2. home-theater
  3. 1345648300

WHICH ONE TO BUY?

I am new at this. That said - I just purchased a pair of mint, Dahlquist 30 speakers. I like them a lot. But I have an ONKYO 80 watt receiver, (purchased somewhere around 1995) that is not 4 ohm stable - and these speakers seem to want a lot of power.
I would also like to add a powered sub; and the ONKYO does not support a powered sub.
I usually play music. But I also use this for home theater.
I really do not care about surround sound and other types of home theater sound processing. However, I really need a remote. I also have an IPOD dock that I play via the aux input.
Does anyone have a recommendation regarding what to do:
Should I buy:
- an amp and preamp?
- or a 4 ohm stable, multichannel receiver for home theater? Is there such a thing?

OH, and one more thing. I have two kids in college, living the dream. So, an indication of cost would also be helpful.

I really appreciate any, and all input, as I am really confused. I am not even sure what questions to ask and how to problem solve this.
Thank you everyone in advance,
Bill
bpanko

Showing 1 response by soix

soix
10,246 posts
 
Not sure of the specs on your speakers, but sounds like you need an amp with a decent power supply to handle a relatively low impedance load. Like Internetmin I'd be suspect that an AVR can handle it, or handle it and sound good, unless you spend some $$$. And you'd be buying a bunch of features and extra channels of amplification you don't seem to need or want.

Ejlif had a good suggestion with an integrated amp, but likely won't have a sub out that you seem to want. I'd look for a good stereo amp (I'm assuming you're only driving two channels since you made no mention of a center speaker) and a good used pre/pro. This should meet your needs and sound better than most AVRs in the process. If you don't need HDMI inputs there are a couple B&K Ref30s and an Acurus ACT3 that can do everything you're looking for and can probably be had for about $250. Emotiva has been getting very nice reviews on their amps, and this stereo amp puts out 125W into 8Ohms and 200W into 4Ohms and is only $350 new.

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/amplifiers/products/upa200

For the money I think one of these combos would meet your needs and sound much better than any comparably-priced AVR. Hope this helps and best of luck.
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