Hello Folks,

I currently have the following within my HT.

M22s for the front main channel (mounted upside down so that the tweeter is at ear level)

VP150 (on the floor in front of the 70" Samsung's stand, set on the side which tilts the drivers upward)

QS8 used as side surround approx 3 feet above the sitting positions a little further back then the centre of the room

QS4 used as rear surrounds. I didn't mount these on the wall, they are sitting ontop of my dvd cabinets on either side of my equipment rack. They are standing on their end so that the woofers fire sideways and the tweeters are angled, one down towards the listening area and one towards the ceiling (I am guess it will reflect down)

Ok now that I have totally flabergasted everyone with my setup I come to my question. I am pretty sure I don't have enough power currently to bring my speakers to life (yes I know the specs say minimum of 10 watts but I am sure that is not optimal). Currently I have an older Yamaha reciever (RX-V1500)according to the specs "minimum RMS output power for Front, Center, Surround, surround back 20hz to 20khz, 0.04% THD 8ohms is 120watts. However I don't know if this is peak or continous and if it is all channels driven or not.

I am looking at the Emotiva UPA-7 which is 125watts into 8ohms all channels driven (7 channels). However is that enough since most of the speakers above are rated at 400watts. Perhaps I should purchase the XPA-5 at 200watts, then find something else for the rear surrounds. What do you think?

Do you use a subwoofer?

Ah yes, forgot that.

I have an old Yamaha YST SW300 12 inch sub parked in the front corner. Its powered with 185watt sctive servo tech amp (Yamaha's words, Freq Responce 18-160hz. Pretty sure the crossover is set at 80 or 90hz

125 watts of Yamaha power is pretty good, depending on the size of your room, how far you are sitting frm the speakers and how loud you want it to go.

I would expect there to be pleny of power for most listening requirments in most average sized rooms.

paul

I just thought going to a separate amp would make the system sound better in some way. If this is not the case then I won't bother.

An amp amplifies the sound, it should not color the sound unless something is wrong with it.

If you read you the specs of the speakers, they play very loud by only using 1 watt at 1 meter distance.

Wolf, welcome. The first point is to be careful about that "full potential" stuff. Most quality speakers, including the Axioms, have the potential to handle enough power to cause permanent hearing damage. That's one "potential" that we should fail to take advantage of.

Your 1500 had to be rated to comply with FTC regulations, and the specs mean that at least 120 watts are the maximum available for five continuous minutes.

Your Axioms use about 1 watt for a comfortably loud average level in the mid-80s of dBs at a typical listening distance. Brief split-second peaks in the sound use much more, of course, but your 1500 has plenty of headroom for safe listening levels. Buying something with even more headroom would be meaningless; unused headroom is simply that: unused.

If you've "totally flabbergasted everyone", your Axioms certainly have already been brought "to life". Relax and continue your enjoyment.

I would suggest spending that amp money on a new sub like the EP350 or EP500 (or higher) or one from any of the other notable sub companies out there. You would most likely notice much more improvement in SQ this way than with an amp, JohnK covered why.

I agree with Jay. A good sub will add a lot to your movie experience.