can somebody help me with receiver and center channel?

[ragu]

i am looking for advice for a center channel to complete my ht.

i currently have 4 audio source 8" ceilling speakers and 12" cerwin vega sub, powered by a sony receiver bought in '01.

...on another note i am now experiencing a receiver "protection" cutoff or shutdown when i turn up the volume after i hooked up my sub. any input or help


ragu

[uncooked]

for the center channel depends on price range, just go out to the store and listen to see what you like.


for the Protection thing is it only when you have your sub hooked up?

just go over the back of the amp making sure that all the speaker wire is neatly tucked into the terminal. make sure non of the strands are sticking out toughing any of the other terminals or even the back side of the amp at all.

if its just when the sub is hooked up thats a weird one....... need more detail if its just when the sub is on

[ragu]

for the center channel depends on price range, just go out to the store and listen to see what you like.


for the Protection thing is it only when you have your sub hooked up?

just go over the back of the amp making sure that all the speaker wire is neatly tucked into the terminal. make sure non of the strands are sticking out toughing any of the other terminals or even the back side of the amp at all.

if its just when the sub is hooked up thats a weird one....... need more detail if its just when the sub is on



i wasn't sure if i should avoid getting too large a center channel that will steal the surround from the ceiling speakers.

i'm currently looking at the cerwin vega e75 and e76 model. the difference being the size of the woofers (6.5 or 5.5 roughly speaking).

about the sub this just began last night when i hooked up the new sub and wanted to test the volume a little. i agree with you that it could be a wire connection and i haven't hd the time to trouble shoot it throughlyl. would it be any speaker wire into the receiver or sub cable or both?

thanks for your reply

[uncooked]

for a centre channel, dont look at the woofers a whole lot. its the tweeter. centres arent designed for alot of bass, let the fronts and woofer do the work. look at the tweeter. IMO the center is definetely the most important part of a theatre.


when you go get a chance, look at the back of your amp for loose connections and make sure there all tucked in neatly. i really really dought its your sub connection. i dont think it can do anything.

to me it sounds like a strand is sticking out and is either touching or really close to something either a terminal or the back of the amp. so when you give it some volume the strand has more wattage in it so it shorts whatever it is out.

i bet when you pulled out your amp to put the sub cable in, one of the strands popped out and is touching something, thats why it happend after you put the sub in.

[ragu]

thank you for your input. i will check it out tomorrow.

[vivisimonvi]

I have a Sony STRDE-695 receiver that cuts off when driven too high... that doesn't quite sound loud with my smaller speakers (I wrote a review on it as a matter of fact being low powered)... I managed to wire a seperate amp to it instead of using the receivers power (without preouts)... If you're using high level inputs to your sub (speaker wire) check the wire connections as stated above...

I have a CV E76C center channel myself, which is fantastic IMO!! I also have the E715 front speakers model which are their largest and they don't overpower this center. They are relatively cheap through some ebay retailers (for around 75 bucks, retailing a little over 200). This might not be for you if you're looking for something with a little less effeciency to match your rears (the 76 is BIG for a center channel, while the 75 is a lot smaller... but only a single decibel difference between the two). Your receiver most likely can manage the speaker level settings individually anyways, it might not matter what you choose if it can... (My Sony can only increase/decrease the rear and center levels only).

But if you're inclined to go out, check out and audition some!

[uncooked]

how did you wire a amp into your 695? im interested in that. does it use the 695's power as well as the new amp, or just the amp that you wired in's power.

[vivisimonvi]

Using a standard stereo RCA cable you can cut off both plugs of one end and you have what seems like speaker wire (strip them with wire strippers or carefully with scissors) on one end and RCA on the other... plug the wire portions into the speaker output of your receiver and the other RCA end into your power amp... I forget what polarties the wires are I think the inner portion is positive and the wire surrounding is negative, they both SHOULD be seperated well to avoid the wires touching each other...

I only recommend doing this with a low power receiver as you don't want to put your power amp in any danger. I can tell you I've been doing this for years with previous receivers with no problems, and you can acheive very high output levels (just be sure not to push your power amps limits)... I use seperate power amps each for my mains and rears when listening to 2-channel music, and Dolby Digital movies using just my Dolby Digital receiver. I can tell you, I've pushed my system at very high volumes with zero problems with great clarity (I have a Cerwin Vega speaker system because of this which can take a lot of power)... As a general rule calibrate your power amp to a high position (NOT past 12 o'clock position) and use your receivers volume control as the controller (you don't have to turn it up much to get high output)...

I could go further into preamps with 2-channel, but I'm fine with my computer's preamp capabilities (I have a software program that mimics an analog tube preamp and drastically makes my setup sound way better)... this is through a digital connection to my receiver, passed to my 150 wpc "Solid State" amp :)

[uncooked]

so say your like me and have a amp that is rated for 100 wpc. i could plug in a stereo amp and it would be 200?

so i can crank my receiver and run 100 watts into another stereo amp without hurting it? i thought you had to only run low level wattages into amps. like preamps filter them all down to the same for the amp to boost, so what would happen if you fed an amp 100 watts, it would just boost it another 100?

[vivisimonvi]

so say your like me and have a amp that is rated for 100 wpc. i could plug in a stereo amp and it would be 200?

so i can crank my receiver and run 100 watts into another stereo amp without hurting it? i thought you had to only run low level wattages into amps. like preamps filter them all down to the same for the amp to boost, so what would happen if you fed an amp 100 watts, it would just boost it another 100?

I'm speaking in theory on this one...
From what I know listening to music on my CV's at 1 watt at 1 meter produces about a 100 dB's (which is very loud)... from my receiver the volume dial is near at max, listening to almost anything on my CD player or computer (remember this is a LOW power receiver despite what the ads tell you, this is NOT a true 100 watts X6)... The quality isn't that good compared to my power amp in my opinion... But if I wired that 1 watt signal to my power amp, at the SAME volume on the receiver.... I theoretically get 1 watt plus what my power amp can drive (a 150 watts total per channel). driving the amp just a little I get a very high volume output... a low level signal assuming which is less than 1 watt you get a lower output if you just wired the source directly to the amp... Using the receiver's output power I get more of a boost at a few watts or less fed to my amp, which is probably why my equipment hasn't fried.

As I said before, keeping the power amp at a relatively high volume, you won't have to feed much power of the receiver to the amp (most of the time it's less than 1 watt from the receivers end)...

Dolby Digital and DVD Audio on the other hand, has vast power potential limits you may have to be careful even with the receiver's and amp's volume control. From experience I've driven my receiver near max watching LOTR sending LFE signals directly to my amp.... I'm estimating that's maybe as much as 20 watts from my receiver to my amp (a 100 watt receiver is really 100/5 which is 20 watts each into 5 channels [not including the LFE channel]).... You can push your amp past it's "true" wpc power ratings but you potentially put it into clipping which would damage your amp.

There is actually a device than can input high level signals from speaker outs and output low level ones out of an RCA output, I've seen a thread about it before on here.

[ragu]

thanks for all your input. it helps me alot. especially since i am triying to gather as much info as possible to make the right decision on limited knowledge

[uncooked]

so how did that whole protection thing turn out? was it just a loose connection touching? is it all ok now?

[omikey]

i wasn't sure if i should avoid getting too large a center channel that will steal the surround from the ceiling speakers.

i'm currently looking at the cerwin vega e75 and e76 model. the difference being the size of the woofers (6.5 or 5.5 roughly speaking).

about the sub this just began last night when i hooked up the new sub and wanted to test the volume a little. i agree with you that it could be a wire connection and i haven't hd the time to trouble shoot it throughlyl. would it be any speaker wire into the receiver or sub cable or both?

thanks for your reply
FYI, just in case you didn't notice and one day decided to crank up some vol.
there is also a channel wattage rating difference between these speakers. The e76 is rated at 125watts/channel and the e75 is rated at 100

[markw]

You NEVER can get more power out of a power amp this way. "Watts" in not a cumulative thing. The maximum power you obtain will be that of the final power amplifier in the chain.

As an example, if you feed the output of a 20 watt amp into a 40 watt amp, all you will see in the end is the 40 watts of the last amp in the chain, not 60 watts. You do, however, run the risk of very, very easily overdriving the second amp by feeding it too great an input signal.

If you're gonna try something like this you should really pad down the output of the first amp with some resistors to minimize that.