Is it okay for a 2ch amp to handle front L/R while using my receiver for C/SR/SL? (1 Viewer)

[Kyle_Y]

I own an Onkyo 797 which I love, but my front two tower speakers are 4ohms, and 2ch amps are reletively inexpensive, Parasound 1000A, Rotel 1070. Will it be okay, soundstage wise, for me to add an additional 2ch amp, or will my front soundstage sound awkward since the center would be running off of my 797. The 797 has no trouble powering all speakers simultaneously, but I would like the extra headroom and omph that a seprate amp would give me. The 5ch equivilants to the 1000A(1205A) and the 1070(1075) are more than I would like to spend. The Parasound 855A is in the limit, but it seems to not have has much per channel as the 1000A and 1070, and really I only need the extra amp for my front two speakers to reduce the load. Please help me out, not sure about this.

 

[JackS]

It works well. The only thing that really counts is accuracy for two channel sources, for movies, and I'm not trying to sound facetious, but who really cares. If you are now satisfied with center channel dialog for DVD's, that should be sufficient. The same goes for surrounds. I've never heard a complaint from anyone who has connected a two channel amp.

 

[Kevin. W]

If the difference I experienced when I added my Rotel RMB-1066 to my Denon 1801 is similar to yours then you will be greatly pleased with the addition. The power source in recievers just can't meet those in dedicated amps.

Kevin

 

[Stefan A]

Well, in a few days I will be getting a Adcom 555 (200x2). I will add it to my yamaha rx-v596 for the mains and report how it sounds.

 

[Scott H]

Is it okay for a 2ch amp to handle front L/R while using my receiver for C/SR/SL?

Absolutely.

And if two channel music is a priority it may be the best allocation of funds as well. Without getting into separate pre's for music and movies in the same system, the amplification from a receiver such as the 1050 will do a more than adequate job with dialogue and surround in most applications.

 

[Yohan Pamudji]

I am doing exactly that. I have a Parasound 1500a driving the mains (Paradigm Studio 80s) while my Marantz SR-7000 receiver drives the center and 2 surrounds (Studio CC and Studio 20s). Theoretically you want the same amp to drive the front 3 to have a seamless front soundstage for movies, but I can't tell the difference. I'm completely satisfied with the front soundstage of my setup as is. Of course I'd like to move to total separates one day, with a pre/pro and an additional 3-5 channel amp. But I won't sweat it if the 3-5 channel amp isn't a Parasound, although that's the way I'm leaning.

 

[Scott Pagac]

I also just recently did the same thing. I added an H/K PA2000 for the front L/R and reassigned the channels on the AVR 520 to handle the remaining 5 channels. The difference is night and day. I would never go back to just a receiver running the front L/R.

I too will be going the seperates route someday, but for now I am loving what I have.

 

[Ron Reda]

Kyle_Y,

That's exactly what I did and I couldn't be happier with the way things turned out. I wanted to have quality 2-channel playback, but also wanted to maintain a good HT set up, so I bought an Odyssey Stratos to power my two front speakers and my Denon 3802 powered the center and two surrounds. I felt that if I went with a 3-channel Stratos up front my upgrade path was limited because I would never be able to upgrade to monoblocks for the fronts if I ever had the funds to do so. This set up worked well for a while and I recently added a Marantz MA 500 monoblock to power the center.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I agree we only really pay attention to details in music, with HT we're distracted by the video and the surronds/centre channels to really notice any slight differences in sonic signitures between different amps (assuming one isn't woefully inadequat)