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What is the difference between a receiver and an amp?


Kain

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A receiver (at least with two-channel gear) usually consists of a pre-amp section, a power amp section and a radio tuner. With home theater (not my area of knowledge), a receiver has a pre-amp section, an amp section, maybe a radio tuner, and some kind of multi-channel processor.

Separate components (pre and power) are supposed to be more faithful to the music or less susceptible to noise than receivers, but I'm not sure if home theater gear has too many separates options.

By the way, a box with just the pre-amp and the power amp in it (without the radio tuner) is commonly referred to as an integrated amp.

Peace!!

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May the bridges we burn light our way....

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Amplifier: usually has one input. Speakers connect to amplifier. Accepts "line level" signal from preamp, amplifies it, and powers the speakers. Has no other function (no volume control, balance control, etc.).

Preamplifier: "control center" of stereo system. Accepts multiple inputs (tuner, tape deck, record player, CD player, etc.) Has ability to control volume, and may also have controls for balance, bass level, treble level, "loudness" contour, phase reversal, mono/stereo selector, etc. Preamps used in surround sound (home theater) setups also have ability to set levels of front L/C/R vs rears vs subwoofer, various types of signal processing (dolby, dolby digital, DTS, bass management, etc.). Preamp may also server as digital to analog converter either for multi-channel DVD, DVD-A or SACD discs as well as traditional CD.

Receiver: combination of amplifier and preamplifier with a tuner thrown in for good measure.

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Music is art

Audio is engineering

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modern reciever, particularly the better models, will have pre-amp outputs on the back, what that means is that you can get a 5.1 reciever now, maybe one with good specs but not a lot of power, and then buy a seperate amp later to drive either or main speakers or your rear ones, the pre-amp outputs on the back bypass the amp in the receiver and send the signal to the amps,

modern TVs, since you asked this in the HT section, have a monitor (the screen) usually a TV tuner for the signal, amplifier for the speakers and built in speakers, which can often be switched off or bypassed, so in a sense, modern TVs have a form of reciever in them ...

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Cornwalls, Bottlehead 2A3 Paramours, Dynaco II, Rotel, KSW200 & LF10

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what would you call an amp, pre-amp, and a mackerel?

tss,tss, cha-boomp! Smile.gif

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1-pair klf 30's

c-7 center

sony strda-777ES receiver

NEW! sony playstation 2!

dishnetwork model 7200 dishplayer satellite receiver/digital bitstream recorder

pioneer dvd player

sharp 35"tv

panamax max dbs+5 surge protector/power conditioner

monster cable interconnects/12 gua.speaker wire

surrounds and a 'teens sub coming!

KLIPSCH-So Good It Hz!

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if you were to check sound levels of that receiver, would you use 'sea'weighted setting? (ok-that's a stretch) Smile.gif

------------------

1-pair klf 30's

c-7 center

sony strda-777ES receiver

NEW! sony playstation 2!

dishnetwork model 7200 dishplayer satellite receiver/digital bitstream recorder

pioneer dvd player

sharp 35"tv

panamax max dbs+5 surge protector/power conditioner

monster cable interconnects/12 gua.speaker wire

surrounds and a 'teens sub coming!

KLIPSCH-So Good It Hz!

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