2. home-theater
  3. 1253347105

Newbie could use amp, receiver help.

Hi I am having a home theater problem. I have been using a klipsch synergy HT but have now come across a mint pair of infinity kappa 8.1 series II speakers. I am a complete newbie and have read lots of posts about receivers, amps,and speakers, but thats where I get very confused. I read these speakers are amp killers so I really need a power amp. I also read I should use a receiver, or a pre amp. I asked a question in a different forum where I was told about watts and db and so on, but thats just not anything I understand yet. If someone could give me an idea of what I should be running to get these to work properly type of equiptment and maybe a brand would be great. I would also like to add surround and center and sub as well. I'm sorry for asking for so much info but I really am clueless.

Thanks so much.
mistertwister
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
A decent AVR will do the trick. A used one with the new hi-rez codecs. I like and use an Onkyo TS-SR905.
hifitime
715 posts
 
If you use an A/V receiver,make sure that it can drive a 4 ohm
speaker load continuously (same for power amps)into a stated
XXX watts into 4 ohms continuous watts RMS. The standard for A/V receivers is 8 ohms,although a lot of A/V receivers can drive a 4 ohm load.If you use (5-7) 4 ohm speakers, thats a lot of heat for a receiver.Infinity states the amp must be able to drive a 4 ohm load.The Infinity's will probably not match the sound characteristics the Klipsch's.You will want all the speakers in a home theater to sound as similar as possible. Getting sonically matching speakers may be hard? If you like the Infinity's sound for a 2 channel(stereo)system,you could keep running the Klipch's for video with a A/V receiver that has preamp level outputs for the front channels running them to a 4 ohm capable power amp.That would give you Klipch video sound 5.1-7.1 channels,and 2 channel stereo
for the Infinity's.Or match up all Infinity speakers FRT,CTR,and REARS, for it to sound right.All that said,if you go with the Infinity's,use an amp that will drive a 4 ohm speaker continuously. I would want an amp of at least 100 to 200 watts (myself) into 4 ohms for the Infinity's (the 4 ohm is very important).If you try using an 8 ohm only amp,it will most likely be damaged,and may damage the Infinity's too. Go to Infinity's support sight and look up the owners manual.I hope this helps.
hifitime
715 posts
 
More,4 ohm and 8 ohm impedance.A 4 ohm speaker is twice as hard to drive as a 8 ohm.It sounds backwards,0 ohms is a direct short.
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