Need advice on how to power RTIa9's

I have the onkyo 809, it is great! However, you will need a nice Emotiva amp to power those bad boys to their full potential. Also, go to the polk forums!

My experience with this Polk line of towers is that they do much better with external amplification. Maybe it would be best to buy a cheaper receiver (Onk 709) and then add the external amp sooner rather than later? If not then I'd go with the 809 - it's a very good receiver, loaded with features.

Cheers,
NM

newegg has the 809 on sale for $650

Wow, killer price on the 809.

To the OP, I've got the 807, two versions earlier of your (or maybe soon to be) 809. I'm pushing a 7.1 with Monitor 70's up front, soon to be upgrading to your 9s. I also have an Emo XPA-3.

With the amp powering the L/C/R, that leave the 807 with plenty of power to handle the rest, I really love the power of my current set up, can't wait for the 9's.

Anyone see problems powering these with a Yamaha - AVENTAGE 1260W 9.2-Ch. 3D Pass-Through A/V Home Theater Receiver RX-A2020BL ?

I have a Onkyo Tx 809 and I had to send it in to get repaired after about 6 months use. The Yamaha A2010BL was on sale at best Buy for about 1k, so I bought it (didn't like having and empty home theater). I liked the amp alot however I didn't like how it worked with my projector set up, seems it would black out for a second or two when changing channels causing the bulb to shut off and on, which I believe would shorten the life of the projector bulb. I would actually cringe when flickinig chanels and after a while only used it for movies where I'm not changing channels.

So after trying it out for about 28 days I took it back to Best Buy. I got my ONkyo back and I like the performance especially in regard to the issue I describe above. Otherwise the two receivers are pretty similar performance wise IMO. Yamaha maybe looks cooler from the front and has a better remote. But I decided I liked the Onkyo enough to return the Yamaha. I just hope it lasts and has no more issues Onkyo did pay for my shipping as I live in Alaska which was nice.

I'm thinking about getting an Emotiva Xm-3 on sale now for 599 to power my RTi A9's and Csi A6 center wondering if this would be a nice upgrade for my system. I like to have extra power and performance when the coast is clear. The 809 would be left to power my Rti A5 surrounds and Monitor 60 rears. Any thoughts on this would be appriciated.

I also built 2 subs in a DIY build that are powered by a Inuke3000. so trying to top off a fairly rock'n system.

Thanks! I went with the Pioneer SC-67 (got it for $1300 from Best Buy) and will be running the RTiA9's on it.

The A9's can take lots of power. I'm currently driving them with an XPA-2 and driving my CSiA6 and FXiA6's with the XPA-3. I was driving the A9's with the XPA3 but they sounded better, quite noticeably better, when I upgraded the amp by 100w.

Are you just doing one channel per tower (speakers in tower bridged)? Are you running any LFE to them? I just got an SC-67 and am not sure if 140 watts is good enough (still in the process of figuring it out)