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I'm in need of an amplifier to power my center channel and two surrounds for my HT system. Being of the basic belief that most multi-channel amps have been cheated when it comes to power supply, my intention was to buy a 5 channel amp and only use 3 channels. This should allow plenty of dynamic headroom. For an idea of what the rest of the speaker and amplifier system that it will be going into consists of, here goes:My left and right mains consist of AR-9's. These are large 4 way 5 driver towers. Each cabinet has two 12" side firing sealed woofers running from 200 hz down. The front panel has an 8" lower midrange, a 2" dome upper midrange and a 3/4" dome tweeter. These are being biamped with a Perreaux PMF-3150B driving the woofers ( 600 wpc @ 4 ohms ) and another PMF-3150B driving from 200 Hz & up. If your not familiar with this specific amplifier, it is definetly on the warm and mellow sounding side with awesome bass.
The center channel is a sealed homebrew MTM design that lays on it's side. The appr. sensitivity of this speaker would be about 90 db's or so and is quite neutral in sound quality. At this time, the surrounds are Kinetic Audio Zoids. These are 8" vario vent woofers with a 1" soft dome. These are subject to change, but the appr. sensitivity of these or the speakers that would replace them would be about 88 db's or so.
Given the low sensitivity of most of these speakers, i know i need a good amount of power to drive them and keep the system balanced. The center is 3 - 4 ohms, so the amp must be stable and not have a hard time with this. The surrounds are closer to 8 ohms right now, but as i said, these may go the way of the wind.
My basic thoughts were that i wouldn't mind an amp that was slightly forward sounding. This could add a small amount of added intelligibility to voices for the center channel. It should also be capable of at least 150 wrms @ 4 ohms for the three channels that i need. If the other two channels are rated for slightly less, that won't really come into play in this situation. Cosmetics are secondary, but i don't want some nasty looking thing either. Since this is strictly a secondary system, i would like to spend as little as possible to achieve these goals.
Any comments or suggestions are welcome. If you don't feel comfortable posting here, feel free to email me. Sean
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Thanks for all of the suggestions. As most of you know, i like to play the used market and had to select what i thought was the best of what was available at the time.I ended up snagging one of the newer versions of the Acurus 200X3. These are called "A" versions ( A200X3 ). The amp is appr. 1 year old and i picked it up for 1/2 price. These new versions have had enough re-engineering done to them that the older models can not be updated. Main goals were to smooth out the high end, increase low impedance stability and beef up the power supply.
When i talked to a tech at Mondial on the phone Friday, they said that the increased use of metal domes in newer speakers caused many people to think that their older designs sounded hard & bright. More than a few thougth they sounded hard & bright with soft domes, so i guess there had to be quite a bit of truth to that. Current rating on the power supply was also increased by 20%, so that should also help to firm up the bottom end while helping to deliver more power at low impedances. The amp is now rated at 200 @ 8 and 300 @ 4 for all 3 channels being driven simultaneously, which is 50 watts more per channel at 4 ohms.
Since this will only be driving my center and surrounds, it should work fine and have plenty of power. I should have it sometime this coming week if everything goes right. Sean
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As usual, I like Bryston. They make a 3 and a 5 channel amp
which have the same power ratings as their 3BST (120/200 wpc
a 8/4 ohms), AND a 20 year warranty. Mike
I'm running a Belles 150A for center and surrounds and couldn't be happier. It's 100 wpc and 160 @ 4 ohms, as I recall. I ran it on my main speakers for almost a year before buying the DR-9 and never felt lacking though it can't quite deliver the current that the DR-9 can.Since the surrounds don't get a ton of volume or require a lot of power, I think it'd do a good job for you as most will be available for the center.
From what I've seen, most multichannel amps are simply multiple amplifier circuit boards on a common chassis. Saves space and money, but each board has its own power supply, ergo, you don't get 'cheated' on power supply, so your initial assumption could be wrong. I will say that if you did load up one chassis with 3-5 amp boards, I would give it its own dedicated 30-40 amp circuit directly from the breaker box and one heck of a thick power cord with the best plugs you can afford. It will need all the clean power it can get.
Aragon 8008x3, McCormack DNA-HT1 and on the cheap ATI-1503
are on my list for a 3ch amp right now. All will handle a 4ohm load the Aragon and McCormack better. The price of the ATI makes it attractive, the Aragon and McCormack are much better........Also take a look at the B&K 200x3 not a bad amp.Kelly
NAD 916This is 6 x 30wpc amp. Each pair of channels can be bridged for total of 3 X 90wpc @8ohm. Stable into 3-4ohms. Don't know how much additional power is available into a 4 ohm load. I am currently useing this amp configured for 3 channels to drive 3 x B&W DM-302; this speaker does dip to 2.8ohm and the amp has no problem with the load. The system can play much louder than my ears can take. The NAD amp has a nice smooth sound. Lots of detail, especially at low levels. Extreme treble is non fatigueing, unlike plenty of other HT amps.
Good Luck in any event.
Ross
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