Review Room and Receivers for PA-6F System

The Space Makes All the Difference in Sound

Test Receivers

Powering the PA-6F system is my Arcam AVR-200, a decent quality 80 Watt-per-channel receiver that boasts high current from its Toridal transformer. In 2.0 and 2.1 mode the Arcam slips into a 90 watt-per-channel mode for stereo sound only. I also ran the speakers literally for days on an older Denon AVR-3200. What can I say - Im a sucker for receiver models that start with AVR.

Out of the box, the initial test was to break the speakers in with the Denon. The break-in was a veritable party that started with loud music in the early evening and didnt stop until dawn. The volumes probably never went above 85 db, but the subs own volume control was pushed up a few times to get a feel for how well it could move air in the room. It performed admirably. Although the speakers werent abused, they were certainly stress-tested, and they stayed in that test setup for days, running at lower volumes almost non-stop. Then it was time to put them into my home theater system for some critical listening.

Testing Room

The room in which I was listening is a carpeted one, 30 feet deep by 19 feet wide. The acoustics are quite good. While carpeted, there are wooden walls so the opportunity for acoustic reflections exists - but since the room is large, the speakers arent placed any closer than 1.5 feet from any wall.

The PA-6F front speakers displaced my NHT ST-4 speakers that were being powered by a two channel NAD amp at 100 WPC. The rest of the speakers are powered by the Arcam receiver at 80 WPC. No bi-wiring was used for this test. I calibrated the sound using an analogue Radio Shack dB meter and the Arcam receivers test tones for white noise. When suitable balance and positioning was achieved I commenced with the test.