Pat Underwood

Need help selecting an amp

I'm currently in the process of building a dedicated theater, and am looking for an amp to really make my B&W's sing.

I currently have a denon AVR-3300 and plan on continuing using it for a pre-amp for the time being.

I have B&W 704 fronts, HTM7 center and DM-602 for surrounds. The new 700 series seem a little to power hungry for my denon and I seem to be losing dynamics and imaging from my previous setup.

I will use this system primarily for movies and videogames, though I'm listening to quite a bit of SACD lately.

My system:
Denon 2900
Denon 3300
Samsung DirecTV reciever (sucks but it was free)
X-box
PS2
Sony 32XBR200 (soon Panny 500U)

Room is ~ 11 X 18

Any suggestions (subjective or by pratical experience) would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew Pezzo

I just got a new setup of 700 series speakers - 705's for the front and HTM7 (eventually I will add the matching surrounds). I use a Rotel RMB-1075 (5 channels @ 120 watts per) which works great and retails for $1,000. Rotel is a good match with B&W but there are other that will work just as well, its really a function of how much you want to spend and how many channels. Since HT is the primary use I would personally go with a 5 channel model as I like to keep the speakers, amplification, etc the same on the front 3 channels.

Pat Underwood

I see alot of people recomend the rotel/B&W combination, I guess I should clarify that the upper limit of what I'm willing to spend is ~ 2k.

I don't think I have a local Rotel dealers but maybe I should head over to Seattle and have a listen.

Cheers

Thanks for the response

Andrew Pezzo

As my dealer likes to say "B&W and Rotel are in bed together". If you look at either companies website they show each others gear together.

If 2K is your budget you could step up to the 200 wpc version of the rotel amp (dont remember the model number), I am sure the 704's would be very happy with that. Outlaw (an online brand) makes a well regarded 7 channel amp (200 wpc) for around $1500-$1600. Unfortunately I dont have a lot of experience with seperate amps so I am not sure what other brands fall within your budget.

Taya

Don't know if the reason many B&W dealers are also selling Rotel is the fact both are british but indeed I would agree there are a good match, maybe not perfect. In my opinion the Parasound/B&W sounds better and if you have a very nice sub to work the low end, I would even argue that my earlier ATI1505 may have sounded better with the B&W.
To my ears the B&W are a little on the bright side and are even out with Parasound/Rotel etc. that are somewhat on the warm side. Just thinking out loud... Happy Listening.

Robert Cowan

you could do the 1095 (200wpc version of the 1075) as mentioned above, OR , get two 1075's and bi-amp... its more wire, but you will have a bit more headroom and you will have more wire, so you will get a bit better separation. that's what i would do.

Pat Underwood

Thanks for all of your responses, it can be very daunting when deciding how to spend 2k on a limited budget. I've looked at adcom, parasound, even outlaw. but w/o dealers in my area for B&W its very difficult to get auditions in. I really don't like to buy equipment w/o listening to specific combinations.

I wish that I had local dealers with take home and try policies but they seem very reluctant to do so. I guess I must look shifty, (or too young).

So anyone with their own real world opinions is greatly appreciated.


Thanks again