[flyers10]

My theater will be 10'x15'x9'. Seating about 7.5' from front speakers in a 9.1.4 with 2 21" subs. Front 3 are 91db and 4ohm. Rest are 86db and 8 ohm. Have a Denon x6700 and looking to take some work load off it. Goal is to have all channels powered externally but probably have to get 1 amp for now and 1 in a year or two.
Would an amp like an Outlaw 7000, Monolith 8125 (class D), Buckeye N252 8ch (class D) or Monolith 7x be good options?

 

[luv2fly3]

I know you've seen some of my posts already and my being a fan of Outlaw amps, but in your situation, I'd probably look to pull your LCRs off your Denon first. You didn't mention your budget for a new amp. If you have the budget for it, an ATI or Anthem 3 channel amp would be a great first step forward. I think either the Outlaw 5 or 7 channel would be a great option too, just a bit less power. But honestly if you have 91db fronts anyway, you don't need tons of power to drive them. And as I shared in Kevin's theater thread, I run 6ohm surrounds (5 of them) on each of my Outlaw 5000x amps and they run great. But again, removing the 4 ohm LCRs would just drop the overall power requirement of your Denon and have more impact. Honestly, you might find that by doing that, and driving your 8ohm speakers only off your Denon, you'll be happy with the result and won't need any additional amps. Unless you're going to 100% separates with a new pre/pro too, that's how I'd run the system....LCRs on an outboard amp and rest on the Denon. But if you did want to go outboard then for your surrounds too, the Outlaw amps are definitely a great option.

 

[flyers10]

I know you've seen some of my posts already and my being a fan of Outlaw amps, but in your situation, I'd probably look to pull your LCRs off your Denon first. You didn't mention your budget for a new amp. If you have the budget for it, an ATI or Anthem 3 channel amp would be a great first step forward. I think either the Outlaw 5 or 7 channel would be a great option too, just a bit less power. But honestly if you have 91db fronts anyway, you don't need tons of power to drive them. And as I shared in Kevin's theater thread, I run 6ohm surrounds (5 of them) on each of my Outlaw 5000x amps and they run great. But again, removing the 4 ohm LCRs would just drop the overall power requirement of your Denon and have more impact. Honestly, you might find that by doing that, and driving your 8ohm speakers only off your Denon, you'll be happy with the result and won't need any additional amps. Unless you're going to 100% separates with a new pre/pro too, that's how I'd run the system....LCRs on an outboard amp and rest on the Denon. But if you did want to go outboard then for your surrounds too, the Outlaw amps are definitely a great option.

Thanks. Hadn't thought of extra demand the 4ohm fronts would put on the Denon. You never know if will jump to separates but I think as still finishing this build would probably be quite some time, like minimum 5 years before even considering new AVR or separates.

 

[BASSAHOLIC]

My theater will be 10'x15'x9'. Seating about 7.5' from front speakers in a 9.1.4 with 2 21" subs. Front 3 are 91db and 4ohm. Rest are 86db and 8 ohm. Have a Denon x6700 and looking to take some work load off it. Goal is to have all channels powered externally but probably have to get 1 amp for now and 1 in a year or two.
Would an amp like an Outlaw 7000, Monolith 8125 (class D), Buckeye N252 8ch (class D) or Monolith 7x be good options?

Yes, any of those would be good options.

 

[eljaycanuck]

I'd offload the LCR+surrounds to an external amp...

• Emotiva BasX A5 or XPA-5 Gen3; or
• Outlaw Audio Model 5000x,

...and let the capable AVR handle the rest.

 

[jagbor]

on a much smaller/newbie scale: I saw an older thread re powering the ELAC Uni-fi 5.2's so have added my other speakers to create a new thread. I am just starting my venture into audiophilia so excuse my ignorance. I have older Yamaha HTR-6130 and 5063 AVR's; new ELAC Uni-fi B52's; fluance centre channel and Paeadigm 10" powered sub. May be buying some ELAC Debut 5.2's for rear surrounds altho also have some older Paradigm Atoms. I am getting mixed signals re how easy vs difficult it is to drive the ELAC Uni-fi's w.r.t. watts per channel? Since neither the Yamaha HTR-5060 or Yamaha HTR-6130 AVR's do not have pre-outs.....I may be buying a Denon AVR 2808ci for $150 soon. I have researched and determined that I could use Russounds AD 1.2A adaptors in lieu of no pre-outs with my Yamaha AVR's. However, I am looking for a power amp and pre-amp but am on a small budget of less than $800 Cdn for both. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I mostly listen to music from CD's or from YouTube......am not a gamer and not sure if I would get into music from Spotify/Amazpon Prime etc as have never tried......I occasionally watch a movie as well. I also prefer quality of sound over loudness altho there are some songs that just need to be cranked like pretty much Elton Johns Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Captain Fantastic and Brown Dirt Cowboy cd's! ! Thanks for any help and have a wonderful day!

 

[ToddDavid]

VTV Hypex 502MP or 252MP is all you need. 1 yr longer warranty than Buckeye, no back order like Buckeye, a nicer case then Buckeye, and same performance as Buckeye… for about the same price. This from someone who has both VTV and Buckeye. Absolutely zero point in a big, heavy, less-efficient, more expensive A/B amp. None whatsoever. The Hypex amps match the performance of the 6700; the Outlaw, Emotiva, and some other A/B amps do not.

Get a 7-channel now and an 6-channel later... and no need for going with expensive input buffers. Just use the stock Hypex like it was designed for.

Can also look for used Hypex on HifiShark from VTV, Buckeye, and Nord.

 

[squared80]

This is easy: @BuckeyeAmps.

Multichannel Hypex NCORE and Purifi Amplifier Products — Buckeye Amps - Hypex NCORE and Purifi 1ET400A

A wide selection of multichannel Class D amplifiers built around Hypex NCORE and Purifi Eigentakt modules. Hand built with free shipping!

www.buckeyeamp.com

 

[jtavegia5]

I know of a high end manufacturer who uses Emotiva in his home theater set up. He could be using his own amps. Enough said.

 

[PixelPusher15]

Why the desire to offload everything from the Denon? Your small theater doesn't really need that much amplification. Your fronts only need 65w to reach reference 105dB peaks. If your surrounds are 7.5' away (I'm guessing they're not) they'd need 125w. If you're not listening at reference levels then the power needs go down a lot. At -10dB from reference you only need 7w for the fronts and 15 for the surrounds (again assuming just 7.5'.

 

[flyers10]

Why the desire to offload everything from the Denon? Your small theater doesn't really need that much amplification. Your fronts only need 65w to reach reference 105dB peaks. If your surrounds are 7.5' away (I'm guessing they're not) they'd need 125w. If you're not listening at reference levels then the power needs go down a lot. At -10dB from reference you only need 7w for the fronts and 15 for the surrounds (again assuming just 7.5'.

Probably goal to eventually offload all so have the amps to go to separates. That will be sometime before that happens so for now more likely something to power front 3 since are 4ohm, maybe a 5ch if better value/upgrade path.

 

[BASSAHOLIC]

Why the desire to offload everything from the Denon? Your small theater doesn't really need that much amplification. Your fronts only need 65w to reach reference 105dB peaks. If your surrounds are 7.5' away (I'm guessing they're not) they'd need 125w. If you're not listening at reference levels then the power needs go down a lot. At -10dB from reference you only need 7w for the fronts and 15 for the surrounds (again assuming just 7.5'.

I was looking for the right opportunity to post this! The other day, I was listening to my Stevie Wonder live concert Blu-ray. Superstition is one of my favorite songs from that concert. I was listening at a deafening volume of -9db on my AVR. The pumping bass was pressurizing my ears and despite the cement floor, my MLP was vibrating. Stevie's vocals were borderline painful to my ears. But I was in seventh heaven. It was almost like being in the front row.

Given these kinds of recent threads about needed power, I just had to do an RTA of that song, at the level I was listening. My SPL meter was reading peaks of 97dB to 100dB, which were clearly being driven by the pulsing bass from my subs. If you take a closer look at the RTA below, you can see the painful vocal peaks were hitting 85db.

As I've stated in earlier posts, 85dB peaks in my theater translates to about 3 to 4 watts. So, I was enjoying that deafening concert experience with about 4 watts from my AVR.