2. home-theater
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Finally upgraded to Integra 50.5

I finally made a decision on my receiver and upgraded from my Denon AVR1908 to an Integra 50.5. Huge difference and love my speakers again... Was a big mistake buying the denon for the hdmi input and ditching my old onkyo.

I also picked up paradigm studio 100 v5 towers. If I had the receiver alone most likely I would not have bought the towers.

It is clear that my speakers like the upgrade, but I still wonder if I am still lacking on power to run them. I have a total of 10 speakers. Eventually I would like to have a media room in the basement with all of the speakers setup.

Question: Am I able to buy an amp for just several channels or can I just use the pre-outs for the paradigm speakers while using the receiver internal amp for the boston speakers?

Right now I am running.
Paradigm Studio 100 v5
Boston Acoustics VRM-60 - ZONE 2
Boston Acoustics VRMC -Center
Boston Acoustics PV1000 sub

I also have the following not hooked up
Boston Acoustics VRM-50 possible (height or width)
Boston Acoustics VRMX Surrounds
Boston Acoustics VRMEX (1)
butrflynlambie
5 responses Add your response
mceljo
1,357 posts
 
If you have pre-outs you can use those and separate amplification; however, the receiver has discrete amplifiers so while the mains will sound better you may not hear a huge difference with the surrounds.

I have the 50.1 and found a Yaqin MC-30L tube amplifier rated for much less power to sound better for stereo listening. At least get a stereo integrated with a home theater bypass for the best of both worlds.

Depending on your budget, the Krell S-300i would be my choice. I would have one if I had a place for it. I had to pass on a fantastic deal because I couldn't figure out where I could put it.
butrflynlambie OP
13 posts
 
I have gotten to play with the system a little. I am very pleased with the DTR-50.5. The Paradigm studio 100 v5 speakers are a big upgrade from the Boston VRM-60's.

I am using an xbox one as the source for blu-ray. I have switched the output to bitstream, everything is showing as DTS even when the source should be dolby. Not familiar with encoding schemes, but will swap out for a dedicated blu-ray player to see if there is a difference.
runnin
397 posts
 
The Paradigms would benefit from a separate amp, in my opinion, as for the rest of the speakers, you could go either way.
cruz123
586 posts
 
If you want to run all 10 speakers with the 50.5, you would almost certainly need a separate amp to run your r/l/c channels. A receiver's rated output (130w for the 50.5) is usually only a stereo rating. If you want were to run 10 speakers, you're probably going to end up closer 50-60 watts per channel in reality. That's fine for the surrounds, but I would want a dedicated amp for those 100's in that scenario. In your current setup you would probably need a 250w amp to the 100's to realize a significant improvement. My 2 cents.
butrflynlambie OP
13 posts
 
I'll take a look around at amps. Probably the one electronic device that I don't mind buying used.

Thanks for the opinions. Love the new setup, running it non-stop for music.
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