Driving T2/C2 w/ Denon AVR

[bigsteve]

Hi, first post on the forum. I am relatively naive in the whole AV arena, and looking for a little advice.

I am currently in the market for a set of L/R towers and a center channel as part of a 5.1 set up in my dedicated home theater (roughly 20 x 14ft). Already have in wall rear surrounds in place, and an SVS PB12 NSD sub and Denon AVR X3400H will complete the set up.

My question is whether or not the Denon will be able to sufficiently drive the T2 and C2, or whether I will need to add an additional amplifier. These will mostly be used for movies and occasional music. I may crank up the volume from time to time, but by and large the music listening will be done at sensible levels.

FWIW I posed this question to an audiophile friend of mine, and he seemed to think the  Denon will be able to drive them fine at reasonable levels. But I wanted to pose the question to a broader audience and see if anyone has had success with a similar set up.

Thanks and appreciate any feedback.

[doc1963]

Dec 13, 2017 14:50:01 GMT -5 bigsteve said:

Hi, first post on the forum. I am relatively naive in the whole AV arena, and looking for a little advice.

I am currently in the market for a set of L/R towers and a center channel as part of a 5.1 set up in my dedicated home theater (roughly 20 x 14ft). Already have in wall rear surrounds in place, and an SVS PB12 NSD sub and Denon AVR X3400H will complete the set up.

My question is whether or not the Denon will be able to sufficiently drive the T2 and C2, or whether I will need to add an additional amplifier. These will mostly be used for movies and occasional music. I may crank up the volume from time to time, but by and large the music listening will be done at sensible levels.

FWIW I posed this question to an audiophile friend of mine, and he seemed to think the  Denon will be able to drive them fine at reasonable levels. But I wanted to pose the question to a broader audience and see if anyone has had success with a similar set up.

Thanks and appreciate any feedback.

First... Welcome to the Emotiva Lounge...!!!

Your friend is correct. As long as you're listening at reasonable levels, the X3400 can handle them just fine.

A word of advice, if you will, always set the "speaker impedance" in the X3400 setup menu to 8 ohms (even if they're not) and NEVER use the "Eco Mode". Both will limit the full capabilities of the internal amps.

[doc1963]

Here a LINK to an Audioholics review of the X3300 (the 2016 version of yours) which verifies what I've stated above.

The great thing is, because everyone will likely want to sell you on a "big" amp (and there are good reasons to do so), you have an excellent preamp output stage. So, plenty of room to grow if needed...

[bigsteve]

Dec 13, 2017 15:52:07 GMT -5 doc1963 said:

Dec 13, 2017 14:50:01 GMT -5 bigsteve said:

Hi, first post on the forum. I am relatively naive in the whole AV arena, and looking for a little advice.

I am currently in the market for a set of L/R towers and a center channel as part of a 5.1 set up in my dedicated home theater (roughly 20 x 14ft). Already have in wall rear surrounds in place, and an SVS PB12 NSD sub and Denon AVR X3400H will complete the set up.

My question is whether or not the Denon will be able to sufficiently drive the T2 and C2, or whether I will need to add an additional amplifier. These will mostly be used for movies and occasional music. I may crank up the volume from time to time, but by and large the music listening will be done at sensible levels.

FWIW I posed this question to an audiophile friend of mine, and he seemed to think the  Denon will be able to drive them fine at reasonable levels. But I wanted to pose the question to a broader audience and see if anyone has had success with a similar set up.

Thanks and appreciate any feedback.

First... Welcome to the Emotiva Lounge...!!!

Your friend is correct. As long as you're listening at reasonable levels, the X3400 can handle them just fine.

A word of advice, if you will, always set the "speaker impedance" in the X3400 setup menu to 8 ohms (even if they're not) and NEVER use the "Eco Mode". Both will limit the full capabilities of the internal amps.

Good to know. Thanks.

Looks like I will go ahead with the T2’s and C2.

Just need to settle on a projector and screen and I should be good to go.

[kuky]

You cannot set speaker impedance on x3400h.

I just tested my x3400h with T1 and C2 and it works just fine. But I recommend to have a subwoofer.

I will try to see what a Parasound A21 can add for those T1.

[b1pilot]

I setup my new T2s, C2, and E2s on Monday. Until my XPA 3.1s amp arrives this weekend, they are all being driven by my Denon AVR. Mine is an older 38008Ci (in 2008 it was a $1600 preamp, early 7.1 w 130W/ch advertised). It is a bit anemic but seems to do fine pushing the T-2s with a powered sub in the mix. My wife gets annoyed with the sound above -30dB in the space where we have them. I think it will sound better once I amp up and use the Denon solely as a pre processor.

The speakers -- well, the speakers sound just great.

[doc1963]

Dec 14, 2017 20:15:09 GMT -5 kuky said:

You cannot set speaker impedance on x3400h.

I just tested my x3400h with T1 and C2 and it works just fine. But I recommend to have a subwoofer.

I will try to see what a Parasound A21 can add for those T1.

Sure you can. From page 36 of the owners manual...

1. Press and hold the main unit’s ZONE2 SOURCE and STATUS at the same time for at least 3 seconds. (“V.Format:< NTSC>” appears on the display. )
2. Press DIMMER on the main unit three times. (“Sp.Imp.:<8ohms>” appears on the display.)
3. Press TUNER PRESET CH + or TUNER PRESET CH - on the main unit to select the impedance.
4. Press the main unit’s STATUS to complete the setting.

Typically, you make this selection during the initial setup (and never see it again), but you can manually change it afterwards. 8 ohms is the “default” setting and, if you didn’t change it during the initial setup, you likely don’t need to worry about it. If in doubt, use the procedure posted above to check your settings.

Hope this helps...