Boosting power to front speakers

nodger

I have a couple of floorstanders connected to a Sony HTDDW880 6.1 amp, but they seem to be underpowered. The other speakers and subwoofer came with the amp, and are fine.

What are my options in terms of boosting power to the floorstanders (rated 200W, biwireable), assuming that I'd preferrably just use the existing speaker cables as inputs?

Cheers.

johnnyflav

You could always calibrate the system to think that the frounts are further away and then they'll play them louder.

Upgrading the cable you have going to the fronts would also increase their power. Not neccessarily bi-wire, something like 79-strand (€1.40/metre) is very good and will noticeably improve your sound quality.

Doesn't the 890 have an auto calibration, have you tried that?

nodger

johnnyflav wrote: »

You could always calibrate the system to think that the frounts are further away and then they'll play them louder.

Upgrading the cable you have going to the fronts would also increase their power. Not neccessarily bi-wire, something like 79-strand (€1.40/metre) is very good and will noticeably improve your sound quality.

Doesn't the 890 have an auto calibration, have you tried that?

I've tried the autocalibration, but unfortunately it just uses pink noise to judge levels, so it's not too concerned with bass levels. The tweeter and midrange speaker tend to cater for pink noise all right.

I was hoping to avoid having to run new cables, but if that's the best option, I guess I'll just have to tackle it

Thanks for the response

johnnyflav

The 890 might not be the best system to add speakers with bass to. It may not be able to deliver power needed for bass to the speakers.

The claimed power from that amp is far exaggerated from what it actually is. I've got the HT DDW790 and I know that the power is nowhere near the 800W plastered all over it's box.

The new cable will improve matters but not guaranteed to perform miracles.

nodger

johnnyflav wrote: »

The claimed power from that amp is far exaggerated from what it actually is. I've got the HT DDW790 and I know that the power is nowhere near the 800W plastered all over it's box.

I definitely got that impression all right, and suspected as much before I bought it... shame, because otherwise it's a pretty decent box for the price.

I thought I had read somewhere that it's possible to set the frequency at which the amp sends bass to the woofer, so you could balance how much bass gets sent to the other speakers. Searched through the manual and couldn't find it though... must have been a different amp I was thinking about.

Idleater

If you want to specifically up the power to your front two speakers, you could buy a two channel power amp, and use that to drive the speakers.

Assuming of course that you have an "pre-out" capable amp.

johnnyflav

nodger, what you're talking about is the cross-over frequency. I really doubt that feature is on the amp. It's mainly used in seperates systems, where the speakers will all be expected to be of different sizes, makes and capabilites.

I don't know a think about pre- or power-amping though.