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Power setup for 803D's Family Room

While it may sound a bit nuts, i have a set of 803 Diamond speakers which i use for left and right front channel.  I will be adding a matching center and have in ceiling Triad Silver Sealed speakers.  This is an open family room environment, not a theater room.   I have a separate theater room for the serious movie watching.  

My question is what AV Reciever or pre-amp combination should i get.  I was looking at a Sony STR-ZA1000ES but feel it may not power the B&W's well.  I could output the signal for front 2 channel to another stand alone amplifier i have from the Sony. I wanted to ask the question is there is a truly more powerful AV Receiver that would work with the B&W's.  If not then i will have to entertain a pre-amp or outputting the front stage signal to an amplifier. 
titannero

Showing 4 responses by georgehifi

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
titannero, you have a very good speaker in the 803 Diamond, it would be a shame not to partner it with an amp that is probably going to drive it almost as good as it can be, for not too much money relative to what's best for it.

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
After reading i was also considering doing a Martanz AV8801 for this room with a Sunfire Cinema Grand.
Marantz is good, but those B&W 803D's would be far better served with the Parasound Halo A51.

Cheers George  
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
@titannero
This would be good Parsound Halo John Curl design 60amp current, bi-polar output, 250w x 5ch, use whatever your HT receiver as the preamp still.

http://www.parasound.com/a51.php

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Impedance reaches a minimum of 3.65 ohms at 99 Hz and a phase angle of –56.23 degrees at 50 Hz.
Read more at http://www.soundandvision.com/content/bw-803d-speaker-system-ht-labs-measures#M4GiYesABpc1cULl.99
With these sort of impedances and -phase angles in the bass, you'll need an AV receiver that's special with good current. Not your mainstream ones. Look to Krell and such for an AV receiver that will get the best out of your 803's

Cheers George 
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