60 Watts enough power for rear surrounds? (1 Viewer)

[Paul Pan]

Hi, I'm looking for a cost effective amp to replace an ailing 2 ch amp for my rear surrounds. I've been considering the B&K ST 2140 (140 W/ch) and the B&K ST 260 (60W/ch). The ST260 is very reasonably priced (

 

[Warren_Sc]

I say yes. My old receiver had 80 watts for the fronts and 25 watts for the rears and I was happy with it. I am assuming you're only using the rear for surrounds with bass management.

I am sure others will chime in with a different amp to consider. How sensitive are your rear speakers?

 

[Paul Pan]

Thanks for the input Warren. For now, my rears are used just as surrounds for HT (they are on the list for upgrading). Their freq response is 65-20,000 Hz, sensitivity is 88 dB SPL/W/m, impedence is 8 ohms.
I have no sub in my system yet so I have my fronts set to large. I'm using Kef Reference 2's as mains which have pretty good low end. I know its no substitute for a sub, but I have very limited space - and many neighbors .

 

[JonBouche]

Why not find 2 more Marantz MA500's? You can usually find them used on eBay or Audiogon for about $150-180/each, which would be about the same price as the ST260, or maybe even slightly less. If you upgrade your rears in the future, you wouldn't have to worry about upgrading the amp.

While 60/wpc is fine for some situations, many of todays DD and DTS movies have a lot of sound coming from the rears, especially concerts. This requires a fair amount of sound from the rears to match the rest of the system.