Power Amp help!

oakbrick

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Hi All

I am building a small home cinema and have following system:
Marantz 6015
M&K IW950, M50, M40T, IC95 and SVS PB 1000

I need to power 11 channels and wondering which power amp to use (dont ask my why i have these two in the list, probably becuase I can get it cheap from somewhere)





Ideally power front three IW950

thanks for your help!!!
 
Hi

Just to confirm - you're powering all speakers from a power amp or you're going to use some of the SR6015's onboard amp too?
 
Hi

Just to confirm - you're powering all speakers from a power amp or you're going to use some of the SR6015's onboard amp too?
Thanks for the reply - some will be powered from 6015 - maybe power front 3 or atmos from power amp.
 
I'd recommend a power amp for your front soundstage as a minimum.

The Emotiva XPA series is modular - you can add more cards over time and expand the offboard powered units. Your IW950's have a large power input range.

We use the below with our in-wall M-375

The next one down would be the BASX-A3.

You need to have at least as much output as the SR6015 to get a benefit :) I'd therefore avoid the ROTEL unit for the fronts.
 
Pretty sure the pre outs from marantz 6015 are lousy and totally broke!

Correction that's 7015
 
Hi @oakbrick I would recommend first that you ask @Mr Wolf nicely to use his calculation tool, example shown here:

 
Emotiva have one box solution 11 channel but I think it uses lowrr powered modules for some channels.

You have options from monoblocs all the way to a single 11 channel multi channel amps
 
Hi All

I am building a small home cinema and have following system:
Marantz 6015
M&K IW950, M50, M40T, IC95 and SVS PB 1000

I need to power 11 channels and wondering which power amp to use (dont ask my why i have these two in the list, probably becuase I can get it cheap from somewhere)





Ideally power front three IW950

thanks for your help!!!

There is lot of MK 950 owners in the official m&k speaker thread that don´t see the need for poweramp. Would be good to hear how loud you listen (master volume?), distance from MLP to speakers etc. 6015 is no slouch and you could be just fine to add 2ch poweramp for the extra speakers to get 7.1.4. Is this dedicated room or clean looking lounge system which would likely mean moderate listening levels?

Those models you listed wouldn´t make much sense as mentioned.
 
Review of 7011

Two channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 138.7 watts 1% distortion at 169.1 watts Five channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 104.9 watts 1% distortion at 117.0 watts Seven channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 75.1 watts 1% distortion at 90.4 watts

So knock a bit off considering yours is one model down get a basic idea
 
There is lot of MK 950 owners in the official m&k speaker thread that don´t see the need for poweramp. Would be good to hear how loud you listen (master volume?), distance from MLP to speakers etc. 6015 is no slouch and you could be just fine to add 2ch poweramp for the extra speakers to get 7.1.4. Is this dedicated room or clean looking lounge system which would likely mean moderate listening levels?

Those models you listed wouldn´t make much sense as mentioned.
its a small dedicated room so dont need to run at super loud volumes.
 
You should be absolutely fine.

IW950 is a twin woofer speaker with 90dB sensitivity at 1M with 1W (2.83V into 8-Ohms) of power.

With 5-channels driven an SR6015 will get you just over 18dB of gain which gets you to 108dB at 1M.

In room dispersion loss from 1M to the MLP in a large room is no higher than 7dB which takes it down to 101dB.

Add 3dB headroom to cover any impedance dips down to 4-Ohm takes it to 98dB.

98dB is -7db on the volume dial in calibrated system. If you're listening at or below this then you're all set.
 
You should be absolutely fine.

IW950 is a twin woofer speaker with 90dB sensitivity at 1M with 1W (2.83V into 8-Ohms) of power.

With 5-channels driven an SR6015 will get you just over 18dB of gain which gets you to 108dB at 1M.

In room dispersion loss from 1M to the MLP in a large room is no higher than 7dB which takes it down to 101dB.

Add 3dB headroom to cover any impedance dips down to 4-Ohm takes it to 98dB.

98dB is -7db on the volume dial in calibrated system. If you're listening at or below this then you're all set.
Thanks Mr. Wolf - so distance from speaker to seating would be 3 meters (floor to ceiling is only 2.2 meters) and width is 2.6m

originally I was only looking for power amp for additional two atmos speakers (10th and 11th channel) but then I thought maybe I should use power amp for front 3 (big speakers) using BaaSX4 or X3 and rest can be powered by Marantz or I can power surround channels with BaaSX4 and use Marantz for rest.
 
OK, in your situation you actually need to add a power amp to increase the channel count. If it were me I would add one to the LCRs due to the duty cycle of these speakers - they consume >90% of the power passing through all the speakers.

As you don’t need huge wattages something like a BasX A3 would suit you perfectly. 140W across the three channels when all channels are driven will be about twice what your AVR can muster so it’ll handle the maximum peaks without breaking into a sweat.

@CableGuy recently added one to his Marantz AVR based system and loves it.
 
OK, in your situation you actually need to add a power amp to increase the channel count. If it were me I would add one to the LCRs due to the duty cycle of these speakers - they consume >90% of the power passing through all the speakers.

As you don’t need huge wattages something like a BasX A3 would suit you perfectly. 140W across the three channels when all channels are driven will be about twice what your AVR can muster so it’ll handle the maximum peaks without breaking into a sweat.

@CableGuy recently added one to his Marantz AVR based system and loves it.
Yes, very much so. As you said, I’m also of the opinion the the front 3 speakers are the most important speakers in a system as they are responsible for so much of the sound. That’s why I went for a 3-channel power amp for my LCR, rather than a 4 channel for surrounds or height speakers.

To the OP, here’s my thoughts on the BasX A3, if it helps. :)

 
Bas X X 3 is no brainer why spend thousands on speakers , room eq, sound panels, then not get best from the speakers.

There's more to sound than just watts it's how the amp controls the speakers.

I noticed big improvement adding power amps to my Yamaha avr, and I have budget speakers.
 
One option I would probably do though is get the four channel bas X.

Use that for front three. Let one channel be unused
Save up money for xpa-3. Reconnect the bas X four channel for side and rears. Connect the xpa for front three.

That's for a seven channel system, so that way you upgrade front three on the cheap now, and get better front later when you can afford reusing the amp.

If going more or less channels, or more in the future then maybe get different amp channels
Think of the future are you going Atmos if so how many are you going full AV pre later on (in which case work out how many channels) or avr + power
 
Bas X X 3 is no brainer why spend thousands on speakers , room eq, sound panels, then not get best from the speakers.

There's more to sound than just watts it's how the amp controls the speakers.

I noticed big improvement adding power amps to my Yamaha avr, and I have budget speakers.

Many times it can be just placebo as you already are telling yourself it must sound better and you see the product. If someone would be swapping your receiver with/without poweramp, without you knowing which powers your speakers would you be able to pick it 10 times over 10? Many has done this and suprisingly they can´t pick the poweramp or any other much hyped thing. If one doesn´t listen loud then it`s even more questionable. Denon and Marantz has one of the cleanest receivers out there beating many times more expensive units in noise & distortion tests.

At least when buying poweramp making sure that it can be returned if no difference isn´t heard. Without giving any names there is few members considering selling their poweramps cause it just doesn´t make enough difference vs. the hype in forums says.

 
Thank you all. Much appreciate your guidance.
now I have to find the BaasX 😩
 

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