Any chance of getting a more powerful Fusion receiver?

[teaman]

I love the way the Fusion receiver seems to be set up but honestly for my rooms I need more power. Any chance of getting something to rival the old Sherbourn SR-120 receiver. Say....125-150 wpc @ 8ohms?...

I don't think it needs to be over engineered just simple, along the lines of the Fusion now available with a larger power supply and output. Would love to see something in the pipeline....insight greatly appreciated!

[pedrocols]

The power rating from the Fusion should be plenty for your Klipsch speakers. The 125wpc will only give you probably no more than 1.5db headroom. I suspect you are talking maybe about the Infinity speakers.

[teaman]

Thanks Pedro. Actually it is for another surround set up for my daughter's room. I am not sure what speakers I will run there, thinking about my Klipsch KSB-3.1's with a KSP-C6 center. They are pretty sensitive but she has a tendency to play loud and I would rather have the headroom and reserve power if she shows it off to friends than to overdrive the receiver.

[Dark Ranger]

Hi Teaman,

Two questions:

1) How many cubic feet is your daughter's room?

2) Does your daughter tend to play stereo content or multichannel music/movies?


The Fusion will do 110 watts, 2 channels driven, into 8 ohms at <0.05% THD. The 65 watt per channel figure is for all channels driven (which rarely occurs with normal music and movies). The AVR will typically deliver more per channel for typical usage. Since Klipsch rates the KSB/KSP series at 94 dB (1w/1m), you're looking at pretty decent volume for stereo sources and will easily hit peak reference levels with plenty of headroom even at 2 meters away.

I would definitely try out the Fusion with your Klipsch setup in her room at spirited levels before writing off the AVR. If for whatever reason she isn't (or you aren't) satisfied, you could add an external amp to handle the mains. That would offload the bulk of the power demands, allowing the AVR to handle surrounds and center quite easily.

[teaman]

Thanks DarkRanger. The receiver I have in her room right now is a Panasonic SA-HE200 which puts out 130wpc @6ohms and feels like it is really at the breaking point to play at anything above moderate levels. In fact the receiver has rave reviews (search for yourself) and works great, just outdated now. No HDMI, old news surround decoder, etc.

When she has friends over, she tends to listen with friends to my Sherbourn SR-120 for movies and is quite happy with it, as am I. Two problems here.

Number one, I can no longer buy these Sherbourn receivers and number two the equivalent of one runs about 2k which I am not spending on her room. Other than the HDMI and old decoder base, this receiver still outperforms most of the new Pioneer, Onkyo, etc....receivers of this day in the $400 range. I bought my FIL an Onkyo HTC model receiver with 6 x 90wpc HDMI receiver about three years ago. The various surround modes are great and the HDMI makes connecting a breeze, however the Panasonic is more musical and actually sounds better for most movies and music. Because of this I am not willing to jump in and grab a new one if I feel it will be a disappointment.

[stiehl11]

Have you looked into a sub for her room? Letting a sub do the heavy lifting while letting the AVR (Fusion or other) would free up wattage for the rest of the speakers so that they can play louder.

[Dark Ranger]

Thanks for the additional info, teaman. I see your predicament.

The days of "bad boy" receivers may have passed. Powerful AVRs like your Sherbourn SR-120 have given way to smaller, lighter boxes with more emphasis on convenience features and whatever is the latest surround codec. I honestly don't know how many Fusion 8100s have been sold, but I was glad Emotiva had this one available. I wasn't looking forward to buying one of the modern "big box" brands simply because they included many features I didn't want, while it lacked the things I did want.

What about giving the SR-120 to your daughter, and then upgrading your system to separates? Something like a UMC-200 + XPA-700.

You might check on eBay for pre-owned SR-120s or check out NAD AVRs, although they could be price-prohibitive.

[teaman]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input. I will have to sit on this one for a bit. I recently sold a Yamaha RX-V2500 here on the lounge that I thought about putting in her room for her, but to be honest with the 55 or so surround modes I knew she would have been totally lost with it all. At least the Panny is straight forward with only a few modes to worry about. Not really sure why these companies think we as consumers want to experience our movies and music in the exact hall or location their sound fields are recorded in. I have never had a craving to listen to Guns N Roses at Madison Square Gardens and such...

[jcam2881]

Jan 2, 2015 3:26:55 GMT -5 teaman said:

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input. I will have to sit on this one for a bit. I recently sold a Yamaha RX-V2500 here on the lounge that I thought about putting in her room for her, but to be honest with the 55 or so surround modes I knew she would have been totally lost with it all. At least the Panny is straight forward with only a few modes to worry about. Not really sure why these companies think we as consumers want to experience our movies and music in the exact hall or location their sound fields are recorded in. I have never had a craving to listen to Guns N Roses at Madison Square Gardens and such...

What are the options if any using the fusion to hook up a chromcast type device? Anyone have an idea .. Like this product for my office/spare room.

[fusioneer]

Chromecast works great. Not sure what you mean in the way of "options", you just plug it into an HDMI port and set it up. It does need separate USB power -- Fusion doesn't have any "MHL" enabled ports to supply power, which is very rare anyway and mostly seen on TVs not receivers -- but otherwise everything works well.

I do wish the Chromecast would listen to the Fusion's commands through HDMI CEC (play/pause/etc on remote) but that's a problem with the Chromecast not the Fusion.