Alex-F-V

I searched the FAQ and.....

I could not find any information on Mono blocks? I want to know about these and what they are (amps from what I have read) and how they work. And why in so many cases people reccomend them for BIG budget people?

I basically want to know everything about them.

I even did a search for them in the FAQ and found nothing?

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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John Garcia

It's not so much a separate power cord, as much as it is a separate power supply dedicated to the individual channel (which is basically the definition of a monoblock). That single channel does not share it's current draw with any other channels.

Monoblock = a one channel amp.

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Bob McElfresh

Monoblocks are kind of cool. Some high-end systems only send line-level signals to each speaker with a RCA cable. Behind each speaker is a mono-block amp with a short run of speaker wire to the speaker.

Mono-blocks are a bit more expensive than a multi-channel amp because now each channel has to have a case, power cord, fuse, transformer, cap, etc. and the assembley cost is nearly the same for a mono-block as it is for a multi-channel amp.

Mono-blocks also provide isolation from the other channels. This way a bunch of sound from the L/R speakers dont drain the capacity of the center speaker.

ChrisWiggles

AS john pointed out, the difference in mono-amps, is that each amplifier has it's own power supply. This is the key difference between a stereo amp, and two mono-blocks. It's not just that you buy two amps instead of one, because most stereo or multichannel amps will have one power supply, with x number of amplifier circuits. Heavy draw from one channel here and there, and you shouldn't run into problems, especially with well-designed amps, but if you really deplete the capability of the power supply with a few channels of heavy lifting, and the others can run out of steam.

This is sort of confusing, because you'll also see stereo amps which are described as "dual-mono" amps. These would have both amps in the same chassis, similar to a regular stereo amp, but they'd have completely separate power supplies, etc. So it would be like buying two mono-amps, but stuck in a box. A stereo amplifier is not exactly two mono-amps stuck in a box, since each amp usually shares off the same power supply.