[krishen]

at the moment i am looking to buy a power amp, however cant afford a proccessor aswell. so could i use mt current av reciever as the preamp. also how would the sound be affected by doing this. thanks

[hornydragon]

as long as it has preouts for the 5channels you wish to use it will be fine

[krishen]

the amp has preouts however will it affect the sound as it is not a processor

[krishen]

also with the 5 channel amp will the subwoofer connection still have to go to the reciever or can it go in the power amp

[Sejour]

Originally Posted by krishen

the amp has preouts however will it affect the sound as it is not a processor

This is a bit confusing. Your AV receiver, not the power amp, should have the pre-outs, although not all do. Which receiver is it? It needs to have 5.1 (or 7.1) channel pre-amp RCA outputs - check in your manual. If it really has these, the output signal will contain all the processed signals, ie DD/DTS, speaker levels set, crossover settings enabled, etc. An AV receiver is a preamplifier, a tuner, a processor, and a power amplifier in one chassis. So it is a processor.

Originally Posted by krishen

also with the 5 channel amp will the subwoofer connection still have to go to the reciever or can it go in the power amp

You connect the 5 channels, ie L/C/R/LR/RR to the 5 inputs on the power amp, and the LFE channel ( .1), gets connected to your powered subwoofer - from the receiver. Assuming you have a powered subwoofer.

As to how it will sound depends on your speakers, your receiver, and your expectations. If you have relatively demanding speakers, either low efficiency, or with rapid changes in impedance over the frequency curve (high phase shifts), then most receivers will struggle with this. Your receiver may have a poor pre-amp section, in which case you will realise little benefit from a separate power amp. Differences are more obvious on music than movies.

In terms of your expectations, you need to be committed to spending a fair bit of money if you want separates. Cheap pre-pros with a cheap power amp will not sound as good as a receiver at the same price point. Be aware that with receivers, you are effectively getting the power amp section of the receiver for free.

Trouble is there are no good pre-pros on the market at any price, if you want HD audio and video.

[krishen]

thanks for that. my reciever is marantz sr5400 do you think this wil do a good enough job. i am looking to get somthing like a pass labs x5 or lexicon lx5/7, parasound a52. my speakers are monitor audio RS6AV

[Sejour]

I don't know, as I have never heard a Marantz SR5400. But I have heard the new series, the SR7001 and SR8001. I suspect the SR5400 will be good enough to tide you over.

All the power amps you listed have good reputations, and would have no trouble driving your speakers. I have the A52, and it delivers quite a warm, rich sound. The Pass Labs amp will be more neutral, so it depends on how you find the RS6AVs in your room - bright, warm, neutral? Pass amps are heavily biased to Class A, so run hot and consume a lot of power. I use Pass amps in some of my audio systems. They are excellent.

I haven't heard the Lexicon LX5/LX7. They are made for Lexicon by Crown (also part of the Harman group), but to Lexicon's specs. Crown amps tend to the brighter sound of neutral, but that's just a generalisation. I would add that these are made by Crown in the USA, and shouldn't be confused with the cheap studio amp line they have made in China. They will deliver the most power.

[krishen]

yh thanks i have been looking for the pass labs x5 particularly has any1 heard this amp

I think the Pass Lab amps are based on designs by Nelson Pass. I think they were famous for their Aleph series, but for the new ones I guess you'll be among the first to hear them. Does the guy selling them offer to demo the amps? If you do get a demo please share you thoughts on the amp. I was once looking heavily at these amps because brystons are so hard to come by cheap and in the color you want. I suspect this amp may be like the 9B SST as it has the same misleading low power output of 125W.

[DSH]

In response to SEJOUR, I have a Marantz SR 5400 5-channel 90 Watt AV/Receiver and have found it excellent, albeit it could do with a bit morepower when driving some inefficient speakers. However this model is now some 5 years old and lacks the HDMI inputs which one needs if feeding it with HD material. One can use the component inputs and obtain great video quality but of course one needs to connect the audio inputs as well. HDMI gives the best from the video and audio from one cable. One thing to bear in mind is that most of the AV amps?receivers only seem to fit one output HDMI connector; not good if one has an another device such as video projector to connect as well as the TV.

[crobo]

What you are proposing will work but it is really unbalanced. Your receiver will do an OK job as a processor but you are talking about some seriously high quality (and expensive) power amps and the Marantz will not do them justice at all. You would get a better sound by going for a (used) processor and good (but still cheaper) power amp.

IMO decent-quality processors have always sounded so much better than integrated receivers used in processor mode.

[mr_yogi]

I don't know about the power amps you mention but there was a post a few weeks ago by someone who was using (what I think is a medium range, all be it new) a Yamaha DSP-AX761 with a NAD T955 (about £800?) power amp and being pretty happy with the results:

Yamaha DSP-AZ1 vs DSP-AX761 + NAD T955 Power

might be an interesting read

[DMT]

This thread is 18 months old

[mr_yogi]

Originally Posted by DMT

This thread is 18 months old

Ooops