Question about Anthem Amp

[Youthman]

A forum member offered to trade his Anthem MCA-2 (185 x 2) for my RB-35's. According to him, the amp is 10/10 with original box and manual.

I've heard of Anthem but no nothing about them. I should find out in a day or two whether a forum member's XPA-3 is going to be available for me to purchase. My original thought was to use the XPA-3 for RB-83's and RC-64 and use the Yamaha to drive the RS-35's. If I got the Anthem, it would power the RS-52's.

Do you think this would be a good trade or should I pass on the deal?

Would I hear any difference between the Yamaha only powering the RS-52's and the Anthem powering them?

[jrod]

Youth,

From what I've seen from doing a little research, that seems like a good deal (for you). I've been seeing that amp go for b/w 500 and 800 bucks. Since you're trying to get $350 out of your 35's, I'd say that's a good deal.

All that said, I've never heard an Anthem or your RB-35's, for that matter. I'm giving you a strict cost/benefit analysis. Like you always say....... could you get $350 out of that amp??? I think so.

[kyle bermingham]

Youth,

I have 200 wpc Aragons powering my speakers with a Yamaha receiver as preamp. I have different amps powering the fronts and rears. If you want to take a drive north, you can listen to the difference the amps make. It wouldn't be too difficult, we could switch it to the receiver powering the rears so you can see what the difference is.

I have not heard an Anthem amplifier, but, as I'm sure you know, their reputation is great. I would make the trade. Regardless, when you do get amps, you will be ecstatic, especially when hearing the difference it will make on your RF-83s.

[Rich_Guy]

Youth,

There is a comparison thread over at the Emotiva forum http://emotivalounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=amps&action=display&thread=9458

Not exactly the same models you're interested in but still an informative thread you can read of Anthem/Emotiva comparisons.

[100dB]

Anthem produces quality gear. The Paradigm Active Reference 20s were my nearfield monitors in my studio for many years, and their "innards" were all Anthem (Paradigm's sister company). I should think you'd enjoy the Anthem gear. BTW, this my first post of any kind here, and I look forward to getting to know you all!

[Youthman]

Thanks guys. Rich guy, I checked out the comparison thread, interesting read. The Anthem he was comparing is a newer model of the 200 x 2 amp. Not sure what difference the older model was vs the newer one.

[Bill H.]

I believe that Emotiva will transfer the Warranty ...................Anthem makes good Amps .

So if you got the Emotiva, you'd still need to sell the speakers. If you did the trade for the Anthem, you get rid of equipment you no longer need.................

Good Luck.

[Rich_Guy]

I believe that Emotiva will transfer the Warranty ...................Anthem makes good Amps .

So if you got the Emotiva, you'd still need to sell the speakers. If you did the trade for the Anthem, you get rid of equipment you no longer need.................

Good Luck.

Yes the Emotiva comes with a 5 year warranty that is transferable to the new owner if sold.

If you buy the Anthem you will still need the XPA-3, I think you are better off either just getting the XPA-3 and letting your receiver handle the surrounds or getting an XPA-5 if you want an amp to power the surrounds in 5.1.

P.S. The XPA-3 with the receiver handling just the surrounds works great and the surrounds get quite a boost when the receiver no longer needs to power the front three. I wouldn't worry about an amp for the surrounds unless you want to replace your receiver with a stand alone processor.

[jrod]

Don't mean to hijack your thread Youth, but I have a simple question for Rich:

Did/does your Onkyo run hot? Does it run cooler since you have your front soundstage ran by the Emotiva?

[Rich_Guy]

Don't mean to hijack your thread Youth, but I have a simple question for Rich:

Did/does your Onkyo run hot? Does it run cooler since you have your front soundstage ran by the Emotiva?

Yes by nature I think all Onkyo's run hot and I don't think that adding the Emotiva reduced the temp. Onkyo's run hot but it really does not hurt them as long as they have good ventilation. You need a good amount of space above them (min of about 1 1/2") never set anything else directly on top of them.

My Emotiva runs very cool, barely even getting warm at all.

[Youthman]

So if you got the Emotiva, you'd still need to sell the speakers. If you did the trade for the Anthem, you get rid of equipment you no longer need.................

This is true. And if I didn't see the benefit of using the Anthem with the RS-52's, I could always resell the Anthem. No loss, only information gained.

If you buy the Anthem you will still need the
XPA-3

Technically, I don't "need" either of them. [] The trade for the Anthem for my RB-35's would be more out of curiosity than a necessity. I definitely don't think my RS-52's "need" a separate amp. If my Yamaha is fully capable of driving all 5 speakers now, I can't help but think it won't break a sweat if all it has to worry about is the surrounds.

[Rich_Guy]

If you buy the Anthem you will still need the
XPA-3

Technically, I don't "need" either of them. The trade for the Anthem for my RB-35's would be more out of curiosity than a necessity. I definitely don't think my RS-52's "need" a separate amp. If my Yamaha is fully capable of driving all 5 speakers now, I can't help but think it won't break a sweat if all it has to worry about is the surrounds.

I just meant that I know you have been wanting an amp for the front 3 and as you said the Anthem would be used for your surrounds, so if you got the Anthem you would need the front 3 amp even more.

Also I wanted to point out that just as the XPA-3 was a very nice improvement for my front 3, removing the front 3 from my receiver made the same improvement to my surrounds. So getting the XPA-3 was a plus plus situation and didn't make things uneven at all.

[Youthman]

I just meant that I know you have been wanting an amp for the front 3 and as you said the Anthem would be used for your surrounds, so if you got the Anthem you would need the front 3 amp even more.

Gotcha.

Also I wanted to point out that just as the XPA-3 was a very nice improvement for my front 3, removing the front 3 from my receiver made the same improvement to my surrounds. So getting the XPA-3 was a plus plus situation and didn't make things uneven at all.

That's what I thought would happen, most have suggested this in the past which was my original plan. I just happened to have an offer to trade my RB-35's for the Anthem amp so I figured I would check into it to see if it was a good trade. Regardless, I've already committed to buy the XPA-3 so that is a non-issue.

[willland]

Don't mean to hijack your thread Youth, but I have a simple question for Rich:

Did/does your Onkyo run hot? Does it run cooler since you have your front soundstage ran by the Emotiva?

Jrod,

I don't mean to hijack your hijacking but here is an awesome solution to your Integra heat issue. I have one of these coolant fans and it has kept my Onkyo TX-SR705 15-20 degrees cooler than before. Also, I have heard that the processors in the receiver create more heat than the internal amps. With that said, when I added my B&K amp, it did run even cooler.

http://www.buyextras.com/evavcoblfanf.html

Michael, no $$$ out of pocket, you purge unwanted gear, and you get an amp as a bonus. Do it.

Bill

[peshewah]

Wonder why he wants to get rid of his amp?

[Youthman]

Michael, no $$$ out of pocket, you purge unwanted gear, and you get an amp as a bonus. Do it.

Too funny. I'm considering it. I PM'd the seller this morning, haven't heard back from him yet.

[clermontcop]

Michael you and I both know that it is not the amp you want. Lets see what happens tomorrow, if things dont work out on my end I still may consider giving you that deal. Way to go there Bill.

[Rich_Guy]

Michael, no $$$ out of pocket, you purge unwanted gear, and you get an amp as a bonus. Do it.

But the thing is if you want the 2 extra channels for the surrounds you can get the Emotiva XPA-5 instead of the XPA-3 since the difference is only $200, this would be less money than trading your speakers if you sell the speakers for what you are asking ($350 wasn't it?) So I think if you want the 5 channels get an XPA-5 instead of an XPA-3, this will give you a complete match and more power for the surrounds, rather than having 2 amps that don't exactly match..

[Youthman]

Michael you and I both know that it is not the amp you want. Lets see what happens tomorrow, if things dont work out on my end I still may consider giving you that deal.

Regardless if I traded for the Anthem, I already committed to buying your XPA-3. I'm a man of my word. I'm excited for you and me. I hope it works out for both of us. As I mentioned before, if it doesn't work out on your end, I don't want you to feel obligated to sell me your amp. If you need it, keep it. Another one will come along for me. That's the great part about being patient.

I would rather have the XPA-5 but reality tells me that the XPA-3 will be just fine. My guess is that the XPA-5 is mainly for bragging rights. [] I could be wrong since I've never owned an amp myself.

I'm actually hoping the XPA-3 will increase the quality of my 2ch. I really need to add some acoustic treatment to my room to to help tame the echo. Lots of hard surfaces there.

[Youthman]

you can get the Emotiva XPA-5 instead of the XPA-3 since the difference is only $200

This would be true if I was buying a new amp.