AudioSource amp quality?

What is the overall perception of their amp quality? They seem to be half the price of Parasound, NAD, Adcom, or Emotiva with similar power ratings. Does that mean poor quality? What does AudioSource not have that the others do?

I'm looking for a fairly inexpensive (relative) amp to power a set of Jamo C603 (6 Ohm) bookshelf speakers in my half-finished basement, but at some point in the future I may want to power some C607 towers with this amp if I ever get to doing a proper HT setup down there. AudioSource AMP310 caught my eye. Am I going to regret it? Is there something else I should consider? I don't want to spend more than about $400.

FYI, I've never owned a dedicated amp before, so I'm a little green here. I am currently powering four 6-ohm bookshelf speakers with an HK-3490 receiver, but I'm a bit worried that I'm overloading it when cranked up, so I wanted to move two of those speakers over to this new Audiosource amp.

Thanks!

Are you saying I'm opening a can of worms?

Would I notice any difference in sound quality between this AMP310 and the HK's amp? Even if I start using the AMP310, I will be using the HK's pre-outs to get signal. The HK just sound gutless to me for some reason.

$375 is the lowest price I can find on this Crown. I like the fact that it has a configurable high-pass filter so that I could prevent the very low frequencies from going to the bookshelf speakers. However, I don't see RCA-outputs for loopback to bring the signal back to my HK, so that's probably not going to work.


The setup is in a wide open half-finished basement. I've got 4 speakers currently running off this HK (2x Jamo C603 6-Ohm, 2x Polk Audio M40 8-Ohm). I've got a lot of room to fill, so I often run this HK at very high volume. I'm worried that I am putting too much load on it. That's why I thought I'd only run two speakers off the HK and the other two off a separate amp. Am I worried for no reason?

Actually, having a second look, it does appear to have 1/4" jacks for loopback. Would I just be able to use a 1/4" to RCA cable to bring the signal back to my HK's line level inputs?

So that the receiver can power the remaining 2 speakers that I have.

Not with this HK.



In normal operation (no external amps), there are jumpers in place that link pre-outs with main-in in the above photo. The moment you take the jumpers out (which is what you'd have to do to send signal to an external amp), then speakers that are directly connected to the HK will no longer work. You'd need to bring the signal back to these "main-in" inputs for the HK to be able to power some speakers as well.

The jumpers are not pictured above. Sorry, I could not find a photo like that.

Think of them as two very short RCA cables that link each pre-out with each main-in.

But I would actually want to bring the signal back to the HK after it was processed by the Crown (ran through high-pass filter).

Back to the subject of amps, would the sound quality of the Crown XLS be comparable to the AudioSource 310? I want good sound quality. I don't necessarily need 300 watts per channel of power.

So this whole Class D amp thing is not an issue anymore? I remember some years back audiophiles would only swear by Class A/B amps and frown upon Class D as being unrefined, harsh, etc. Alas, I'm sure technology does not stand still...


No. It's just a stereo receiver. No stereo receiver that I know of has built-in bass management capabilities.

Which HK model are you referring to? The HK 3490 I have has sub outs, but these are basically full-frequency line outputs. It is up to your subwoofer's crossover to then apply a low-pass filter before feeding the signal to the sub's internal amp.
And the speaker level connections aren't subject to any sort of bass management either. Basically, there is no crossover of any kind in this receiver. No bass management whatsoever.


Sure, but I have two pairs.

Do I need to worry at all about the XLS's pro-audio input sensitivity levels? I'll be feeding it consumer level output from my HK. I've read some articles and done some volt measurements and I think I should be OK, but I thought I'd ask.

Doesn't that weaken the signal though? The signal coming out of the HK is already fairly weak as it is by pro-audio standards. I wouldn't want to do anything to weaken it further.

Thanks, Michael!

I've seen one of your older posts where you noted some hissing noise from an XLS 1000. How bad was it? Was the hissing being generated by the XLS itself or was it a result of something being picked up by the XLS from the signal from your pre-amp?