For the time being, I plan on using whichever receiver I buy with my Kenwood Home Theater in a Box speakers. I know they won't truly show off the 1050 but I need a new receiver and am looking toward the future.

My biggest concern in blowing out or otherwise damaging the speakers. Obviously I'm not that knowledgeable about what causes that sort of thing, otherwise I wouldn't be asking. What does anyone think?

Thanks.

I drove a set of Bose Acoustimass 7's and Model 100's with my Model 1050 for six months or more without damaging them, for what that's worth. Do you have any information on the "power ratings" for the Kenwood speakers? Something like "max power input"? I poked around Kenwood's site some, and couldn't find much in the way of speaker specs for the Home Theater in a Box systems. I did look at some of the speakers that appear to be either similar to or the same as the ones used in most of the HTiaB setups, and they were rated for 60W max (sort of funny since the receivers in the HTiaB sets were typically listed as 100Wx5). If this is accurate, you are probably safe with the 1050 (just don't watch the pod race scene from Phantom Menace at absolute full volume!).

Hope that helps.

Well, it says the peak input power on all 5 speakers is 100 W, so I guess I'll be okay. Since this will be for an apartment, I definitely won't be turning it up to the max.

I'm a little more worried about low frequencies, since it looks like my speakers can only handle 100 Hz or higher. I guess that's just something that would be lost and not anything that'd damage the speakers, right?

Thanks for all the help.

If you're worried about low frequency, there's an easy solution -- the 1050 has some very nice bass management. You can set all of your speakers for small and a 100Hz crossover, and anything lower than 100Hz will be dumped to the LFE output. Aside from avoiding damage, it'll also sound better (the speakers won't be sputtering on 30Hz data).

Would that work without a subwoofer?

I only ask because the HTiaB comes with a crummy, non-powered subwoofer that I don't expect to make the transition.

Ooh, no sub... In that case, all the low freq will disappear. Of course, if your speakers can't handle below 100Hz and there's no sub, that LF is gone anyway. If you can keep the passive sub, you might be able to cook something up (for example -- passive sub with built-in crossover and a pair of speaker input/output, hook the front left and right to the sub and then on to the speakers, make those two large and everything else small -- I'm guessing it's built for something like this). If not, you'll have a hole below 100Hz however you approach it.

Sorry I can't offer any better news than that...

Oh that's cool. I appreciate all the help. My main reason for posting was making sure I can use the speakers I have with the 1050, and I think I feel a lot better about doing that. I'm not used to great LF performance anyway, and since I've only got a DD-ready receiver now (DVD has built-in decoder), the 1050 would give me quite a bit more than I currently have, with room to improve with new speakers/powered subwoofer. I will try using the passive sub method once I make the plunge.

Again, thanks for everything!

[This message has been edited by TimRoo (edited December 05, 2001).]