Upgrade Path

Stephen Munz Silver Member Username: Stefanom Silver Spring, MD United States Post Number: 178 Registered: Apr-06	Posted on Friday, September 22, 2006 - 23:47 GMT Good evening folks, Basically, I'm looking to gather opinions on what would be the most effective upgrade path for my system. As it stands now, I've got a 2.0 system based off a pair of Tim's Emmas and a HK 3380. Overall, I am very pleased with the system; I am not looking to upgrade the speakers at all, as I feel they are the strongest link at this point. I also feel that the sound quality I am getting is superb for the most part. The flaw is this: high volume. I knew going into the deal that Emma wasn't the most efficient speaker on the block. However, I figured that with a reasonably robust little receiver like the 3380, it should have been able to crank out fairly high volumes to my liking, and generally it does. However, on some (bass heavy) material, it does get a bit strained. I'll also readily admit that I play my music at relatively high volume. So with this in mind, I figure I have 3 options to help the situation. 1. Buy a subwoofer. Pros: Would take the bass strain off the Emma's, giving a bit of extra headroom. Cons: The 3380 doesnt have bass mgmt. I am also quite fond of my speaker cables, and I would rather not run the system through a subwoofers crossovers as they would effectively have to be pitched. Question with that though: Since the HK wouldn't know the system was being crossed over, would I gain any extra headroom by doing this? The other solution I could see would be buying a new receiver that had bass mgmt on it, although the only stereo receiver I can think of with that feature is by Outlaw; this would get into pricey territory though. 2. Buy a power amp and use the HK as a preamp. Pros: Would certainly give a at least a bit more headroom, improve dynamics on the whole, etc. Cons: Don't really know how much juice Emma can take. 500 quality watts a side aint exactly cheap either. Comments? Thoughts? Ridicule? All are welcome!
Edster922 Gold Member Username: Edster922 Abubala, Ababala The Occupation Post Number: 4601 Registered: Mar-05	Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 - 02:55 GMT I'd experiment with a pro amp such as a Behringer ep2500 which will give you 450wpc and run around $300. Search on the AVS Forum for a multitude of positive feedback on it, and a couple of people have done head to head comparisons with "audiophile" amps and heard no real difference. If you can get something like this from partsexpress.com you'll have a nice return policy in case it doesn't work out to your liking.
Stephen Munz Silver Member Username: Stefanom Silver Spring, MD United States Post Number: 187 Registered: Apr-06	Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 - 14:19 GMT Judging from the feedback I've gotten from Tim on other threads, it would seem like the subwoofer route would be the way to go along w/ some form of bass mgmt. It just stinks that my 3380 (or any stereo receiver excepting the RR2150) doesn't offer it...Ohh well, in reality, I could just try to keep the volume down (certainly wouldn't hurt my hearing). I would rather not get a 5.1 receiver, as most of its features would go to waste. Don't suppose anyone knows of any cheap XO's (but still of decent quality!) that I could plug into the chain between the source and the receiver? I only have one source, so that wouldn't be a major problem at least.
Nuck Gold Member Username: Nuck Post Number: 4247 Registered: Dec-04	Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 - 14:50 GMT SM, just get a sub with mgmt built in, like a Velodyne.
Edster922 Gold Member Username: Edster922 Abubala, Ababala The Occupation Post Number: 4602 Registered: Mar-05	Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 - 15:08 GMT http://cgi.ebay.com/Bass-Blockers-High-Pass-Crossover-Speakers-Filter-100Hz_W0QQ itemZ220032332370QQihZ012QQcategoryZ50549QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem or http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=266-250
Stephen Munz Silver Member Username: Stefanom Silver Spring, MD United States Post Number: 188 Registered: Apr-06	Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 - 18:03 GMT Nuck: Potentially, but it would still be expensive, simply because I was a twit and decided to get higher end speaker wire Also, would I gain any actual volume headroom from this configuration, or would it just take some strain off the speakers (as the amp would still be pushing full power through its outputs)?
Stephen Munz Silver Member Username: Stefanom Silver Spring, MD United States Post Number: 189 Registered: Apr-06	Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 - 18:05 GMT Eddie: What I'm thinking of is more like http://www.hsustore.com/highendcrossover.html except not $460. I thought Tim had posted about a Behringer model once, but I'm not sure which one it was...
Vader Silver Member Username: Darth The woodlands Post Number: 103 Registered: Aug-05	Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 01:45 GMT Another option: http://www.hometheaterbythesea.com/Aragon-2002-Amp-200-x-2-P8868C1131.aspx

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