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Amp to drive AR-9 Speakers

Paul1979

Paul1979

New Member
Hi All,

I have a friend who has a set of fantastic AR-9 speakers. I know they require a very powerful amp to drive them and her Pioneer amp has just died. Would a Yamaha RX V1000 5.1 Channel 500 Watt Receiver be adequate to drive the AR-9's? If not what would be recommended?

Cheers,
Paul
 
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I would never attempt to drive AR9s with a home theater receiver. What Pioneer was she using before?
 
Thanks for the advice Carl, I thought as much although at 500watt I thought there might be a chance. She has a Pioneer SX-1980 and has been quoted $1000 to repair.
 
Bummer on the 1980. Folks here may be able to point you guys in a more cost effective direction if possible on that.
the 9's are one of the most demanding speakers ever and it can be difficult to get what they are capable of doing out of them. If you dont have enough amp, you will hurt both the amp and the speakers likely. My bet is the AR9's took out the Pioneer.

She needs an amp capable of driving them. Look for an Adcom GFA555 or GFA5500. It wont break the bank and will power the 9's well. Not sure if teh probem with teh Pioneer is in teh amp section but it may be able to be used as a preamp. Again, others may chime in on that idea too.
 
That Yamaha RVX 1000 might put out 80 watts per channel on a good day. AR9s would eat it for breakfast, and probably kill the tweeters doing so. Take the biggest PA power amp you can find, and then buy two of them. You might then have enough power to drive AR9s properly.
 
Drugolf said:
Bummer on the 1980. Folks here may be able to point you guys in a more cost effective direction if possible on that.
the 9's are one of the most demanding speakers ever and it can be difficult to get what they are capable of doing out of them. If you dont have enough amp, you will hurt both the amp and the speakers likely. My bet is the AR9's took out the Pioneer.

She needs an amp capable of driving them. Look for an Adcom GFA555 or GFA5500. It wont break the bank and will power the 9's well. Not sure if teh probem with teh Pioneer is in teh amp section but it may be able to be used as a preamp. Again, others may chime in on that idea too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the steer on Adcom GFA555 or GFA5500. Will look into it for her
 
tarior said:
That Yamaha RVX 1000 might put out 80 watts per channel on a good day. AR9s would eat it for breakfast, and probably kill the tweeters doing so. Take the biggest PA power amp you can find, and then buy two of them. You might then have enough power to drive AR9s properly.
Click to expand...
Just realized that in addition to her SX-1980 she is also running a external power amp.
 
The last pair of AR9s that I had, were driven by a Sansui G-9000 and a Denon POA 2400A for the top and bottom end respectively. It sounded pretty good, but I could tell that they would have liked even more.
 
Before i went all tube I owned a mint pair of AR-9's ,all original when bought but I had to do a refoam on them but they were my mains for many yrs.I used a ton of different amps and even recievers over the yrs on them.As far as recievers I used early on the one that stood out was a fully recapped Rotel rx-1603 180 wpc and it could handle 4 ohms,also used a pioneer sx1250.
But they should really be driven by hi-powered seperates
I moved on from driving them with recievers and started using HK citation 16A amp then bought a second to biamp the 9's.This pairing with a HK citation1 preamp,Enjoyed many yrs.
Finally ended up with two class H Soundcraftsmen MA-5002 amps biamping the 9's,these are powerfull yet still retain a clean presentation at high volumes.
some suggestions from a AR-9 owner that figured he'd never sell them back in the day..
good luck with your search

hunter
 
I'm going to second used Adcom or class d PA power amps as being the most cost effective way to give them the power they need. The Yamaha rating of 500 watts has to be taken with an earth sized grain of salt. Probably rated at 4 ohms@1khz for a millisecond. The AR's would eat them for breakfast.
 
PA power amps yes. Class D, no. Class D amps sound like ****, IMO. They're acceptable for driving subwoofers, but that's about it.
 
I run the Mighty Nines - and use a Pass X150.5 - 300 watts into four ohms - and the Nines like the power. Plus I cut the big 2500 uF cap off the bass crossover - so my impedance drops to < 2 ohms in the bass - and the Pass powers them without any problems. Pass amps are very powerful - more so than rated.

Try the secondary market - or Audiogon - or Reno HiFi for good deals on used Pass equipment.

Prior to the Pass I ran Odyssey Audio Khartago Mono blocs - while the Odyssey is a darn fine sounding amplifier it just did not have the power necessary for the Nines. Would get hard sounding if I turned the volume up.
 
Acurus A250s and their bigger brothers from Aragon, any of the bigger Adcom's, or Sumo amps. Heck, even Hafler DH-500 amps, should do OK. None of these would be too expensive to pick up. Heck, I use a baby 70 watt Amber Series 70 amp on my AR90's without issue. But, I don't crank.

Some do!!! :rockon:
 
Paul1979 said:
Just realized that in addition to her SX-1980 she is also running a external power amp.
Click to expand...

Then she's probably using the Pioneer as a preamp. What power amp is she using and does it still work? If it does, you could just buy a preamp.
 
Paul1979 said:
Thanks for the advice Carl, I thought as much although at 500watt I thought there might be a chance. She has a Pioneer SX-1980 and has been quoted $1000 to repair.
Click to expand...

The RX-V1000, like my RX-V800, is rated at 100 watts per channel. There are 5 channels. It's not a 500 watt receiver. I still would not use it to drive the AR-9s. I'm curious to find out if the Pioneer SX-1980 is being used as a preamp, bypassing the amp section..
 
I had for a short time this summer a Yamaha P2201 which is the pro version of the P2200. 230 wpc and capable of 4 ohm loads. I thought it sounded really sweet. It wasn't mine, was selling it for charity, and after it left for another AKer, I find the QSC pro amp I replaced it with does not sound that great. Wish I had sold the Yammie to myself.
 
A friend swears the McIntosh MC2300 brought out the best out of his AR9 like nothing else.
 
I run my AR-90s with Threshold amps. I got into stereos since my friends dad had AR-9s run by an SX-1280. That 1980 shouldn't have died. Probably needed a recap a long time ago. I do agree on running seperates on them them though. Lots of current and stable.
 
Malarkey. The Yamaha RXV-1000 would power the AR9 just fine. 100 wpc is more than enough power, unless you'll be blasting the bejesus out of these speakers at volume levels that will punish your neighbors. Yamaha amps are quite capable, very well made, and can drive low ohm loads. Go ahead and try it out!
 
I drive my AR-9s with a Yamaha M-80 power amp. They do like significant power to wake them up, and the M-80 does that quite well. Make sure that the M-80 or M-85 has been fully restored before pushing with one.

Enjoy,
Rich P
 
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