Looking for an amplifier

[Rossi~]

*see sig for current setup

So i currently have an AV amp in my setup for it's power, sub out and the abilty to run 2 sets of speakers at once. Though this amp seems fine it lacks in quality slightly. Im looking for a nice amp sort of 60-75Watts per channel (unless it's like a NAD amp where yo can happily deal with 50watts), can run 2 sets of speakers, sub out and good quality.

Also can somebody tell me about optical and breifly how it works. I've noticed on my AV amp that when conencting via optical i am unable to enable the pre-out for the sub. Is this the amp being shite? or is this a general rule?

 

[GuyClinch]

I am fan of Denon recievers - I think the amp unit is pretty good. But what I really like is the Audessey auto speaker adjustment bit. I think its great. it made my ancient cheap mismatch of various Klipsch speakers sound quite decent..

But I think it really also comes down to the deal - most companies do make some good recievers. So its about which one you get for what price..


Pete

 

[Rossi~]

Hmm, yeah i know what you mean.
And yeah Denon are great, but so are Cambridge and NAD. There is a Harman|Kardon amp that i like the look of at the moment, rate them?

 

[Alai]

Stop calling a receiver an AV amp. It's disconcerting and confusing. Harmon Kardon RECEIVERS are great. Marantz also. Outlaw Audio also fantastic. Those are my favorite brands. If you just wanted an amplifier, Acurus, Rotel, and Adcom are pretty awesome brands that have amazing bang for the buck quality.

 

[obobski]

Stop calling a receiver an AV amp. It's disconcerting and confusing. Harmon Kardon RECEIVERS are great. Marantz also. Outlaw Audio also fantastic. Those are my favorite brands. If you just wanted an amplifier, Acurus, Rotel, and Adcom are pretty awesome brands that have amazing bang for the buck quality.

Outlaw makes straight amplifiers too

as far as receivers go, none of the brands listed here are bad, although I would put Sony near the bottom of the list until you get into the four figured range

oh, and there is no functional difference between 50 and 75wpc, its simply irrelevant, so it isn't just a NAD thing, although I guess if you're going from a cheapo Sony that can't push anything near rated wpc, it may seem that way *sigh*

honestly there is nothing wrong with h/k, Marantz, Yamaha, Denon, NAD, Cambridge, Outlaw, Adcom, Rotel, etc, like Guy said, all depends on what you buy

in short:
do some research before just asking ultra-mega-super widesweeping questions based on ultra-mega-super widesweeping generalizations (for the slower folks at home: this means find a specific model or models to ask about, state a budget, you know, simple things like that)


Guy:
Audessy is not unique to Denon, its a TI DSP/feature, a few other manufacturers use it, Pioneer comes to mind right off the bat, and I'm thinking Onkyo and someone else employ it as well (and brands without the TI branded feature usually have their own tech, for example Yamaha has YPAO and Scene DSP)

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

I was seriously considering picking up a Gizmo from TCA. Looks nice.

Whats your budget? That pretty much will determine what you get.

 

[Sycraft]

Sorry, missed your optical question as well. So there are two basic ways optical outputs work in a normal, hometheater setup and soundcard setup:

1) A two channel uncompressed stream. In this case they are the equivalent of a red and white analogue RCA connection more or less. They give you stereo output of sound. This is the normal thing you get from soundcards, and what you'll get from your X-Fi unless you buy software for it.

2) A compressed 5.1 bitstream, either Dolby Digital or DTS. In this case, you get full surround sound over the connection, just in a compressed format. This is how DVDs work, and you can get an encoder for your computer. Creative calls it the DTS Connect pack and it is like $5.

Now in either case, your receiver should be able to do bass redirection, if properly designed. With a compressed 5.1 stream there is a dedicated bass channel that goes only to the sub, however even then you can set it to redirect bass from the other channels. In 2 channel mode there's no bass out, so it just redirects all bass under a certain frequency.

My receiver does so, and actually has a separate setup for each so I can tell it at what frequency to do the redirection and have it different for stereo and surround mode (and different for each speaker set in surround). If yours doesn't there's two possibilities:

1) You don't have it setup right. It would be called "crossover" or "bass redirection" or "bass management" or something like that. What you do is tell it the frequency to send bass to the sub, instead of the mains. Also, you need to configure your speakers as "small" to make it to that. In AV speak small means "redirect bass on these speakers" and "large" means "don't redirect bass on these speakers." It has nothing to do with size.

2) Your AV unit is crap, as you imply. Can happen, I've seen cheap ones that don't do proper bass management.

 

[obobski]

post deleted -Oldie

hrm, I swear I saw an ad for Pioneer yesterday pimping Audessy, but I do see MCACC as you said, went back and re-read the ad:
"Aureus by TI"
which I mis-remembered as "Audessy by TI"
it would seem the similarity of the words is what created the misunderstanding, no big deal, unless of course you had chosen to be a dick about it....

I was seriously considering picking up a Gizmo from TCA. Looks nice.

Whats your budget? That pretty much will determine what you get.

neat little amp that keeps popping up from time to time
the only issue I have is the relatively low output power (25wpc), and included preamp setup (which I don't see any indication of being able to bypass), which would make it somewhat quirky as an amp for a multi-ch setup, although other than that, nice little desktop setup indeed
I would probably agree with either an inexpensive PA amp or amps (which should get you rated output #'s, but you need a preamp to handle it...), or spending a bit more on a receiver (knowing that it won't deliver all channels driven as spec'd, so again, you're still probably at 25wpc or so )

sy:
on bass redirection/processing, at least for my processor, when speakers are set to "Large", their (I should say their amplifier) is sent a 20-20k signal, as well as the LFE channel (to the sub) + any redirection (sub), when set to "Small", it cuts them off at something like 100hz, furthermore, it doesn't really do a whole helluva lot to switch the entire system between Small and Large with a sub connected (granted, everything but my center can actually do LF into the lower 30's), honestly I'd just refer to the user manual of the processor in question, it'll have the most accurate information regarding whats actually happening (and honestly I disagree with the O'Reilly claim that you should ALWAYS have EVERYTHING set to "Small")

OP:
without knowing anything beyond "Sony STR", can't really give you any info regarding what its trying to do, it might be an ancient DPL I era receiver, and the only way the LFE output works is when DPL is enabled, it might be a primative DD/DTS receiver, and again, only LFE is sent to the LFE out, instead of sub lowpass, neither of these are really signs of a "crap" unit, just a limitation, and quite a few older boxes have features like this

if it has analog line ins, does it also have an analog input for the sub channel?
regarding your sub, does it have line in and HPF out? in theory you could use that and have the sub/soundcard handle bass management (you don't need no fancy DSP voodoo just to cut a freq off)

 

[Rossi~]

Stop calling a receiver an AV amp. It's disconcerting and confusing. Harmon Kardon RECEIVERS are great. Marantz also. Outlaw Audio also fantastic. Those are my favorite brands. If you just wanted an amplifier, Acurus, Rotel, and Adcom are pretty awesome brands that have amazing bang for the buck quality.

1. No.
2. Thanks i'll keep an eye out.

Sorry, missed your optical question as well. So there are two basic ways optical outputs work in a normal, hometheater setup and soundcard setup:

1) A two channel uncompressed stream. In this case they are the equivalent of a red and white analogue RCA connection more or less. They give you stereo output of sound. This is the normal thing you get from soundcards, and what you'll get from your X-Fi unless you buy software for it.

2) A compressed 5.1 bitstream, either Dolby Digital or DTS. In this case, you get full surround sound over the connection, just in a compressed format. This is how DVDs work, and you can get an encoder for your computer. Creative calls it the DTS Connect pack and it is like $5.

Now in either case, your receiver should be able to do bass redirection, if properly designed. With a compressed 5.1 stream there is a dedicated bass channel that goes only to the sub, however even then you can set it to redirect bass from the other channels. In 2 channel mode there's no bass out, so it just redirects all bass under a certain frequency.

My receiver does so, and actually has a separate setup for each so I can tell it at what frequency to do the redirection and have it different for stereo and surround mode (and different for each speaker set in surround). If yours doesn't there's two possibilities:

1) You don't have it setup right. It would be called "crossover" or "bass redirection" or "bass management" or something like that. What you do is tell it the frequency to send bass to the sub, instead of the mains. Also, you need to configure your speakers as "small" to make it to that. In AV speak small means "redirect bass on these speakers" and "large" means "don't redirect bass on these speakers." It has nothing to do with size.

2) Your AV unit is crap, as you imply. Can happen, I've seen cheap ones that don't do proper bass management.

Thanks for the info!

Yeah it is crap, and rather annoying lol hence the advice on new amp.

I was seriously considering picking up a Gizmo from TCA. Looks nice.

Whats your budget? That pretty much will determine what you get.

Budget is around £250-£300

 

[Rossi~]

Found a Harman Kardon HK980 for £230 what do you guys think?

 

[Sycraft]

Dunno. I can't find any info on that one, the HK page for it is down. Personally I've never been that impressed with the features they offer for a price, but that is somewhat personal taste. If it offers what you want at a good price then it should do fine.