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Speaker/amp advice?

Bunthana

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My folks and I are planning on upgrading from my headphones and clock radio to full-fledged speakers and an amp. I'm planning on getting either the Klipsch R820F or the 620F.
I was looking at a dirt-cheap vintage Denon integrated amp from 1995, but eBay says the sale has ended. Ditto a vintage A-7 that would have been $300.
I'm willing to buy new, used, or vintage, as long as the price and quality suit my needs. Our budget will probably be <$400, probably $300.
I've found two that look interesting:
Onkyo A-8067
Onkyo A-9010

820 specs:
600W peak (150 RMS)
Dual 8-inch woofers
1" tweeter
Two-way
35Hz - 21kHz
97db sensitivity
8 ohms impedance

620 specs:
400W peak (100 RMS)
Dual 6 1/2" woofers
1" tweeter
Two-way
38Hz - 21kHz
96db sensitivity
8 ohms impedance

I'm happy with either speaker. As per the current sale (ends Saturday), the 620 (not part of the sale) is $80 more. Again, I'm not 100 percent certain of my budget, but <$400 is a good estimate. Would any of these be a good combination? How much power do I need? My headphones are similarly efficient and are pretty easy to drive. My cheap computer speakers, on the other hand, take more effort. I have other headphones that are almost impossible to drive.
Both speakers are on backorder at Klipsch.com, only 1 820 is left at Best Buy, and Crutchfield is expecting any until March. eBay has the 820, though, for $250, and the 620 for $149.99.
Thanks in advance.
 

andreasmaaan

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I would expect both speakers to sound quite similar, although it's impossible to say without measurements.

Since both speakers have a crossover frequency of 2kHz and a 90° horn, I would expect the R620F to have wider horizontal dispersion than the R820F at the upper end of the woofer's operating range, and therefore a smoother transition from the woofer to the tweeter at the crossover point (it's unlikely that the the 8" woofer maintains 90° dispersion all the way up to 2kHz). But that's just speculation - measurements are needed to say anything definitively.

The larger speaker will of course play lower and with lower distortion in the bass, although Klipsch's spec says the difference in bass extension is only 35Hz vs 38Hz, and does not say whether this is the -3, -6, or -10dB point (therefore implying it is the -10dB point, most likely).
 

BillG

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How much power do I need?

Both of those speakers are very efficient, meaning it won't take much power to drive them to ear splitting volume.

Just plugging in the rated sensitivity of the lesser one, I got a value of ~103 dB (that's very loud) at 15 feet away when using 50 watts without any sound reinforcement from the walls taken into account:

http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

If you'd like to save yourself some money on the amp, I'd keep it Klipsch with this (it's a good value at that price) - it has the added bonus of streaming technology built-in:

https://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-PowerGate-Amplified-Wireless-Gateway/dp/B01N0A7PH5

P.S. The analog inputs are cleaner than the digital ones, according to a performance analysis done by this site. However, in real world usage one probably won't hear the difference - I don't on my own... :cool:
 
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