Suggestions for 3 or 5 channel amp for Denon 4802 (1 Viewer)

[Mariusz Filonowicz]

What is a good amp match for Denon 4802. I haven't decided if I'm going to get 3 or 5 channel amp, yet. I would like to stay within $1200 limit but if there is something little above that price I would also consider it.

Thank you,

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Get a good 3 channel amplifier(for fronts and center) and power the rest of your speakers with the Denon. Some good 3 ch. amplifiers are Anthem MCA 3II, Parasound, B&K, as well as Acurus make some good 3 ch. speakers.

 

[Trey Jones]

don't forget the Outlaw Audio 750. Very nice looking.

 

[Brandon B]

Odyssey Stratos HT3. Little more money, (~$1460), but I have one am am completely pleased with it.
150W per channel is a good match with the Denon's power rating.
BB

 

[Ron Reda]

Another vote for Odyssey...

I have mated my Denon 3802 with a stereo Odyssey Stratos and the results have been dramatic...and the Stratos is STILL breaking in!!!

 

[Legairre]

I use a Rotel RMB-1095 with my Denon 3300. My next choice was the Parasound HCA-2205AT. Great amp. I just noticed a few weeks ago that you can get it at the following link for $1499.00 brand new. The 2205 is 220x5wpc and gets great reviews. It's a little over your limit, but you did say you'd consider something a little bit over. If it was that price when I was amp shopping I would have bought it.
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/topsellers/parhca2.html

 

[Tyson]

Yet another vote for Odyssey - I have had a 2 channel stratos for a while & just got the 3 channel stratos delivered to me today (for a full 5 channels of stratos power in my HT).

They are replacing a Bryston 5B-ST (3 channel) and 3B-ST (2 channel) set of amps. To put it bluntly, the Stratos kicks the Bryston's little hiney. I had some sweaty palms over ordering an amp online, unseen and unheard, but very worth the risk (I guess I could have sent it back if I hated it, but I would have still been out the cost of shipping).

Guess what I am trying to say is that (like my nOrh speakers), the Stratos really lives up to the hype. I thought the Bryston's were pretty darn good amps until I got the Stratos. . .

 

[Robert M]

Tyson:

I have been looking at separates for a while and have a short list that consists of Cinepro, Meridian, and Bryston.

I am curious about what you consider shortfalls with the Bryston. If I had a complaint about the Bryston amps, it would be that they lean toward the bright side. I can get a good price on the 557 two channel Meridian amp, which I felt was very neutral and brought out the best of my M&K speaker system. I am not familiar with the Odyssey products and would like to know which products you considered during your selection process.

Bob

 

[Jack Smith]

You should seriously consider one of the Cinepro Closeouts at Cinepro.com. These are previously owned units that have been used as demo units at trade shows such as CES and CEDIA, or have been traded in for upgrades and are completely refurbished and come with a warranty. I purchased a Cinepro 3k6SE1 (375x6)to power my front three speakers, and a Cinepro 2k5II (250x5) which I use to power my four surround speakters. My pre-pro is a Denon 5800; speakers Klipsch RF7s, RC7, RS7s, and a pair of RF3's as the center surround pair. It has been a great investment, and the company is "very" responsive to customer inquiries. Money well spent. Am I overpowered? Yeah, probably...but...why not???? Anyway, we like other machines.

We are the Borg...

 

[Tyson]

Well, I owned the Brystons for about 3 years & was perfectly happy with them. That was until I started doing some blind amp shootouts with another audiophile. Aragon 8008ST, Counterpoint SA-220, norh multiamp and LeAmp, and finally the Odyssey. Of course by the time we had the Stratos in the mix, the Bryston's were long gone, I had sold them to finance the purchase of the 2 Stratos units.
Main 3 areas I thought the Brystons fell down were:
1) they were bright. Some people will say "Bryston's are neutral, if you feed them a crappy or bright signal, they will reproduce that". In my experience, this is simply not true. We tried them out on a variety of systems, 75% of which could in no way be considered bright (tubed CD player, soft domed tweetered speakers, high quality woofers [speakers were the nOrh 9.0's and 7.0's and 4.0's], etc). On every system the Bryston's sounded bright.
2) poor imaging. The soundstage was flat, very little depth behind the speakers, and not very much extension in front of the speakers. Lateral imaging between the speakers was good, but rarely did it expand to outside the speakers. Even within the soundstage, instruments sounded very 2 dimensional, with not much body.
3) poor ambiance retrieval. The sense of "air", or the rendering of an acoustical space - these were non-existant on the Brystons.
The Bryston's primary strengths were sheer detail retrieval, and bass. Lucky for me the Stratos is equal in the detail retrieval, and even more powerfull in the bass. Another thing that I liked about the Brystons is the 20 year warranty, but the stratos has that too.
Also, I demo'd Classe amps pretty extensively about a year ago as a possible replacement for the Brystons, but I didn't feel like there was enough of a difference in performance to justify the expenditure.
I would say if you are looking to spend $2k on 5 channels of amplification, the Stratos would be my first choice. If $2k on 3 channels, check out the Aragon 8008x3. If you really want to spend some $$ check out the Audio Research VT100.2 - quite possibly the best amp I have heard.
For more info on the Stratos, check the reviews section of audioreview.com or Odyssey has a forum at www.harmonicdiscord.com and the Odyssey web site is www.odysseyaudio.com

 

[Doug_B]

I would say if you are looking to spend $2k on 5 channels of amplification, the Stratos would be my first choice.

In all fairness, 5 Stratos channels costs about $2500 now, not including any capacitor upgrades. I also own the 2 and 3 channel Stratos amps, currently going through break-in, and am very happy thus far.

Doug

 

[Frank Frandsen]

I am using the Sherbourn 5/1500 and could not be happier. A mono-block design pumping 200WPC at 8 ohms and 300 at 4 into 5 channels. Can be had for $1400 dollars here: www.tsto.com.

 

[Rob Curtis]

I'm another very satisfied Odyssey Stratos owner.

I have both a 3 channel (HT3) and a stereo model.

I have the cap upgrades on all channels.

I highly recomend these amps.

I would be looking into some QSC and Cinepro amps as well.

 

[Ricky T]

http://www.saturdayaudio.com/usedgear.htm
Reputable saturday audio has a used Aragon 8008x3 for $1099. They have a 90 day warranty on used gear, as well as 90 day trade-in/store credit policy. Doesn't hurt to give them a call......

 

[John Morris]

Oddysey folks!!!

What are you all driving with these amps? I am thinking of trying these amps but am concerned with the drop in power that I'd experience. Yes, I know about the old doubling in power/dB relationship, but, I have large, full range, hard to drive, inefficient speakers, that I like to play very loud. Right now, my front three channels are all bi-amped with 300w x 2 per speaker. If I did buy the Stratos, I'd opt for the 120mf upgrades.

So, will these amps give me enough power to be happy?

Since these amps apparently take alot of time to start to sound good, is 14 days enough time to evaluate them?

Finally, does anyone have the "wet black" finish and if so, what does it look like... pioneer elite urushi?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Rob Curtis]

I'm driving nOrh 9.0's..relatively easy to drive 2 way speakers.
If it were me I would go to the Odyssey forum at:
http://harmonicdiscord.com/forums/vi...p?forum=14&944
and also see the reviews at www.audioreview.com
for some of the speakers these guys are driving.
Also if you call Klaus he will be able to direct you with his best advice.
14 days will give you an idea of how good these guys can be.
If you are not happy after 10, send them back.
They do open up a bit more, but you will get the gist of these amps after 5 days of continously running a signal through them.

 

[Robert M]

Well, thanks to this thread, numerous reviews of the Odyssey product, and a long conversation with Klaus, I ordered 3 Strato mono blocks today (8 weeks delivery)I will be using them to power my M&K S150's L.C.R and use my AVR 5800 for the four surrounds. I was particularly impressed with the current capability of the mono blocks and the soft sell approach Klaus used when comparing his product to the many power amps I have looked at over the past few months. My second choice was the Meridian 567 amp, which would have cost me almost three times as much, with limited customer service.

I wont receive them for a while, but will certainly let everyone know how they sound within my system at a later date. If they sound as I hope they will, I will be ordering 4 more for the rest of my M&K system.

BoB

 

[Salvador]

Robert, would you mind posting a breakdown of the price you paid for? Tax, brokerage fees, shipping, etc. I'm also planning to get an amp from odyssey but it will be sometime next year.

thanks

 

[Kevin Biller]

I second the request for posting your expenses: ie. exchange, shipping, brokerage fees, etc. I bought SVS and inspite of exchange, they are a great value in Canada. I have been looking at Parasound and Bryston and am wondering how Odyssey compares cost wise. To bad the the loonie just tanked to a new record low today:frowning: .

 

[Tyson]

John Morris,
I am using them on some pretty easy to drive speakers (nOrh marble 7.0's and marble 4.0's), but when I did my "shootouts", we hooked the amps up to my friend's Apogee Ribbon speakers (simply called "The Apogee"). These are 72" tall rull range ribbon speakers. The Stratos (with the 120k cap upgrade) had no problem pushing them quite loud. Here is a picture of his speakers (I think the look pretty cool, in a 2001 monolith kinda way):

And, just for fun, here is a picture of my speakers (nOrh 7.0's):