Suggestions on 7.1 Receivers to go with the JBL S312II and EC35 center [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Athex
09-13-2004, 11:58 AM
I am planning on purchasing a pair of S312II and an EC35 center channel (going to pick up surrounds later) and am looking for suggestions on a good reciever to go with them. I am looking in the sub $500 range MSRP (which means I should be able to pick it up for $300 to $400 no problem)

Any help would be appreciated!

KRiTiKaL
09-13-2004, 08:14 PM
No complaints on my Yamaha 5790. THX sounds awesome and DTS also. Way more power than I need(130wpc) ever. Has all the bells & whistles(maybe too many) and especially the room calibrator. Works excellent for me! Have Fun.

Price is $500


My bad, thought the price dropped. :( Its worth getting quality though.

Athex
09-15-2004, 05:04 AM
I am considering the Harman Kardon DPR-1001, it looks like a great model but am a bit concerned with the 50w per channel rating. Any comments?

filecat13
09-19-2004, 03:30 PM
The JBL S and E Series speakers are not power hogs, and they're reasonably efficient, so the HK you're looking at will drive them to loud levels. HK power ratings tend to be conservative, so you're probably getting a tad more than the 50W/ch rated.

However, if you want to drive the speakers to very loud levels or if you're going to show Master and Commander at high volume, 50w/ch isn't going to do it for you or for your speakers. In demanding passages, the amp is likely going to clip when it runs out of reserve power and those JBLs are gonna suck up all that clipping in their quest for more juice. That's not good.

In the old days, 50W/ch in a stereo set up was usually plenty, but today it's not really enough, especially in multichannel sound. Look at www.harmanaudio.com for refurbished or remanufactured units that have more power.

Athex
09-20-2004, 06:01 AM
What sort of power would you recommend for these speakers? I figured that 50W might be enough given that I wouldn't be running them overly loud most of the time. I figured that if I ever want to do that I can get an external amp. The only other thing that concerned me about the DPR 1001 is there was no Svideo upconversion... which i think is something that would be great to have!

filecat13
09-20-2004, 07:13 AM
For slightly over $400 you can get the AVR 525 with 70W/ch into a 7.1 set up. Some will say (and rightly so) that 20W isn't much, and I'd agree if we were talking about 200W vs. 220W or even 130W vs. 150W, but when you get below 100W, every Watt counts IMO.

Besides, we're talking about a 140W aggregate increase (7x20W) which means the power supply and the amplifier section in general are more robust and able to handle greater output challlenges.

The Yamaha mentioned by KRiTiKaL is a good unit that delivers a lot for the money. I'd tend to downplay its amp power specs just a little.

RGA
09-20-2004, 11:34 AM
The difference between 50 watts and 100 watts all else being equal is a gain of 3decibals - you have to double the power to gain a decibal increase. 3db is barely audible.

It takes ten times the power to get a "Perceived" doubling of the volume level to your ear or 10db. So you would need a 500 watt amp over a 50 watt amp. trouble is most speakers have a capacity of about 100 -200 watts - so this volume is unnatainable anyway.

The reason watts are so over used is because so many amps are just so terrible that you need to turn it up to get it to sound good. The more you do this the better the soudn as the distortion actually goes down when the volume goes up and then too far up the amp begins to distort again.

I would look for the cheapest rceiver that has all the features you want and that has preouts so you can add on a power amp. You may never do it - but if you ever get into wanting something high end or become an audiophile you'll pat yourself on the back for having the option.

As for the speakers - It's up to you but i think you can do better. JBL = Junk But Loud. This is just a joke some of the stuff is good but it was made 20 years ago and the supposed other new good stuff seems only to be available in Europe.

There is more to a speaker than just sheer size and name recognition. But it's still taste and some seem to like them.

Eric Z
09-20-2004, 01:25 PM
I have a Yamaha HTR5760/V650 receiver- you should be able to get it for about $350-$400. I got mine as a floor model for $325. Great receiver with more than enough power and the YPAO feature that makes speaker set-up a snap!

Athex
09-22-2004, 08:27 AM
I just actually bought the H/K DPR 1001 for $299, right now it sounds pretty good, but I just need to get everything setup right. As far as the power goes, I think it is more then enough for the size room Ihave with my 92 db sensitivity speakers. THank you for all the help!

Athex
10-04-2004, 10:37 AM
I just got everything setup and tested this weekend, it looks like for my size room things are more then enough, I am usually running my amp at -40 to -35 db to get more then enough sound to fill the room, if I want a little more umph i turn it up to about -30 db.