Onkyo sr805 to use as amp and pre-amp together?

Hey Sdrenslow,

Can you share with us your experience, did you notice significant improvement after switch to external amp? is the Onkyo serves well as an decoder and pre-pro?

Thanks in advance.

(PS: I am using Onkyo sr805, and main speakers are JmLab Electra 920, center and surrounds are all JmLab speakers. I am thinking of getting a classe to power the main speakers.)

Jaguarcondor

JM Labs makes some hungry speakers as their impedance figures are low.

The info in the Onkyo manual suggests 6 ohm minimums.... it'll drive lower impedance units though.... but having them all around might be taxing.

I'm curious too about that part. I've had no issues with it driving my Silverlines, and yes, an outboard amp does improve things but then, that's pretty much a slam dunk isn't it? I mean an outboard amp should be better than what's in the receiver, huh?

Jaguarcondor,

I am using a BAT VK-31SE tube pre-amp and BAT VK-250 SE amp as part of my 2 channel system. This is used for 2 channel listening to my SME 10/Lyra Skala/BAT VK-P10SE w/ superpak analog front-end and Aerial 7B front loudspeakers. The Onkyo 805 is used only for watching Blu-Ray or HD-DVDs on my front projection home theater system. The L and R pre-outs from the Onkyo are run into one of the inputs set-up on my pre-amp to unity gain. It works perfectly. Excellent home theater with no compromises to my 2 channel analog system. I have not compared the internal amps on the Onkyo to my BAT amp. The Onkyo has no difficulty powering my Aerial CC3B center channel or SR3 surround speakers, however.

Scott

The Onkyo 805/875/905 are capable of 4 ohm speakers according to the manual. The JM Labs should not be a problem at all for the 805, but a good external power amp would bring the most out of them.