AVR 300 - Power Amp Upgrade

[Henry]

Having got my hands on a cheap P85 and P75, I'm going to have a go at running them alongside my AVR300.

I wondered which channels it'd be best to drive with which power amp?

[deaf cat]

Hiya,
I think my AVR200 pushes more power, the fewer speakers it is powering.
I do not know about the 300.
If it does react the same you may be able to use the P85 to drive the bass on the fronts and the P75 bass rears, freeing up a bit of power for the 300 to do center........just throwing in thoughts.
OR P85 bass fronts and P75 bi-amped to the center
OR is there a board to make the P85 a 3 way amp - bi-amp fronts and center P85 and then P75 bi-amp rears.
Intresting a, will wait to hear more.

I have an AVR300 and a P75 and I am interested to read other answers for that question.

Can you tell me if my logic is right, please :

- Bass requires more power, so we should drive the bass with the AVR
- Treble requires more quality, so we should drive the treble with the P75/85

[Henry]

Originally Posted by deaf cat

OR is there a board to make the P85 a 3 way amp - bi-amp fronts and center P85 and then P75 bi-amp rears.
Intresting a, will wait to hear more.

You can get the P85 upgraded to 3 channels. It costs £269.90 and takes a couple of weeks apparently. It may be cheaper to get another 2nd hand power amp to run the centre channel rather than upgrade it. I presume that this would be better sonically too.

[Henry]

Running an M&K K series set up of 3 x K17s, 2 x K4s and an V1250THX sub. So bi-wiring and bi-amping is unfortunately out of the question for me.

[deaf cat]

OK so the AVR300 has more oomph than the power amps so it would be better at the bass - but no bi-amping/wiring.

So, what about using the P85 (used quite a bit of the time good to have cool sounding voice) for the center and the P75 for the rears, so the 300 is not loaded so much and so may get closer to the 120W on the fronts......

I suppose try it, an see what sounds best - be interested to know what happens.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by deaf cat

OK so the AVR300 has more oomph than the power amps so it would be better at the bass - but no bi-amping/wiring.

So, what about using the P85 (used quite a bit of the time good to have cool sounding voice) for the center and the P75 for the rears, so the 300 is not loaded so much and so may get closer to the 120W on the fronts......

I suppose try it, an see what sounds best - be interested to know what happens.

Will give it a try. Quick question though and probably a stupid one at that.

How would you wire it so that it runs the centre speaker only. Do you use just one phono connector?

[deaf cat]

Now thinking about it, does seem a daft question but its confused me.............well If I was doing it, I would plug the one phone between the two amps and wire the load to that side, what else can you do.... ahh perhaps give Arcam a bell and double check with them.

Let us know how you get on with the sound tests.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by deaf cat

Now thinking about it, does seem a daft question but its confused me.............well If I was doing it, I would plug the one phone between the two amps and wire the load to that side, what else can you do.... ahh perhaps give Arcam a bell and double check with them.

Let us know how you get on with the sound tests.

Hoping someone will jump in with a bit of guidance, so that I don't blow up and amp or speakers!

[Henry]

Anyone?

[Hifi addict]

not really sure what your question is Henry. Maybe if you made a small drawing.....

anyway, each channel has a pre-out on your AVR300 and that will be the input for every channel on your poweramps.....

[RadBadMark]

Originally Posted by Henry

How would you wire it so that it runs the centre speaker only. Do you use just one phono connector?

Yep, you got it. Connect centre channel preamp out from the AVR to either channel of the power amp.