Can anyone share what's the bare minimum you'd go for amplification for this? This is my first set of speakers and I feel really clueless. I understand these are 83 dB so really inefficient, but I'm not sure what's going to be good enough for a living room.
I've seen answers ranging from Loxjie A30 to Crown XL1502. Some people say any old AVR is going to do and some say neither of them will.
Any advice? These are also going to be hooked up to a TV with TOSLINK so I'd rather have something that has a DAC for that but I can separate them if need be.
Any old AVR should do, although they weren't all created equal. The Loxjie may be just enough if you're using these in a small room. The Crown is overkill but there's nothing wrong with that. The reality is that the little 4" woofer in this speaker can only handle so much power, especially if you're asking it to play in the bass region. I would be surprised if this woofer can handle 50 watts before self-destructing.
Skinnyq,
Tim provides good information, but I worry that you will miss out on your "audio joy" over concerns about his post.
Don't let the "50 watt limit" statement scare you too much!
Some things to help you understand where I am coming from:
The relationship between volume and Sound Pressure Level (SPL - how loud it is) is not linear. Rather it takes a doubling of wattage to gain 3dB in sound level.
1) I have listened to these speakers in a normal sized living room at room filling (but not blasting) levels without any hint of problems.
2) I'd suggest you start playing them and work the volume up to levels slightly above what you would normally consider your maximum listening level. Pay close attention to the sound (especially bass) and see if you start to hear distortions (which indicate you are pushing the limits). The idea is to establish that they can play cleanly to the level you want and, if not, establish how loud you can play them.
3) How far you are from the speakers in a major factor in how loud you are likely to want to play them. I have played them at 8' away from my listening position at the volumes I like to listen, but you may prefer louder volume levels or if you listen to music like DubStep with lots of heavy bass or music with "the Club Sound" (exaggerated bass) you could over-load the woofers!
4) If you add a subwoofer and apply a High Pass Filter (HPF) to the speakers at 80 or 100Hz, you will be unloading the most taxing signals from the speakers and the max SPL before distortion will increase for these speakers. I would recommend the Dayton Audio SUB1200 as a very good budget option but still runs around $150. Here is a good review of subs from Brent Butterworth, who is one of very few reviewers that I trust to present honest evaluations (and note that he does do CEA measurements, even though he does not make them prominent in his review - he is providing this info to the general public - an audience that is not interested in learning to interpret such measurements).
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-budget-subwoofer/#the-competition
If the SUB1200 is beyond your budget, consider the 10" SUB1000 and, last, the Sony SACS9 Subwoofer is not a bad unit on a strict budget ($100 at BestBuy - with 14 day satisfaction guarantee or also available through Amazon).
5) If you plan to add a subwoofer, I would strongly encourage you to get the Crown amp. The reason is it will allow you to high pass filter (HPF) your mains at 80 or 100Hz (or where ever you set the sub crossover - which is actually a low pass filter for the subwoofer).
6) The Loxjie A50 looks like a nice unit, but it is a little underpowered at 18W into 8 ohms and 40W into 4 ohms. I suspect it would work for a desktop system where the speakers are only 3' away, but I worry about clipping the amp which is more often the reason for speaker failures (drivers have a hard time following the unnatural nature of a clipped signal - typical music is much easier on the drivers).
7) Just to make your life more complicated, you may want to consider the JBL 305P Mk II, which are currently on sale at $100 each. I think powered monitors are very competitive options for quality sound in this price range, and when they have a 33% discount like these do, it is a hard to beat value since you do not need to spend any money on amps.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...9FW0FHgXxJI99rFxL3YaAuayEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...mkii-and-control-1-pro-monitors-review.10811/
My personal experience is these will easily beat the stock Pioneer speakers, but the version that Dennis modified to make the AA's will have some qualities to rival the JBL's. One great thing about the JBL's is they are pretty much bullet-proof as far as overpowering them - JBL tests these speakers to the Nth degree to make sure they will not blow - since they have total control over the design of both drivers and both amps (one for each tweeter and woofer), they can (and have) assign limiters to prevent destructive situations!
