[caddisgeek]

Hi All,
           I’m looking into going vintage and I was just wondering about what my needs will be. I’m pretty keen on getting a Rotel RX series receiver from the seventies. The RX’s tick all the boxes for me; I dig the Rotel sound, I already have an RP-1000 TT which would look pretty cool next to it and finally IMO the RX’s are the sexiest amps/receivers ever built (wife approved for the living room). My question is what model? I’m looking at a RX-402 at the moment (25 watts per channel). I like to listen loud every now and then (but not ear bleeding, have headphones for that). I just really need to be able to drive some three way floorstanders (rated at 100w each) andfill a biggish room (46’ x 26’). Will the 402 do it or do I need the bigger 802?

Cheers
Steve

[doug s.]

the power handling rating of your speakers is not the best indicator of how much power you will need.  what you need to know is how efficient the speakers are - ie:  what is the spl rating with one watt?  in a room as large as yours, i would suspect you will need extremely efficient speakers to fill it w/loud spl's, w/an amp rated 25wpc.  speakers definitely rated at least 95db/1w/1m, as it takes a doubling of power for each additional 3db of sound level increase.  and, unless your speakers are a line-source design, not typical 3-way floorstanders, the spl will drop off rather quickly as you get further than 1m away.  ie: With a line source radiation pattern, the sound level decays at only a 3 dB per distance doubled rate instead of the 6 dB per distance doubled for a typical speaker such as yours.

also note that more speakers are blown by overdriving an underpowered amp into them, (which causes amp clipping, thus blowing the speakers), then by driving speakers with too much power...

i am not familiar w/the vintage rotel gear; i do know that harman kardon, sansui, & tandberg, among others, made killer integrated amps & receivers in their heydey...  go to audiokarma.org for more info on vintage electronics...

doug s.

Hi All,
           I’m looking into going vintage and I was just wondering about what my needs will be. I’m pretty keen on getting a Rotel RX series receiver from the seventies. The RX’s tick all the boxes for me; I dig the Rotel sound, I already have an RP-1000 TT which would look pretty cool next to it and finally IMO the RX’s are the sexiest amps/receivers ever built (wife approved for the living room). My question is what model? I’m looking at a RX-402 at the moment (25 watts per channel). I like to listen loud every now and then (but not ear bleeding, have headphones for that). I just really need to be able to drive some three way floorstanders (rated at 100w each) andfill a biggish room (46’ x 26’). Will the 402 do it or do I need the bigger 802?

Cheers
Steve

[caddisgeek]

Thanks for the reply doug, I'm pretty sure I understood most of that, definately will be going for a more powerful amp

Cheers
Steve

[JLM]

I agree with Doug.

Even if you don't "turn it up" plenty of power is needed to provide a commanding grip on the speakers that is essential to deliver the full dynamic potential of the music (and protect tweeters).  My rule of thumb is that the amp + speaker + room "system" should be capable of reaching peaks of at least 105 dB. 

Your large room, especially if you sit near the far end from the speakers, will require lots of additional power.  OTOH vintage speakers tend to be more efficient if they were built prior to the advent of solid state amps.

[doug s.]

re: efficiency of vintage speakers, the 1st pair of speakers i mention in this other thread are 98db-efficient.  not sure of the efficiency of the second pair...

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=43139.msg386105#msg386105


doug s.

I agree with Doug.

Even if you don't "turn it up" plenty of power is needed to provide a commanding grip on the speakers that is essential to deliver the full dynamic potential of the music (and protect tweeters).  My rule of thumb is that the amp + speaker + room "system" should be capable of reaching peaks of at least 105 dB. 

Your large room, especially if you sit near the far end from the speakers, will require lots of additional power.  OTOH vintage speakers tend to be more efficient if they were built prior to the advent of solid state amps.

[macrojack]

Your room is not "biggish". It is enormous. Unless you have Klipschorns or something equally efficient, you will need a couple of hundred watts of power into conventional 3 ways such as Aerial or Vandersteen in order to listen loud every now and then.
You don't mention a ceiling height but the average listening room is about 300 square feet and yours is 1200.

So you have to do a nearfield setup, get very efficient speakers or forget the receiver idea and go for some reasonably hefty separates. What you are proposing sounds unworkable to me.

[caddisgeek]

If you think it sounds unworkable, you should see the layout, brick walls, big windows......

.....but seriously its not a full on listening room, its a living room (and kitchen, and dining room), with what I hope to be a decent (but not increadible audiophile) stereo. For serious listening, I plan on getting some decent headphones. The plan is to extend the house in a year or two, with a room that I plan to hi-jack as a listening room (when the kids are old enough to co-habit with some high end audio gear). Until then I'll make do with a less than perfect set up and sink my limited disposable cash into vinyl!

Thanks for the advice