Hello everyone!

Well, for the first time tonight, I managed to fire up the very first stage of my new audio system. I picked up an Anthem Statement, A5, a couple of years ago and have been saving my pennies for a new, Anthem pre/pro, until I discovered the 990. So far, with my limited experience with this pre/pro, I can firmly say that I'm very impressed with its powerful features. I’m currently only driving what will be my surround rears, a new pair of Totem Hawks and am also blown away by these speakers. This brings me to my concern.

My plan is to setup the surround system with the following speakers:

Mains: Dahlquist DQ 10's (still waiting for the rebuilds)
Surround Rears: Totem Hawks
Center: Totem, Model one Signature (yet to purchase)
Sub: undecided.

What worries me is that the Totems are extremely efficient, while my DQ 10's are the very opposite, power hungry and inefficient. My question is this: will the 990/Anthem combo manage to balance and smooth out this discrepancy?

Any and all information appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

John

I wouldn't worry about the efficiency mis-match. Keep in mind that with a surround setup, you really need to calibrate the system (either with an SPL meter, an auto setup algorithm like the 990 offers, or both) even if all of the speakers are identical. The 990 offers +/-15dB of adjustment per channel, if I remember correctly (I'm not using more than +/-5dB or so, and at least 3dB of that is because I've got a mix of balanced and unbalanced amp connections). If the Totem is efficient and the Dalhquists are inefficient, you can probably expect to end up with some fairly different trim numbers between the center and the fronts. Once that calibration is done, however, they'll be matched up and it'll be a non-issue.

I think that depends on both the actual sensitivity of the Totems vs. the Dahlquists and your room arrangement. Playing with the remote balance control - less convenient than a simplw balance knob but no OSD needed - I've found you can get over-20db differences by maximum cut in one channel (15db) and boost in the other. That should be enough for any combination of speakers except maybe front-loaded horns (think Klipschorn) and acoustic suspension designs like the old ARs. But others here probably have had more experience.

Thanks Gonk and psyprof1,

it helps to know that I need not worry. There is quite a difference in efficiency between the two types. Perhaps this will be an advantage for the amp, given it has only two toroidal transformers to share amongst all the five channels.

Well, one step at a time. I should have it completed within the next three or four months ... I can't wait. I'm already very pleased.

Again, thanks for the responses.

John