Tower Speakers for Onkyo receiver

[reignofchaos]

Sirji the impedence at which an amp works decides how much power it can output. A 200W amp at 4 ohm will probably be half that amount at 8 ohm. So if one amp is rated 200W at 8 ohm and another one at 4 ohm, the one rated at 8ohm is roughly twice as powerful as the other one.

Thats all I'm trying to say. The power rating of home stereo amps and car amps can't be directly compared unless you are comparing the 4 ohm rating of the home amp.

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

• the NADs are kinda sad amps.
• the NADs are uninvolving, boring and have the typical British house sound.
• Its not something I'd call HiFi.
• There's a reason why this thing costs 60-70k.
• The design has a hell lotta compromises.
• Push-Pull, global negative feedback to keep distortion down and all of the standard tricks of the trade.

No worries buddy. Just send it, I'm sure I'll live with it.

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Sirji

No Sirji here. Any ways which is your fav amp which gives away your kinda specs.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by low_bass_makker

Ok then tell us which amp is according to you a good amp. As you have said Nad as sad and other high class Car audio amp as boom box




Ya new term for me also. But I do not find any driver (speaker) in a amp which will complete the boom box.

Where do you want me to begin . Musical Fidelity, Classe, Krell, Ayre, McCormack, Plinius, Mark Levinson, Jeff Rowland, Halcro, Channel Island, Lamm, McIntosh, Theta Digital, Parasound, Bryston, Accuphase, Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, Quad, Prima Luna, Cary Audio, Nagra, Bel Canto, Wavac and many many many more . Even our very own desi Cadence and Lyrita Audio make some amazing amps.

[anuragn]

@roc:
I think what you are trying to prove is that as we approach the rated power output, THD also increases proportionately...and hence, <0.1% at 1W & 1KHz just looks good on paper but actually at high volumes, THD would be of the order of 10%.
But I beg to differ: I was gong thru' the specs of one STK-4192 IC (rated 50W min at 20Hz-20KHz with 0.4% THD, it's used in my Yamaha Stereo Amp). To my utter surprise, I found that THD is actually higher at lower power output, then reduces to a min and then, increases drastically beyond the rated output. Considering that the receivers/ amps we are discussing have discrete output stages, so I can hazard a guess that the behaviour should not be worse than that of IC based amps.
So my point is that THD at rated output should not be much different than that given at 1W output...i.e. it can never be near 10% After all we are talking about Onkyo and not some Aiwa/ Philips/ Sony mini compos.

[anuragn]

@roc:
phew..............
I've never heard half the names...thanks for increasing my GK roc.
But a poor guy like me would have a budget of 20-30 K for an amp and another 20K for speakers and you are suggesting something which would cost 10-20 times more!

[hyper-VTEC]

Originally Posted by shuvc

@hyper_vtec, try Polk Audio Monitor 50. Check out the profx site.
Some Wharfedale floorstanders should cost within 20K, though going by what @RoC mentioned, I think their sensitivity levels are pretty low - mid 80s.

@Blue Thunder, how are the Sonodyne Sonus 2605s? I think they cost around the 21-22K mark for a pair. IIRC, they've also launched a new version of the 2605s.

Shuvc...any idea on how much new Polk Audio Monitor 50 would cost. A rough idea?

[reignofchaos]

Under 20k. But in case you are wondering, the Sonus sounds way way better than those Polks. I'd suggest you go audition them both before deciding. At 20k, my choices would be either the Monitor Audio Bronze BR2 or the Quad 11L2.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

You should be able to be able to connect stereo speakers to it if it has a provision for connecting different zones. Typically most of the new amps have two zones - one is the 5.1 zone and the other is stereo zone. If you look behind the amp you should be able to see the Zone B as Onkyo calls it. If there is a Zone B then you can very easily connect stereo speakers to it and switch to this zone for listening to music.

Correction: It is called Speakers A & B in Onkyo. Connect the stereo speakers to Speakers B.

Hi,
I have an Onkyo TX-SR503 AVR hooked to a 5.1 speaker setup.
The towers that I use are Sonodyne - Sonus 2605 Tower series (130w RMS @ 8 ohms)
I have NOT connected the Stereo speakers through the Zone B as suggested. However don't see any difference in sound output when listening in Stereo mode.

i.e. when playing movies the same speakers function as part of the 5.1 set, and when listening to music the Onkyo AVR switches to Stereo 2.1 mode.

Am I missing out something by not having dedicated speakers in line B for Stereo ?

As far as Sonodyne goes , I have no regrets so far. IMO they are great value for money.
Home Audio > Sonus Series

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Under 20k. But in case you are wondering, the Sonus sounds way way better than those Polks.

Hmm .. that's what I have been told too.

How are the Sonodyne Avant range Amps/Pre-amps? I think they are all priced around the 20-30K mark. Again am told that they possibly have specs that match price brackets higher than that?

Originally Posted by hyper-VTEC

Shuvc...any idea on how much new Polk Audio Monitor 50 would cost. A rough idea?

PROFX - the home theatre specialists All prices are mentioned here.

[reignofchaos]

Their 30k combo of SP 203R and SPA 202 ain't that bad. Sounds pretty okay at the entry level. Better than most stuff at that price range.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by anuragn

@roc:
I think what you are trying to prove is that as we approach the rated power output, THD also increases proportionately...and hence, <0.1% at 1W & 1KHz just looks good on paper but actually at high volumes, THD would be of the order of 10%.
But I beg to differ: I was gong thru' the specs of one STK-4192 IC (rated 50W min at 20Hz-20KHz with 0.4% THD, it's used in my Yamaha Stereo Amp). To my utter surprise, I found that THD is actually higher at lower power output, then reduces to a min and then, increases drastically beyond the rated output. Considering that the receivers/ amps we are discussing have discrete output stages, so I can hazard a guess that the behaviour should not be worse than that of IC based amps.
So my point is that THD at rated output should not be much different than that given at 1W output...i.e. it can never be near 10% After all we are talking about Onkyo and not some Aiwa/ Philips/ Sony mini compos.

The valley sort of graph is common to all solid state amps, whether chip amps or discrete ones. The lower end receivers are chip amps and don't have discrete output stages... atleast the absolute low end onkyos and the yamahas. I have way higher respect for Marantz and Denon than either Onkyo or Yamaha's low end stuff cos they actually don't use chip amps at all.

At 1W output, its obvious that distortion levels will be below 0.1%. Its only at higher power ranges that distortion increases. Its easy to explain why - the distortion parameters simply follow the transfer characteristics of the transistorized components. My main gripe is not the distortion at 1W but rather the fact that none of these low end HT amps with humongous claimed figures actually manage to do those without significant distortion or clipping. Infact many might overload and shut down if pushed to those limits.

All I'm trying to say is take these ratings with a pinch of salt and let one's ears decide which amp is better.

Compare that to a high quality stereo amp and the tables turn. These are able to do way better than what they are rated at. For example a McCormack DNA 225 which is rated at 225W @8 ohm manages 260 odd watt when measured at 1% distortion (considered as clipping by stereophile) across the entire spectrum. See for yourself

Stereophile: McCormack DNA-225 power amplifier

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

McIntosh

HOME only or car also.

[reignofchaos]

^^Never heard their car stuff so can't comment. Their home audio amps are quite nice.

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Am I missing out something by not having dedicated speakers in line B for Stereo ?

No you are not. But in Hyper-Vtec's case I have assumed that he already has an existing set of 5.1 channel speakers that came with the receiver. And as he has mentioned he is not happy with the way they sound on stereo mode.