ICE Amp or not?

[Fors*]

First, what is your budget? You would be surprised what you can get for the price of an Elite.....I ask this because I am thinking more in the line of seperates if your budget is in the price range of the Elites....

[dvdwatcher]

Originally Posted by Fors*

First, what is your budget? You would be surprised what you can get for the price of an Elite.....I ask this because I am thinking more in the line of seperates if your budget is in the price range of the Elites....

Well I dont have a budget per say, really I guess I want to know if it is really worth it? I am saving my pennies as we speak so if its really as good as they say then Ill wait and save up until I can afford it and just do without for the time being. Seven years is pretty longtime for a reciever so What ever I get Id like it to last as long if not longer. Ive never really demod anything yet just read alot of reviews of the Elites and read from alot of people with the same equipment I want to buy as far as speakers and such.

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by dvdwatcher

Well I dont have a budget per say, really I guess I want to know if it is really worth it? I am saving my pennies as we speak so if its really as good as they say then Ill wait and save up until I can afford it and just do without for the time being. Seven years is pretty longtime for a reciever so What ever I get Id like it to last as long if not longer. Ive never really demod anything yet just read alot of reviews of the Elites and read from alot of people with the same equipment I want to buy as far as speakers and such.

Then I say get a decent midrange AVR with pre/outs and add external amplification to it. This would surely make it worth it to upgrade. An external amp will run cooler, provide better sound clarity, and by having seperates, it helps to further future proof yourself down the road from having to upgrade again.

I think the Onkyo 700's start with pre/outs, so does the Pioneer VSX-21 and 23, along with the Yammy 663 or 665, and consider Marantz, Sony and Denon as well. If you stay in the midrange level, you should be able to get a decent AVR for your processing, tuning and surround needs in the $500-$600 range (give or take.) Then for example, you could add an Emotiva XPA-3 to power your center and 2 fronts for $600. This would provide superior sound to your front soundstage, more so than the Elite SC-25/SC-27 can by themselves. You will also lower the load on such a receiver that you do get, helping to supply that much power to the surrounds (by using less channels) than you would if the receiver was powering all 5 or 7 channels.

If you take my advice, you see you could easily get seperates in the $1,000-$1,200 range, which is around the price of the SC-25 or SC-27. Something to think about anyway.....

[dvdwatcher]

Originally Posted by Fors*

Then I say get a decent midrange AVR with pre/outs and add external amplification to it. This would surely make it worth it to upgrade. An external amp will run cooler, provide better sound clarity, and by having seperates, it helps to further future proof yourself down the road from having to upgrade again.

I think the Onkyo 700's start with pre/outs, so does the Pioneer VSX-21 and 23, along with the Yammy 663 or 665, and consider Marantz, Sony and Denon as well. If you stay in the midrange level, you should be able to get a decent AVR for your processing, tuning and surround needs in the $500-$600 range (give or take.) Then for example, you could add an Emotiva XPA-3 to power your center and 2 fronts for $600. This would provide superior sound to your front soundstage, more so than the Elite SC-25/SC-27 can by themselves. You will also lower the load on such a receiver that you do get, helping to supply that much power to the surrounds (by using less channels) than you would if the receiver was powering all 5 or 7 channels.

If you take my advice, you see you could easily get seperates in the $1,000-$1,200 range, which is around the price of the SC-25 or SC-27. Something to think about anyway.....

Sounds like sound advice I guess, I wasnt exactly looking into seperates. How does adding an amp make both units run cooler? And what does the reciever do for me then if I run the fronts on the amp, do I still use the MCACC and any other options like normal? Is it normal to run an amp for just the front soundstage?

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by dvdwatcher

Sounds like sound advice I guess, I wasnt exactly looking into seperates. How does adding an amp make both units run cooler? And what does the reciever do for me then if I run the fronts on the amp, do I still use the MCACC and any other options like normal? Is it normal to run an amp for just the front soundstage?

Yes, many people (including myself) use an amp to power the front 3 speakers (the most important ones.) I also have an SC-05 Elite that I use to power my surrounds.

The reason an amp is better is because it has a bigger transformer and more capacitors. This all translates into more power, and then better efficiency, so itwill run cooler. Ultimately, this all provides a cleaner more dynamic sound, which is what you want. By taking the load off of the AVR (becuase the amp is now powering the front 3 speakers) the AVR doesn't have to work as hard (it is using only 2 or 4 channels now instead of 5 or 7), it will run cooler. Improving the sound quality you will get from the surrounds.

The receiver will work as a pre/pro with an external amp. It will still do the processing (so yes, you would still use MCACC for calibration) and everything else just it it normally would. The amp's job is simply to power the front 3 speakers, nothing else. The receiver still does everything else (except it is no longer powering the front 3 speakers.)

Receivers need to do 3 things, they work as processors, tuners and to supply power to the speakers. Having to do 3 things = less efficiency at doing each one. So you don't always get the optimal performance from your AVR at these 3 jobs individually. The amp has one job, power. More power equates to a better dynamic range and sound to the front 3 speakers, helping them to "open up" where better detail, imaging and seperation can be detected (all of this is relavent to the quality of your speakers though.)

[dvdwatcher]

Originally Posted by Fors*

Yes, many people (including myself) use an amp to power the front 3 speakers (the most important ones.) I also have an SC-05 Elite that I use to power my surrounds.

The reason an amp is better is because it has a bigger transformer and more capacitors. This all translates into more power, and then better efficiency, so itwill run cooler. Ultimately, this all provides a cleaner more dynamic sound, which is what you want. By taking the load off of the AVR (becuase the amp is now powering the front 3 speakers) the AVR doesn't have to work as hard (it is using only 2 or 4 channels now instead of 5 or 7), it will run cooler. Improving the sound quality you will get from the surrounds.

The receiver works as a pre/pro, it does the processing (so yes, you would still use MCACC for calibration) and everything else as normal. The amps job is simply to power the front 3 speakers, nothing else. The receiver still does everything else like it normally does (except it is no longer pwoering the front 3 speakers.)

Receivers need to do 3 things, they work as processors, tuners and power the speakers. Having to do 3 things = less efficiency doing each one. So you don't always get the optimal performance from your AVR at these 3 jobs individually. The amp has one job, power. More power equates to a better dynamic range and sound to the front 3 speakers, helping them to "open up" where better detail, imaging and seperation can be detected (relavent to the quality of your speakers though.)

Im trying to look at some gallery photos of amps but you cant really tell, how is it connected? The speakers I assume goto the amp but then what? What type of cables? Any specific guage wire? I was going to run 14 guage is that ok?

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by dvdwatcher

Im trying to look at some gallery photos of amps but you cant really tell, how is it connected? The speakers I assume goto the amp but then what? What type of cables? Any specific guage wire? I was going to run 14 guage is that ok?

You use interconnects (essentially RCA Audio cables.) These run from the pre-outs on the back of an AVR that has pre-outs to the amp. This is all it takes to properly "hook them up."

Yes, the speaker wire would run from the amp to those specific speakers. You would then use speaker wire from the side and rear surround speaker terminals on your AVR to those speakers. I wouldn't go below 16 gauge personally, so 14 is fine.

Here are some links for you:

Emotiva XPA-3

Interconnects