bismarck Posted September 18, 2006 Author Share Posted September 18, 2006 I am now out of my range of knowledge. I know reciever brands and can easily pickout differences in recievers but I have never dealt with seperate amps. Is there a I site I can go to that will give me the basics on what to look for in a seperate amp, what brands are good etc.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunburnwilly Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 To keep in my budget could I power my center and surround with a reciever and just use a sperate amp for my mains using the pre outs on my reciever? or would the main sound different since they are being powered by a different amp than the rest of my speakers?Will your mains sound different ? "Yes they will !" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Cars and Recievers and Amps...........NEVER HAVE ENOUGH POWER.....that will get me in trouble.............MORE POWER STOPS CLIPPING.......it's all opinion....SS guys feel one way.........Tube guys will tell you 20 watts per is plenty..........Many opinions on this forum............Only your ears will tell you what is right..........Me, I run 100 watts per, wish I had 200 watts per.........It never stops.......75 watts running Khorns is different than 75 watts running Heresys......YES???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 'clean' watts are just watts. It's all about headroom and having extra wattage for the peaks and not drive into clipping. Watts are watts. Ample power supply and accurate ratings give more watts. But there are no clean watts and dirty watts. (assuming THD to be within reason) Just more watts. Get enough watts to do the job, without clipping, without overheating. M Dirty watts...the amps found in kmost low cost receivers trying to drive five speakers presenting each a 4Ohm load.Result is anemic and amp stress can be heard when you push the volume. on the oppositre side of the spectrum you have... Clean watts... massive Bryston monoblocks driving the same speakers,now you have not only the headroom but the amps do not even begin to break a sweat and their damping is so far beyond the POS receiver you can hear vastly better control in the bass(where damping counts). Do not tell me there are just watts,totally false.This may be almost true with large vintage Klipsch speakers as they are easy to drive and need so little power to play at ear tear levels.Not stressing even the low end cheapo amp. But even then a higher quality amp will have a positive effect on sound quality. It is one thing to say the expensive wiring has little effect on the sound and is mostly waste and compare this with an amp.An amp has major influence on sound quality,unless the speakers one uses are total garbage(compost filler). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 I am now out of my range of knowledge. I know reciever brands and can easily pickout differences in recievers but I have never dealt with seperate amps. Is there a I site I can go to that will give me the basics on what to look for in a seperate amp, what brands are good etc.. Is the amp capable of handling a low impedance load? From 8 ohm to 4ohm does it at least double up on the peak wattage? ( important I think) Just because an amp claims it has high current it may not be all that high. This is from a rotel brochure and makes perfectly good sense. "High dynamic power, and therefore high dynamic current, is of little benefit without great linearity. Many manufactures claim bold figures for peak or instantaneous current without specifying the duration of the peak or how distorted the signal. After all, an amplifier that can deliver 20A of current at <1% cannot fairly be compared to another that suffers 10% or more at the same output." Look for low THD ratings with all channels driven throughout the entire frequency range of hearing. A high damping factor is another thing I would consider if you like solid bass. Some people like to have a class A pre driver amplifier. Kind of makes things a bit sweeter at lower volumes. It pretty much kicks into class A/B when you get things going though. I'm no expert just little things I've encountered. Alot of people used to like Rotel on this forum. Not sure if they still do, but I do. I will probally go either Classe, Bryston, Ayre two channel, or Rotel 5 channel next time around but it's not written in stone. B&K has a lovely sound but to light in the bottom for me. There are just so many amps you could consider, and that is the beauty of this hobby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bismarck Posted September 18, 2006 Author Share Posted September 18, 2006 So...what kind of money am I looking at for a decent 2 channel amp that would couple well with a Denon or a used HK or maybe a used Denon. Infact, is e-bay the only place to find good used equipment. There isn't anything where i live. ps- i believe "How many wpc do i need" would be much more correct than "what Wpc do i need" oops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 McIntosh sells 1000 watt Amps........That Enough for you........Mono Blocks X 2......Do you think there might be some HEADROOM there? How many WPC do you need.....How much do you want to spend?.......Wuzzer just got an HK 2 channel.....get ahold of him or look up old post for where he bought his......plenty of places to spend your money..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 http://www.audiogon.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jheis Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 I'd stay away from the lower end Denon (made in china) stuff. I got talked into a Denon 1804 receiver when I started into home theater and it sounded like crap compared to my old Carver amp. Lasted about two days in my system. You should be able to pick up a good solid two channel amp in the 100 to 125 wpc range for $2-300 on ebay. I'm partial to B&K, but there's lots of good stuff out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMays Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 I would agree with stay away from the lower end gear, unless you used it as a pre/pro. Anyway, on ebay, you can get a good 250 watt vintage amp in the $250-$400 range. You can get a good 100 watt amp for 50% -75% of that. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petrol Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 the 1970 claims to do 85x7... well, my sony 'claims' to do 110 wpc too [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petrol Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 I hate to say it again (as I have posted it several times) but when I added the Yamaha M50 outboard amp to drive my main speakers, the meters show 0.3w for sound at 75db and goes up to a whopping 3.0w on explosions etc. The M50 is rated at 120wpc and there is LOTS of room left over. I agree, 100wpc is a marketing ploy. It takes DOUBLE the wattage to get a 3db increase in volume. So the difference between a 100wpc amp and a 200wpc amp is 3db, or about the volume of a whisper in a quiet room. only if your talking about "Real" wpc, instead of the "marketing" wpc... see my post above . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bismarck Posted September 19, 2006 Author Share Posted September 19, 2006 I would agree with stay away from the lower end gear, unless you used it as a pre/pro. Anyway, on ebay, you can get a good 250 watt vintage amp in the $250-$400 range. You can get a good 100 watt amp for 50% -75% of that. Phil 100 Wpc? right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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