would it be overkill to put the epic60 w/ep500 system in a basement that is 13 x 19 with 8' ceiling and what would be a decent receiver to go with it?

That would be a great system for that space, there are many good receivers out there, did you have a budget in mind?

Hi and welcome golfguy. I wouldn't consider it overkill at all if you like to 'turn it up' occasionally. I have an Epic 80 / EP500 in a smaller area than that, and love it. The M60's are an easy load for any quality receiver you choose to drive. Just choose the bells and whistles you like and go with it!

i would prefer to spend less than $1,000 and it wouldn't care if it had hdmi. it seems like most receivers don't do hdmi very well from what i've read. and i do like to turn it up.

As Spoiler said get a receiver with the features you like, alot of great receivers out there for less than $1000, I like Denon, but that's my preference. As far as the Hdmi Imho I thinks it's best to go straight from your DVD to your TV without going through the receiver.

Welcome golfguy.

I have my setup in a similar room.

There is no such thing as overkill, IMHO. I don't like the word adequate either!

Lot's of good receiver choices out there including refurbs and B-stock.

I have a Marantz 7500 for a similar system. It's my preference. I was able to get it under $1000.

First off, most of us would never claim overkill even if you put M80s in a shoe box.

I have a little bit bigger room with just M60s atm and they are much more than powerful enough.

OTOH, you never know when you might move some day and need to run your system in a larger room and want to upgrade to M80s.

Therefore I think the Denon 3805 might be the ticket. Best prices on the net are under $800. The Denon 3805 runs 4ohm speakers very well.

If you are sure you're never going to go up to a 4ohm speaker the RX-V2500 Yammy is a good choice and you can get them now for under $600.

I own the RX-2500 and I'm very happy with it, but would of liked the option to upgrade to the M80s some day.

I picked up the Denon 3805 from Best Buy(Magnolia) in Chicago this week for $699. New in the box.

Wow, great buy on a great receiver.

Welcome GolfGuy73

Sorry I can't help ya much, my system is in a larger room and I could not be more happy. I'm sure it would work fine in a smaller room as well, just don't have gain on the 500 to high, your you may find that your smaller room becomes suddenly larger.

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If you are sure you're never going to go up to a 4ohm speaker the RX-V2500 Yammy is a good choice and you can get them now for under $600.

I own the RX-2500 and I'm very happy with it, but would of liked the option to upgrade to the M80s some day.

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interesting, can you give more info about the yammy not running the 4ohm m80's? reason I ask is cause I am stuck between going with the m60's and m80's and the yammy rx-v2500 is the receiver I have as well. I have gotten some comment in another thread that my reciever would drive them with no problem. So any and all info from someone that has the same receiver would be much appreciated. thanks

Here is a quote from an audioholics review on the subject. Basically you can do it if you don't play too loud I guess, but it does sound a bit doggy to me.

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Driving 4 ohm loads is certainly not the RX-V2500’s forte, but it did a commendable job considering. It was able to deliver 200wpc with one channel driven and about 110wpc with 2 channels driven unclipped. Initially I cranked more power out under these test conditions from 20Hz to about 15kHz but then found major slew induced distortion at higher frequencies followed by a rapid shut down of the receiver. This is very good news actually since the amplifier automatically shuts down once bandwidth uniformity has been compromised for being driven too hard and is a good preventative measure for protecting both the amplifiers and the loudspeakers. This shouldn’t be a real world problem because at high frequencies very little power is being delivered to the speaker system since music is mostly harmonic in nature above 13kHz or so. The real power demand is in the bass and in most home theater systems a dedicated subwoofer or two is used to alleviate this problem.



Considering this, I backed off on the Yammie until I had a pristine unclipped waveform at 20kHz to come up with the measurements published herein. It should also be noted that anytime I drove 4 ohm loads at full power, the fan came on shortly after. I caution those using 4 ohm speakers to make sure you have plenty of ventilation and airflow.





Recommendations



The Yamaha RX-V2500 has respectable amplifier performance for a receiver in its price class and should serve most home theater environments quite well. I advise against using low efficient 4 ohm speakers in environments where you like to play your music loudly and your room dimensions exceed 2000 ft^3. For best results, my advice is to use reasonably efficient (88dB or higher) 6-8 ohm speakers (4 ohm may be used if their efficiency is 90dB or greater and you provide adequate ventilation) and apply bass management to all channels and route the power hungry bass information to a dedicated subwoofer or two. If you find you need more power in the future, simply preamp out to a dedicated amp and you have yourself a great processor with all the latest surround formats on board.

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Tuff call.

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