seperate amp

[howie777]

Are seperate amplifiers really worth it? I have M&k 851s (4 ohms) running off a Marantz SR 8200. I also own a pair of RT10s. The thought is get a amp for the M&Ks and eventually get an pre/pro and use the Marantz with the RT 10s for a bedroom set up. Another option is to get a stereo receiver for the RT 10s.

So will I really notice a difference with a seperate amp? I put in an email to Marantz to see what it is rated for. The only thing I see is 120 watts x 6 on the website, and 130 watts x 6 into 6 ohms in the manual. If I only get 130 at 6 ohms I think 8 ohms would only be 90-100 watts. I'm thinking I get 130 watts into 6 ohms 1 channel driven and 120 watts into 6 ohms all channels driven.

Now I'm very leary about all this talk about speaker break in and cable burn in making improvements. So I have asked M&K and Marantz about seperate amps too and am waiting there replies. From this I will figure out what to do but I do want your opinions as well. I love reading this forum and have learned a lot from this site. Although I'd put my M&K 150 sub up against an SVS of equal value or less any day! (please don't hurt me!) And I do love my RT10s, they are not as detailed as the M&Ks but are very mellow and I love Pink Floyd on those guys. Just sounds perfect to me.

Thanks for any advice. I just don't want to drop 2-3 k on an amp and maybe get $100 worth of improvment. If I get an amp, I will get a new circuit set up for my gear so that shouldn't be an issue and maybe that is all I need to do.

Howie

[Emlyn]

To me, the beauty of getting a high current amplifier to run 4 ohm speakers is you get more power than you may realize at first. For example, a "200 wpc" Outlaw Audio amp is really a 300 wpc amp when it's driving 4 ohm speakers. The same goes for Rotel or any other good quality high current amp manufacturer.

Do you really need more power though? Is your receiver getting hot or are you experiencing any sound distortion at high volume levels? The SR 8200 is a good receiver. I'm not familiar enough with your speakers to say whether adding more power is necessary in your situation. Are your speakers rated to handle 300 wpc?

At the very least, adding a separate amp would relieve some of the burden from your receiver. Of course adding amps without necessity lightens your wallet. The good news is you can find new 2, 5, and 7 channel amps that will outpower your receiver considerably for less than $2000. I'd recommend checking out Rotel and Outlaw for great value.

[F1nut]

In general seperates will sound better than receivers. It's not how many watts per channel that you need to look at. It's things like damping, slew rate, output current, channel separation, frequency response and what ohm load it will handle. In other words, you should look for clean, high current power. Receivers are (in general) a compromise. You've got a amp, preamp and tuner all crammed in one box meaning less room for large caps and transformers, plus with the tuner in there you introduce RF problems into the mix. I'm just talking 2 channel here, now add 6/7 channels and the compromises just increase. Another choice here are integrated amps (2 channel), some of those will outperform seperates costing 3 times as much, but even those integrated's will have a seperate power supply.

To get great music from a hi-fi rig, it's not how loud you can turn it up, it's how clean the sound is. I would suggest that you demo as much gear as you can, bring some gear home to demo in your environment and I know you'll find the answer to your question.

[organ]

When you use an amp with a low impedence load, the first thing you will notice is much better transients, dynamics, focus and clarity at louder volume settings. The bass will have more control too. Try to borrow an amp from someone you know and see if you think you're going to need one. If you have a good dealer, ask him if you can borrow an amp over the weekend. They usually ask for your credit card while you have the amp.

Maurice

[John K.]

Howie, the question is as Emlyn put it: do you really need more power? If your 8200 isn't audibly distorting on peaks(and it's likely that it isn't)you don't need a new receiver and separate amps don't have any magic. Bear in mind that most of the time your speakers are using about 1-2 watts.