ToastedAlmond Posted October 4, 2002 Report Share Posted October 4, 2002 I recently inserted an Onkyo Integra M-506RS power amp into my modest home theater system. It now drives the woofer section of my AR-9's. Rated at 170wpc at 4 ohms, it made a difference. Not a night and day difference, but it seems there is a little less grain in the mids and highs. Not that there is/was a great deal of grain. I am still driving the mids and highs with the power amp section of a Carver "150" receiver. This is purely for space reasons. The large oak piece of furniture holding my components will not support (spacewise) 3 more pieces. I have plenty of preamps, power amps, and a Carver TX-11a tuner, but can't jam all that stuff in there. Oh I could if I wanted, but this room was NOT supposed to be ANOTHER showcase for MY stuff. It was/is supposed to be a family room. I get free reign in my stereo room. Question is: Does anybody know the resistance values for the AR-9's separate sections? Obviously, the woofers are the tough load, requiring a real mans amp. But how about the mids and tweets by themselves? Regarding the Onkyo, I don't think you can find much info on it, as it was a version not introduced into the US. Mid 80's vintage, it is enormous, weighs between 60 and 80 pounds I'd say, and is almost dual mono. It has only one power cord, but has two of everything else. Toasted Almond Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nigel Posted October 4, 2002 Report Share Posted October 4, 2002 Hi TA;Looking at:http://www.arsenal.net/speakers/ar/ar-9/AR...20Schematic.bmpIt appears that the upper section is around 8ohms.The important thing is to match the voltage gain on both for a seemless transition. This is one of the reasons vertical bi-amping is popular.I have a pair of Onkyo TX8500 receivers, dual mono internally, for my 9's. (Should have seen the UPS guy delivering one - 65lbs plus packaging!! The second time, he got out his hand truck.)Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToastedAlmond Posted October 4, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2002 Nigel, Thanks for the response. I guess I'll be looking for another Onkyo in that case. I hear you on the vertical bi-amping. It may prove tough to find another Onk like this one, so I may have to pull a couple of matched Carver amps out of my "magic closet". I don't want to do this for a couple reasons.1. I keep them as spares for my main rig.2. I'm not sure the Carver's have the low impedance capability that the Onks and others may have. They work magic however, with the Carver Amazing Platinum speakers that I employ them with. The one sale I regret at this point, was selling an Adcom GFA-555 right after the Gulf War. It had a lot of grain and hash in the upper areas. I know this amp, and other Adcom's are raved about, especially here on this forum, but there was a synergy that was taking place between the Adcom and my reference speakers that just wasn't cutting it. I did feel that the Adcom would have made a GREAT subwoofer amp. I purchased that Adcom from the gentleman who was (at the time) the senior service tech at Adcom. He has since gone from Adcom to Altec-Lansing, to Aiwa, and is presently at Onkyo. Guess I'll be speaking to him. Toasted Almond Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sean Posted November 7, 2002 Report Share Posted November 7, 2002 Until you can feed a "real" 400+ wpc ( at least ) into the woofers, you'll never know what your 9's are capable of. I found this out the hard way after buying a pair a few years back and learning the hard way. Sean> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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