under the $1000 bracket could anyone suggest a suitable a/v receiver to drive the am16(10-200watts).. living room quite spacious but looking for receiver preferably between 100-120per channel..
not restricting frank, just don't what to overpower them so i thought, I will settle between that range, and moreover I feel it may cost a little more then.. what brand do u have in mind? thnks shane..
The Acoustimass speakers are probably not demanding on amplifiers. Most mainstream receivers should be fine. A couple of acquaintances currently use Pioneer receivers and are happy. Maybe the 516?
Note, Shane, that it is easier to break a speaker with an underpowered amplifier than with a powerful one. If you use an amplifier which is low powered, it more readily distorts. This distorted signal gets fed through the speakers which try to reproduce it. If you aren't aware of the distortion (and I find it remarkable how many people don't recognise distortion), then the speakers will either burn up or simply break.
If you overdrive speakers with an amplifier which is too powerful, the speakers will not deform since the amplifier signal is OK. However, they will eventually hit their end-stops. This results in an obvious pop which, should it happen more than once successively invariably results in the listener reducing the volume. Hitting the end-stops cleanly once or twice does not usually damage the speaker.
100 watts is fairly typical for many amplifiers of this type, but some amplifiers seem to develop more consistent, better power than others even though their performance on paper should be largely similar. In practice, the amount of power developed depends completely on the power supply of the amplifier. The power supply is the heart or the engine of any amp. A highly specified power supply can store a lot of energy which can be dumped into the power amps in a moment. Less highly specified amplifiers don't have these reserves. This affects their dynamics and resolving power.
That said, all you're doing is powering the 5 satellites as the AM16 sub is powered separately, so you really don't need huge gobs of power. None of the Acoustimass speaker ranges are difficult to drive so you can get away with lower power. Have a look at Denon's AVR2307, it's well specified and a good performer. Alternatively, there's the equivalent Yamaha, Sony, Pioneer, Marantz models about...