Advice on a new receiver

**madmac** · 12 November 2012, 13:04 Monday

I once had a Yamaha receiver that had no problems driving 4 ohm speakers but there were only 2 of them. Now, if you are going to drive 5... 4ohm speakers then that is a different situation altogether. Do your homework on that one for sure!!. As everyone knows here on the forum, I am a HUGE fan of Rotel gear but I am not sure their units would be terribly happy driving 5 speakers at 4 ohms. I'm not sure any amp would for that matter!!.

**Hdale85** · 12 November 2012, 13:19 Monday

Plenty of amps out there that can drive 4ohm speakers actually.

**talladega** · 12 November 2012, 14:17 Monday

Originally posted by Hdale85

Plenty of amps out there that can drive 4ohm speakers actually.

I am sure there are many, but at what cost?

**Hdale85** · 12 November 2012, 14:27 Monday

Pretty much any of the Emotiva amps will do 4ohms on multi channels, and they aren't expensive. In fact the UPA-700 is 7 channels, and can do 4ohms on all channels and is on sale currently for 429!

**talladega** · 13 November 2012, 02:23 Tuesday

Those look pretty awesome, but I'm looking for a home theater receiver, not just an amp, unless I can get an amp and receiver for a good price?

**Hdale85** · 13 November 2012, 02:42 Tuesday

What's a good price?

**talladega** · 13 November 2012, 14:26 Tuesday

<$800

**madmac** · 13 November 2012, 14:33 Tuesday

Originally posted by Hdale85

Pretty much any of the Emotiva amps will do 4ohms on multi channels, and they aren't expensive. In fact the UPA-700 is 7 channels, and can do 4ohms on all channels and is on sale currently for 429!

Tell me about Emotiva?. Are they good?. Are they as good a Rotel gear and can you buy them in Canada?.

**Hdale85** · 13 November 2012, 15:06 Tuesday

They will ship to Canada lol. I find them to be very good as do a lot of others, I think it's hard to tell a difference between 2 good amps regardless. I've never been crazy about Rotel gear just because their prices seem to be a bit high for what they are selling.

Talladega, you can get a UMC-1 and UPA-700 for a bit over 800, or you can buy a 400 dollar receiver that has pre-outs and a UPA-700. There are a good bit of receivers out there that handle 4ohm loads just fine but they don't spec it to. Any of the higher end Pioneer Elites that use the ICE modules or their new in house Class D modules shouldn't have an issue, as well as any of the higher end Onkyo's that have the nice a discrete PSU's and what not should be fine. You can't really look at it as an all channels driven because it is really really rare to run all channels driven max at one time. Also the load a speaker puts on an amp changes, 4ohms is just the nominal or average. Generally unless the speakers are a really hard load you probably have very little to worry about.

**talladega** · 14 November 2012, 09:56 Wednesday

Yeah, I'm not so worried about having an amp that says it can do 4ohms. I just want one that will be able to run 2 Statement speakers.
Here is the frequency response of the Statements.

http://www.speakerdesignworks.com/statementresponsesplots.JPG

Looking at it, it only goes under 5ohms some of the time and probably averages 6ohm.

My kind of long term plan is to build 2 Statements in the next 2 years, then over the next few years get a subwoofer (or build one) and a Statement Center speaker. Then a few years later build either 2 Mini Statements or Statement Monitors for rear channel.

So, if I can get a receiver to last while I have 2 Statements and a Statement Center Channel, that will be fine with me and I will just get a new amp/receiver when I build the Monitors.

But I would like to plan a bit for that. So if there is a decent receiver that will have the preouts I will need for in the future, but enough power to drive 2 Statements and a Center Statement, I would be happy. For now I could use it as is, and then just buy separate amps for when I get more speakers as it would have the preouts.

I hope that makes sense. lol

**Hdale85** · 14 November 2012, 12:35 Wednesday

Like I said most mid-high end receivers shouldn't have an issue running your speakers. Would a UPA-700 or higher do it better? Sure it would, but you likely won't have any issues off just the receiver.

**madmac** · 14 November 2012, 13:37 Wednesday

Then again....I guess it also depends on how hard you are going to drive them also right?.

**Hdale85** · 14 November 2012, 14:21 Wednesday

Eh probably not really, honesty even 4ohm nominal speakers would likely ever dip below 4ohms very much. There are a few of the DIY designs that don't go above 4ohms much which those I would worry about, but generally speakers stay well above 4ohms. With an 800 dollar budget you should be able to afford a receiver that shouldn't have much issue driving 4 ohms. Look for a used Pioneer Elite with the ICE amp modules they are very powerful.