Sony amplification sufficient to drive GP Homes?

John_z,

That is interesting. I've never toyed around with the idea of manipulating the settings of the speakers on the processor and have always stuck to the manuals on setting them 'large' if using huge floorstanders. This suggestion has given the Sony a new lease of life in handling difficult loads. I do not have an SPL meter though but anyway guess I can adjust the volume of all speakers using the test tone of the processor. Well, looks like there is still salvation in my quest of retaining the Sony as the core amplification for HT.

Cheers and thanks to all responses.

Forgot to mention that I do have a powered sub which is mandatory for HT.

Merry Xmas to all.

Ryder,

Glad to help. Hope you had a nice holiday! By the way, if you utilize the electronic crossover in your processor for bass-management, be sure to use the unfiltered input on your sub (usually labeled "LFE" or set crossover to "external/out") if it has this feature. Otherwise, turn the active sub's crossover to it's highest setting to get it out of the way, then blend the sub's output to your mains using it's volume and phase controls.

But I cannot take all the credit here, this advice is right out of the THX handbook. They've done all the homework. In fact, many people do not realize that on a THX-equipped receiver/processor, engaging THX mode will override the user's bass-management settings. For example, if you tell your receiver that you have "large" front speakers, a "large" center channel, etc. during intitial setup, that's what you will get listening to Dolby Digital/DTS. But as soon as you engage THX processing, THX will (among other things) override your settings and set all main speakers to "small" and sub to "on" with crossover set to 80hz. Pretty cool, huh?