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Receiver powerful enough


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Hi,

 

I'm a bit of an amature with all this. But I have  a Yamaha RX-V481 reciever that says 260w on the back. Its driving 4 x Yamaha in ceiling NSIC800WH 140-Watts Speakers and 1 x Kef T301c centre speaker. 

 

Is my reciever powerful enough to run this setup?

 

Do I need a power amplifier?

 

Cheers

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cant see why not.. all are 8ohm 90db sensitivity.

 

its not a lot out of the avr at a guess 32w per channel (270 x60% efficiency/5) but enough.. go to a external 5 channel amp looking around $300-700 2nd hand rotel depending on model.

 

but you dont say the other gear you have and the room it is used in.

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Many power amplifiers (most?) are geared toward stereo output (ie. only L + R out). Seeing you're running a few channels - something to be mindful of.

 

If you can get a hold of the Manual for your Yammie -  it might clarify things re the actual power dedicated to each channel you're connecting to. I wouldn't just go by the Wattage tag on the plate as that is likely total power dissipated/used at the power socket.

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Cheers hopefullguy and zippi. 

 

I've attached a screenshot of the output specs. 

 

The setup is in the living room for tv and music audio. 2 x rear ceiling speakers, 2 front ceiling speakers and 1 centre wall mount.

Screenshot_20200112-124808_Chrome.jpg

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1 hour ago, Aza701 said:

Hi,

 

I'm a bit of an amature with all this. But I have  a Yamaha RX-V481 reciever that says 260w on the back. Its driving 4 x Yamaha in ceiling NSIC800WH 140-Watts Speakers and 1 x Kef T301c centre speaker. 

 

Is my reciever powerful enough to run this setup?

 

Do I need a power amplifier?

 

Cheers

The best way to evaluate whether an AVR is powerful enough is to look at the total power consumption. Ignore the marketing BS on the so-called power output.  1 channel output at 110W, 10% THD is absolute nonsense! Only a few companies publish the AVR power for multiple channels driven e.g. NAD, Arcam.  

 

For the rest of the companies e.g. Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, as a rough indicator, divide the total power consumption by number of channels @50% efficiency.  This gives the power available per channel. That number is small but often enough to drive relatively efficient speakers.

 

As other posters have said, get a multi channel amp if power is a concern...

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Guest niterida

Try this : http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

 

I put your receiver at 39w per channel (260 divided by 5 at 75% efficiency), guessed you sit about 10ft away and it calculated you will hear 106db at MLP.

 

So yes your receiver is powerful enough.

 

To get another 3db (which is only just noticeable increase in volume) you have to double your power to 78w per channel. So you will need a 5 channel 80w amplifier to go a tiny bit louder.

 

Or 160wpc amp to go significantly louder (+6db)

 

or 400wpc to go twice as loud (+10db)

 

However none of that takes into consideration the quality of the amplifier or speakers. How much your amplifiers distort (or clip) when running at or near full power will have the biggest impact on sound perception. Distorted sound sounds louder than clear sound, is fatiguing to your ears and damaging to your speakers.

 

If you are listening to your speakers now and think you need to go louder or can hear distortion then you could upgrade to a better receiver or add a stereo amp to drive 2 speakers and then your current receiver will only be driving 3 speakers and this will take a bit of load off it and it will now put out 65wpc (if the individual amps are capable of that). So now when running at the same volume as before the amps will be running at 60% capacity so may sound better with less distortion.

 

Look for a cheap stereo amp on Gumtree/ebay/here or buy a cheap PA Amp from djcity and try it and see :

https://djcity.com.au/category/pa-live-sound/amplifiers/?pa_brand=fenton

The FPL 700 model puts out 125wpc RMS into 8ohms or the FPL500 might be enough at 90wpc.

 

I have just bought a 5 x 100wpc Rotel amp from Gumtree for $400 to add to my Yamaha RX-A3050 as I had the same dilemma as yourself. When I approached 0MV the sound started to get muddied and dialogue was indistinct. Now I am only running 5" speakers all round (7.x.6) but have plenty of bass with multiple subs and according to the calculator I linked I only need 44 watts to get to 105db. My receiver is putting out 52w so not sure if it is my amps or speakers that are struggling. Since replacing 13 speakers was going to cost more than $400 I thought I would try the amp first. Unfortunately I am not home for another 4 weeks to try it out :(

If I remember I will report back here with my findings.

 

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2 hours ago, Aza701 said:

Hi,

 

I'm a bit of an amature with all this. But I have  a Yamaha RX-V481 reciever that says 260w on the back. Its driving 4 x Yamaha in ceiling NSIC800WH 140-Watts Speakers and 1 x Kef T301c centre speaker. 

 

Is my reciever powerful enough to run this setup?

 

Do I need a power amplifier?

 

Cheers

I dont think this receiver has a pre-out to run a separate power amplifier??

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i reckon you are right..it is base level avr.

 

if thats all your running 4 in ceiling and 1 centre and you can run it at a volume you like with no distortion ie: you like the sound.. then the avr is doing the job. forget the stats and save your money for a subwoofer

Edited by hopefullguy
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1 hour ago, hopefullguy said:

(if) you like the sound.. then the avr is doing the job. forget the stats and save your money for a subwoofer

an active sub - to be sure. passive are few and far between anyway.

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2 hours ago, Aza701 said:

Thanks for all the comments. After listening to my system with music and movies... I'm leaning towards keeping this avr and adding a subwoofer to the system. Cheers

 

If you go down this path, hopefully your receiver will allow you to place a high-pass filter on the main speakers (e.g. 80hz) which means that the sub does all of the heavy lifting down low, and your amp doesn't need to reproduce deep bass which places the highest demands on the power supply and output stages of any amplifier/receiver. This will provide a bit more headroom for your amp.

Edited by pete_mac
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