think it will work out nicely. Also, the reason I recommended the XPA-3 over the XPA-2 it will keep your front 3 balanced and you need this during HT use. it will also be very good for you if you just listen to stereo music. both instances you will hear a big difference. You also might think about getting a more beefer center to really take advantage of the additon of power you will be adding. You wll be very happy with the hugh amount of power you'll be sending to those front then.

best of luck. keep us posted.

Agreed! Additional and better amplification is the way to go here. The recommendation on a the XPA-3 makes perfect sense to me, and one I would seriously look at.

John

[kareface]

Before you get a new amp... There are a few things you might want to check first. Make sure that you have the correct setting for the front speakers, if your amp is set to the wrong ohms (assuming there is an option) you could have a problem with the gain levels on your speakers (which can affect their potential output). What is the resistance of your fronts? What ohm output is your receiver? Another thing you should check is that your speakers are wired in phase. If you've crossed the inputs on the receiver or back of the speakers you'll end up with much quieter speakers. You should also see what the max decibels your speakers are rated for, if your speakers aren't designed to output any higher then what they already do then you'll just end up over driving the speakers and could damage them.

Finally, speaker positioning and room acoustics. If you can get the tweeters up to ear level, you'll hear the speakers a lot louder. It can be pretty substantial. Over dampening a room can also create this problem. A good test to see if it's strictly the amp, try connecting only the speakers that are having the issue to your main speaker inputs and disable all the other speakers. If your receiver has an A/B speaker set option, set it only to A and disable all the other speakers through the receiver menu. Assuming your receiver works like every other one on the market you'll see a increase in the output of the speakers connected. Not all receivers do this, so call to verify that yours does and the process involved in doing so. If you exclusively drive those speakers and notice little improvement or hear an improvement with greater distortion at higher volumes then a new receiver won't help.

[kevinokev]

Thank you to all for your suggestions. I will look into each of them and let you know.