2-channel power amp recommendations?

Lastan010 said:
I assume you are using AV receiver pre outs to the A31?

If so, then you are limiting what your amp is capable of by miles, I went that road long time ago, never again.

If I could lend you my Hegel preamp to try it on your A31 you would be blown away.

AV brands output very low and limited signal to the amps from preout section for safety reasons, so people dont blow their speakers and blame it on the AV brand.

Now if you get a pre processor then you would have a proper setup.

So if you are running AV receivers preouts to A31 I strongly suggest to get rid of that setup, that A31 is a beautiful amp, it deserves better.
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Kinda funny seeing this mentioned here. I don't have any experience with newer audio tech (never had anything with HDMI, only vintage stuff.)
Recently I went to listen to a friend's system using the pre out of his AV receiver (high end cambridge) to his nad power amp (350W RMS per channel).
He has some nice Focal speakers and a sealed svs 16 ultra.
After listening to his system for a while I told him I felt like something was missing and I blamed his AV receiver which is also his dac.

I'll eventually bring my schiit bifrost dac with a technics su-c 01 preamp to try on his system, I expect it will impress him.
Should do it sometime in December since he his working full time and building a new house that he needs done in 3 weeks he doesn't have much free time atm...

Reading this post made me even more convinced that his receiver is the weak link!
 
Arcygenical said:
can you link me?

I can do the xovers myself, just basically need a stereo amp (250wrms each side into 4ohm) and a mono capable of 350w into... uhhh, either 2 or 4 ohms (woofers are in parallel). The last stereo amp is to push music to my active crossovers/tactile transducers in the adjacent bedroom.
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https://www.diyclassd.com/

/edit: Looks like the consumer prices are higher than I remembered (full mono kit with enclosure 575 eur). I get OEM discounts...
 
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xmadror said:
Kinda funny seeing this mentioned here. I don't have any experience with newer audio tech (never had anything with HDMI, only vintage stuff.)
Recently I went to listen to a friend's system using the pre out of his AV receiver (high end cambridge) to his nad power amp (350W RMS per channel).
He has some nice Focal speakers and a sealed svs 16 ultra.
After listening to his system for a while I told him I felt like something was missing and I blamed his AV receiver which is also his dac.

I'll eventually bring my schiit bifrost dac with a technics su-c 01 preamp to try on his system, I expect it will impress him.
Should do it sometime in December since he his working full time and building a new house that he needs done in 3 weeks he doesn't have much free time atm...

Reading this post made me even more convinced that his receiver is the weak link!
Click to expand...
Usually the amps are the last place that are the problem in a system. His speakers may have been off phase, crossovers set up bad or numerous things.
 
B00nie said:
Usually the amps are the last place that are the problem in a system. His speakers may have been off phase, crossovers set up bad or numerous things.
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Going to agree that crossovers are usually the #1 culprit of bad sound (fatigue, missing frequencies etc), especially using a convoluted AVR menu to program them properly... And also, typically relying on crossovers with no published DBa curves (or max -6dba for most AVRs).... I always use active, and then passive crossovers to ensure the right cones get the correct frequencies... The difference in building a first, and second order (going to -+18dba) crossover network is unreal.

Then add in a bass shaker for everything <35hz and the bedroom soundstage is phenomenal .
 
He was constantly playing with the setup section in his avr to try to make it sound better.
My thinking is that a dedicated stereo dac + stereo pre amp should clear all of that.
He's not convinced but I'll be surprised if his avr wasnt the culprit.
He's also the kind of guy of has to buy everything brand new and dislike vintage gear in general so it'd be pretty funny to make his jaw drop with my dac and vintage preamp on his setup!

I initial got this technics su-c01 preamp as a hold me over but it has impress me a lot and I'm thinking of having it recapped and keeping it permanently.
It was part of a high end mini component system from 1978 to 1982 and that's the only piece I have.
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I'm also debating with myself about pickup up a full set for sell that is close enough to pick up.
It would make a nice set for the bedroom even if I already have something good enough there ...
 
xmadror said:
Kinda funny seeing this mentioned here. I don't have any experience with newer audio tech (never had anything with HDMI, only vintage stuff.)
Recently I went to listen to a friend's system using the pre out of his AV receiver (high end cambridge) to his nad power amp (350W RMS per channel).
He has some nice Focal speakers and a sealed svs 16 ultra.
After listening to his system for a while I told him I felt like something was missing and I blamed his AV receiver which is also his dac.

I'll eventually bring my schiit bifrost dac with a technics su-c 01 preamp to try on his system, I expect it will impress him.
Should do it sometime in December since he his working full time and building a new house that he needs done in 3 weeks he doesn't have much free time atm...

Reading this post made me even more convinced that his receiver is the weak link!
Click to expand...

Can he select stereo mode from the AV receiver with full range speakers in stereo mode and disable all other channels?, my Yamaha AV receiver had that option, without this option the sound in stereo mode with 2 speakers could sound empty and dull. I sold my AV receiver due to poor pre-out section, I had to turn on the volume from the AV receiver to 80% to get the volume I wanted, but it added a lot of noise floor and distortion because the AV receiver amp section was still drawing a lot of power even though speakers weren't connected to it, most if not all AV receivers work this way, this is why I don't recommend AV receivers pre-out section with external amps. Just get a dedicated pre-processor and dedicated amp, it will sound much much better because pre-processors are designed differently than AVR's pre-out section, they are not the same.
 
Lastan010 said:
Can he select stereo mode from the AV receiver with full range speakers in stereo mode and disable all other channels?, my Yamaha AV receiver had that option, without this option the sound in stereo mode with 2 speakers could sound empty and dull. I sold my AV receiver due to poor pre-out section, I had to turn on the volume from the AV receiver to 80% to get the volume I wanted, but it added a lot of noise floor and distortion because the AV receiver amp section was still drawing a lot of power even though speakers weren't connected to it, most if not all AV receivers work this way, this is why I don't recommend AV receivers pre-out section with external amps. Just get a dedicated pre-processor and dedicated amp, it will sound much much better because pre-processors are designed differently than AVR's pre-out section, they are not the same.
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I'm not sure I can't remember the model only that it was a cambridge ToTL from ~3 years ago. I'd assume it's possible to do and he may have forgot about that setting since he also use it for movies.
I'll report back once I get a chance to replace his receiver with my dac/preamp and if he has the stereo mode. It won't be for a few weeks until he's done with his new house tough.
 
B00nie said:
Some of them are very good, especially for the price. If you want a really good D-class go for Hypex Ncore. They sell also consumer kits if you don't have an OEM account like me :)

Ncore can be found in many high-end amps but the price is 10-40 times higher then...
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Audiophonics has affordable Ncore MP options. Because the MP is a fully integrated board, performance should match the Hypex datasheet. Shipping cost may be an issue for US buyers.
 
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