Necessary amplification for surrounds (1 Viewer)

[Mike Nep]

I am converting a 22' x 18' room into a home theater and want to know if I need a 5 channel amp with a super high power rating. Rooms pretty big. Being a guy I would love to have 150+ watts per channel but can't justify to myself spending over 700-800 on surround amplification. I was looking at the parasound 855 with 5 x 85 but don't know if this will do. Can anyone give comments if this will be enough? Remember, this is just for surrounds. Thanks everyone.

 

[John Garcia]

Um, what is the rest of the gear are we talking about?

My room is about 13x22x9, fed with 105wpc (20-20K) and it is plenty to fill the room. An 85W Parasound seems like plenty of power also.

 

[jeff lam]

The Parasound is an awesome amp. It should do nicely.

 

[John Garcia]

Quality amplification does not necessarily mean high a wpc rating...

 

[Mike Nep]

Running an old yamaha 995, odyssey 2 channel (on its way), paradigm studio 80's for fronts, studio cc, adp 170 surrounds (mini monitors for rear surround L/R when the time comes). Upgrading soon to 6.1/7.1 pre/pro but don't know what to get know that the outlaw fiasco just formulated. (Any suggestions on something ~1000.00 range). I'm always banking on buying only quality amps and parasound, anthem, marantz, ati, and acurus have come into mind. Just don't want to spend the big $ on these company's higher amperage models if I don't need to.

 

[Mike Gl]

I use a Rotel 993 (3X200 watts) for the LCR (Def Tech BP10 and CLR1000) and two Rotel 981 amps (2X130 watts each) for the surrounds (Def Tech BP2X on the sides and Def Tech Celsius in the rear). This works well in a home theater room that is about the same size as yours.

The efficiency of your speakers is another factor to consider.

 

[Sankar]

I have a 27x18 room and in the past I had powered my speakers using the Denon AVR2700 (80W per channel). My speakers are quite efficient (91db) and the 80W were enough (I later moved to a 3801 to be able to use external amplification and to improve the pre section).
Will this 5ch amp be driving only your 4 surrounds (sides and rears) or will it also drive your center? I think that if its only for the surrounds, 85W should be plenty. After all a majority of the power will be handled by your sub (unless you are driving full range surrounds). If you are planning to drive the center as well with the 5ch amp, you'd want to make sure that the amp is matched with the ones that drive your mains.