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Center and Mains

I "feel " the need to apply more power to my front speakers. One because, I'm not using half of their capabilities (wattage) plus I'm hoping the added power will clean up / reveal those little hidden jewels within a recording / sound track. 
My question is can I add power and find those nuggets or should I forget the power and find the right processor?
front mains: Def-Tech 7000 Sc1000 watts
http://www.definitivetech.com/products/bp7000sc
Center McIntosh XCS200 600 watts
http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/pages/ProductDetails.aspx?CatId=speakers&ProductId=XCS20...
Processor: Denon 4308CI http://usa.denon.com/us/product/hometheater/avreceiversht/avr4308ci
Amp: 7 Channel MC8207 http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/pages/ProductDetails.aspx?CatId=amplifiers&ProductId=MC8...  
Another motivation, (putting it all out there) I have a 12.3 channel speakers setup in place ready to go, but without the amp channels or processor to push it all  - it would allow me to use the MC8207 to power all the surrounds nicely.
jsigle

Showing 2 responses by michaela

michaela
314 posts
 
Sorry to say I cannot give you an answer because I have not heard any of your particular pieces of equipment, although they all seem very nice. I am however familiar with Mcintosh amps. I can only relate to my experience with my own equipment. I think that I was able to "clean up / reveal those little hidden jewels within a recording / sound track" each time I moved up the lines with different speakers first and then tried different amps to see how they affected the speakers. Also, it would probably help more to match all three front speakers and then work on the amplification. Hope this helps!

Mike
michaela
314 posts
 
You have received a lot of great suggestions, almost all of which was to try and match all your front speakers first but it sounds like you want to get a new processor any way. So, let me make this suggestion. Buy a used processor first, maybe an MX121 or an 8802, see if they make the change you are looking for. If not, since it's already depreciated, you can resell it and not take too much of a hit and answer you own question as to whether a different processor will do what you are looking for. I think you will take the greatest "hit" on trying to re-sell a brand new processor as far as equipment goes. They just seem to drop like rocks pretty fast. Just my $.02, good luck either way!
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