Pre-amp, Amp, Ahhhhhh - need a little help (1 Viewer)

[Dave Miller]

Hope you guys can help. Just moved into a new house and put two Elan outdoor speakers out on my back porch. Currently they are connected to the Denon 3300 AVR in my living room as the "B" set of surrounds. It does work as I only want them to come on when I'm listening to music in 5 channel stereo, but I'm not happy with the sound level on those speakers. Obviously having them connected as the "B" set or surrounds isn't cutting it. I'm assuming I need an amp.

Do I need a pre-amp or an amp and what's the difference. What brand should I go with?

I want something with a thin profile, simple to use and cheap. I only need to drive these two speakers and I only want to spend about $150 -$200. Upgrading to a new receiver is not an option right now, but will be in a few years, hence why I don't want to spend a lot. Is this possible or am I out of my mind?

Will I just run a set of RCA's from the multi-out on the Denon to the amp and then connect the two sets of speaker wire?

Thanks in advance.

Peace,

DM

 

[Frank A]

Dave, since you are looking for an inexpensive solution, look at the Behringer A500 "pro" amp or something similar. I only mention it because that is what I have. It was $200 shipped brand new. You may can find it cheaper (used). I have mine connected to my two front main speakers (not to a second room) in my 5.1 system.

If your connections can be used as pre-outs, then I think this would fit the bill perfectly. The connection is pre-outs on the AVR to this amp to the two speakers. I think the wattage is something like 160 or 170 at 8 ohms and 230 watts at 4 ohms.

I even saw a very similar (clone) to it last week at my local pawn shop. I believe the name on it was "Alesis" and it was a little less power (older model, I think), but the chassis, knobs, etc, was exactly the same (I thought). Their asking price was a little high at $165 so I passed (money is short right now), but am thinking about it for my surrounds or center in the future.

Good luck, Frank

 

[Dave Miller]

Frank,

Thanks for you assistance. Your suggestion lead me on a search where I found this amp.

A little cheaper and seems very simple. What do you think?

Peace,

DM

 

[Frank A]

Dave, sounds just like what you may be looking for, doesn't it? I'm not real knowledgeable on amps, so maybe someone else can chime in to see if it would actually work/upgrade your sound? But, can't beat the price if it will work for ya.

Good luck, Frank

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Just make sure it will power both of your speakers. If the speakers are 4 ohms, you’ll probably need two of them because the amp isn’t rated for 2-ohm loads.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[LUKassZ32]

The Behringer A500 is a DJ audio amp and not a home theater amp. Does this matter, are there any limits/downfalls?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

There’s a good chance it’s not as clean as a HT amp, but with outdoor speakers that won’t necessarily matter.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Frank A]

LUK, the A500 is my first amp, so I've really nothing to compare it to. It does seem to work fine in my 5.1 ht setup. It powers my two main speakers which are the kit281's from Adire Audio. I love listening to the two speakers in stereo for music.

There are several of the "pro" type amplifiers that are being used for HT speaker amplification and seem to be getting good reviews.
Mostly a lot of "bang for the buck" type of thing.

I went with this because of the relative inexpense. Two hundred and thirty watts (4 ohms) for $200.00. The Behringer line probably gets the most flack of the pro amps because of its supposedly "cheap" build. A couple of other pro amps that get good feed back on other forums are Crown and QSC, but they are a little more money than what I could spend at the time.

The A500 is fanless, but does run cool on my set up (I guess I don't push it real hard, although I do like loud when listening to my movies/music). I think one of the complaints about most pro amps are that they do run fans (and, thus, can be noisy somewhat) to cool them down. This bothers some people and not other people. There are also mods that can be done on some of these fans (quiets them down some).

There, now you know as much about them as I do. It is another (inexpensive) option that I tried out (usually boils down to money, or lack thereof) and that I am relatively happy with.

Good luck, Frank.

 

[Dave Miller]

Well, I got it. So far so good. It is a little muddier than my Denon, but that is to be expected.

My biggest disappointment was discovering that my Denon doesn't send a signal through the analog "Multi" out when digital sources are being used. No downconversion I guess. Thankfully, both my dvd player and my HDTivo have hot analog outs that I piped straight into the amp.

Works great. Thanks for the input.

Peace,

DM