Starting a HT (1 Viewer)

[Michael-N]

[major editing - after more research, i've smartened up my post.]

Hey guys,

I am new to the forum, have been reading things over for the past few days. I am starting work on a home theatre. I have a pair of Infinity Alpha 20's that I picked up, and am starting to design the amplifier side of things. I have a pair of JL 10W3 car audio subwoofers that I would like to incorporate into my system. They are Dual 4ohm speakers, so I can wire one to 8ohm or 2ohm, or both to 1ohm or 4ohm. I was thinking of purchasing a mono amplifier (or bridgeable) that goes to 4 ohms and just pushing both of them. A higher output amp at 8 ohm would probably be more expensive, and would probably handle a 4-ohm load anyway, so why not use them both.

My first question is how suitable would car subwoofers be in a home theatre setup? They have very nice excursion, and I have them each in a ported box, so I doubt I would have to make many if any adjustments. What is the difference in design between home and car audio subs, other than car audio ones tend to me more weather-friendly?

I guess this would be a good time to describe my environment. It is a 11 x 15 room, with the television on the 11' wall. It is actually a college dorm room, if you wonder about why it's so small. The system will be moved to a room about 20 x 20 when I get back home.

I live (go to school) in the Utica, NY area, am relatively new to the area, and have yet to find a place that sells professional level pro-audio equipment, therefore it's hard to really test and listen to the equipment. I am going to be looking around a bit more for a shop that sells what I am looking for.

 

[Michael-N]

[major edits to my initial post, got a lot smarter in the last few hours]

I have been researching around the different kinds of equipment that is available. For now I am looking to purchase a stereo amplifier. I would prefer it have both balanced and unbalanced inputs. For now, in my building stages, I will be feeding it unbalanced outputs from my DVD player. Once I am able to acquire the proper processors/etc, I will simply run the digital output from the DVD player to the processor, and run the balanced outs from that to my separate amps.

For now I am looking for an amp that meets this criteria:

- Has both balanced and unbalanced(RCA) inputs
- Is strictly a 2 channel (stereo) amplifier
- Can do about 200w/channel.

Budget: $400.00

Also, I am looking for an amplifier in the same price range that meets this criteria:

- Has both balanced and unbalanced(RCA) inputs
- Can put out something like 300x1@2 ohms, or 600x1@4 ohms. If I can find a decent amp that does 300x1, I will just use one subwoofer, or buy 2 amps. Otherwise the 600x1@4 ohm would be about the power rating I would need to drive two JL 10w3's.

I have never seen home audio equipment that can put out at 1 ohm, but the speakers are able to be wired as such, and it wouldn't hurt to get something like 600x1@1 ohm, if possible.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Welcome, here the answers always come. I think you may want to go used. I don't believe an amp that puts out 200 watts per channel is available at that price. You may be looking at 1,000 to 1,200 for an amp that have everything you are looking for.

 

[Michael-N]

I see. Would it be your recommendation to actually get an amp that does 200x2 to drive Infinity Alpha 20's? I am slightly lost when it comes to how much power I would need to effectively drive speakers in the home audio world. Perhaps a 100x2 amp would suit me perfectly. Again I would like to find something in the $400 or less range.

 

[Geno]

I purchased my B&K 5 channel amp thru audiogon.com

they are all used/demo units on auction.

they have a healthy range of different amps to look at.

 

[Jerome Grate]

11 x 15 room is not extremely small, but I think that an amp in the area of 80 to 100 watts per channel will do if you are only using it for 2 channel applications. I checked one site and that site (Audio Advisor) has the Adcom that pushes 80 watts per channel 8ohm load and 125 @ 4 ohms here and Parasound for much more here. Note the prices which exceed your budget. Like I mentioned earlier, you may want go used or refurbished. Good sound doesn't necessarily require high power.

 

[JohnSer]

Michael-N, If you are going to run right off the dvd player RCA outputs, you need an integrated amp. ie one with a pre-amp. You can't just go direct to a poweramp, in most cases. The input levels don't match, you will end up with low volume sound and possible high noise floor. For your requirements, you will probably have to go used. The web is probably much better source than the Utica area.

The car subs might be marginal, at best, in you dorm room, but will probably be laking when you move back. Car subs are designed with parameters to work in the small cabin of a car. A home subkit or new active sub is probably cheaper than an amp that is stable into two ohms. Most sub amps, that use plate amps, have both low level and speaker level inputs, incase the integrated you buy, doesn't have a sub out channel.

Just curious, are you going to MV, Utica, or SUNY college, there?

Forgot to add: The Infinity Alphas, I believe are close to the old Interlude series. I have IL10s and IL30s, that are powered off 70w and 100w receivers, and get louder than I can stand. But, I'm far from a college student in dorm room ;-)

JohnS

 

[Michael-N]

[edit - figured out my confusion. should have taken a step back and looked at it again.]

JohnSer - I am going to SUNY IT in Utica.

As far as pricing, I can extend my budget to $500'ish since it seems like any less is really asking for too much. I have no spouse that can yell at me, yet :grin:

The ADCOM power amp looks good and coupled with the Parasound pre-amp (P/HP-850) I think it will suit my needs perfectly.

Mike