Need to power some Cerwin Vega D-9's

I posted this in speaker forum before I realized it should be here. Sorry>

My father in law gave me a pair of Cerwin vega D-9's the other day. They have a 15": wopfer, two 6" mids, and a horn tweeter. They have fuse and circuit breaker protection. he told me these things would bring the ceiling down in my house. It was love at first sight!

Well, I ran out and bought a Pioneer $349 surround sound receiver. Hooked it all up with a nice JVC dvd player I had using the fiber optic cable and some nice Monster Cable speaker wire. Turned it all on, and I'm diappointed. The bass sucks, but they are very loud though. When pushed hard, the Pioneer receiver overloads and shuts down.

Do I need a better receiver or amplifier? I take it I'm lacking power. I need to buy something from best buy/circuit city type store. I really can't afford much right now, so a seperate amp, etc is out of the question for now. Any advice?

Pretty much sounds like your speakers are lower impedance and lower SPL and your AV receiver doesn't have enough to drive the speakers. Are you running 5 speakers or just the two your dad gave you? What Pioneer did you buy so we can look at it. If it has preouts for the main speakers then you can buy a pro amp fairly cheap to power them until you can save enough for a commercial amp. QSC, Crown, Alesis make decent amps and will pump the bass and midrange out but the top end is usually a little shrill on pros. But they are much cheaper. Hafler makes some awsome pro amps also.

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Originally Posted by JasonK94Z

I posted this in speaker forum before I realized it should be here. Sorry>

My father in law gave me a pair of Cerwin vega D-9's the other day. They have a 15": wopfer, two 6" mids, and a horn tweeter. They have fuse and circuit breaker protection. he told me these things would bring the ceiling down in my house. It was love at first sight!

Well, I ran out and bought a Pioneer $349 surround sound receiver. Hooked it all up with a nice JVC dvd player I had using the fiber optic cable and some nice Monster Cable speaker wire. Turned it all on, and I'm diappointed. The bass sucks, but they are very loud though. When pushed hard, the Pioneer receiver overloads and shuts down.

Do I need a better receiver or amplifier? I take it I'm lacking power. I need to buy something from best buy/circuit city type store. I really can't afford much right now, so a seperate amp, etc is out of the question for now. Any advice?

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Your Pioneer should have pre-outs for the mains, and you can hook that directly into the seperate power amp. You sould be able to pick up a decent hig power amp like an ADCOM GFA555. This amp has 200wpc of high current power. Your Cerwin-Vega speakers can take a LOT of power, and 200 wpc will not be too much.

Barring that; set your receiver for STEREO output, and it will deliver a lot more current to the front speakers than if you are using it in 5ch mode.

The receiver is a Pioneer VSX-D509S. It doesn't have pre-outs except for the center channel. The CV's are the only speakers hooked up to this thing. I may go back and get a Denon or Onkyo.

On the back of the speaker or the front there should be some ratings - A number like 95db 1w/1m. What is the number on the Cerwin Vega.

Just because a speaker is dead easy to drive doesn't mean most receivers can drive them properly - so many spekaers are so slim and lack so much music content that of course it doesn't matter whether you connect a receiver or a Krell - that is just the speaker's fault and those listening.

My Wharfedales are easy to drive at 95db - easy with a good quality low powered amplifier - or very hard to drive for high powered(err high watt) poor quality amplifiers. The Cerwin Vega's can handle about 250 watts with a top out of 400 watts and a protection mode which should mean they cannot be blown - unless the protection circuit failed I guess.

The Cerwin was over 100db I'm pretty sure - 102 or 112db - which means 1watt is probably all you would EVER need to make yourself plenty deaf. The difference is the first watt is not created equal - except for the tripe doled out by DBT supporters. But you need to test the right thing --they aren't.

I owned a pair of Cerwin-Vega D-9's many moons ago. One area in which they did not lack is the bass. They are a 4-ohm nominal load. You need an amp capable of driving low-impedance loads.

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Originally Posted by Glen B

They are a 4-ohm nominal load. You need an amp capable of driving low-impedance loads.

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Many receivers don't handle low impedance loads well. Give 'em moderate power from an amp that can handle that 4 ohm load and they should make your ears bleed.

If ya dont have preouts on the back of the receiver...then take it back and get the denon,as long as it will handle a 4ohm load,I have a 2 channel denon it pushes a pair of 40hm speakers and does it very well,my son has an onkyo that claims to handle 4 ohm loads,but it doesnt handle it very well,gets very hot,and ya dont want a receiver with a switch on the back for 8 or 4 ohm...dude your gonna get a denon!

turn it back in and get one that does. I know Harman Kardon has preouts and drives low impedance speakers fairly well. IMO that was my first consideration in buying AVR--preouts. Well, take it as a lesson learned and at least you have the option of returning and getting a different one.

Why not consider a used 2 channel amp with a used stereo preamp. You should be able find some options at audiogon.com.

Or maybe an integrated amp?

Denon in the cheaper price ranges are not rated to 4ohms - neither is Marantz. HK and Yamaha are but that doesn't say much about their sound quality.


See brulaha's advice - I agree.