Are my Yamaha AVR (RX-A2060) and Monolith Amp (3x200) mismatched?

W

WhiteCoatGeek

Enthusiast
Are my Yamaha AVR (RX-A2060) and Monolith Amp (3x200) mismatched?

I added a Monolith 3x200 Amplifier to my living room setup few months. To be honest, I didn't see any huge improvement in volume at the least. I had lots of issues with ground loop hum. I ended up moving my CC speaker back to the AVR and hooked my L/R speaker through a passive hum eliminator. With this I was able to eliminate the hum issue but the performance issue remains

My current Setup - Yamaha RX-A2060 -> L/R PreOut -> Hum eliminator -> Monolith 3x200 Amplifier -> KEF Q900

While doing some research I stumbled upon couple of threads discussing inadequate Peamp voltage output from Yamaha AVRs

Here is a statement from a Parasound engineer to a customer that I found in a post on Emotiva Lounge.

"Yamaha has been problematic with external amps for years, because they have unusually low output voltage. At full volume you will get less than half of the rated power from the Parasound, This is not an unusual for any external power amp, and the Parasound fully complies with THX recommendations for sensitivity. You should consider a different receiver/preamp brand than Yamaha. Yamaha has kind of painted themselves into a corner"

Monolith Amp specs state that it needs 1.6 V to put out its full power output and has a Voltage gain of 28dB
Yamaha Specs - Rated Output Level - PRE OUT - 1.0V/470 Ohm | Maximum Output Level PRE OUT/ZONE OUT - 2.0 V or more

I am confused whether my AVR is not giving enough voltage to Amp to show me improvement or am I just looking for issues when there is none and just had too high expectations when it came to impact of adding a separate amplifier to my setup. Now I understand that the passive hub eliminator could impact the signal and I planning to do some measurements with and without it in the circuit but even before I added it, I was underwhelmed with the performance.

No one knows more about these issues than @gene and I was hoping if he can chime in.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Are my Yamaha AVR (RX-A2060) and Monolith Amp (3x200) mismatched?

I added a Monolith 3x200 Amplifier to my living room setup few months. To be honest, I didn't see any huge improvement in volume at the least. I had lots of issues with ground loop hum. I ended up moving my CC speaker back to the AVR and hooked my L/R speaker through a passive hum eliminator. With this I was able to eliminate the hum issue but the performance issue remains

My current Setup - Yamaha RX-A2060 -> L/R PreOut -> Hum eliminator -> Monolith 3x200 Amplifier -> KEF Q900

While doing some research I stumbled upon couple of threads discussing inadequate Peamp voltage output from Yamaha AVRs

Here is a statement from a Parasound engineer to a customer that I found in a post on Emotiva Lounge.

"Yamaha has been problematic with external amps for years, because they have unusually low output voltage. At full volume you will get less than half of the rated power from the Parasound, This is not an unusual for any external power amp, and the Parasound fully complies with THX recommendations for sensitivity. You should consider a different receiver/preamp brand than Yamaha. Yamaha has kind of painted themselves into a corner"

Monolith Amp specs state that it needs 1.6 V to put out its full power output and has a Voltage gain of 28dB
Yamaha Specs - Rated Output Level - PRE OUT - 1.0V/470 Ohm | Maximum Output Level PRE OUT/ZONE OUT - 2.0 V or more

I am confused whether my AVR is not giving enough voltage to Amp to show me improvement or am I just looking for issues when there is none and just had too high expectations when it came to impact of adding a separate amplifier to my setup. Now I understand that the passive hub eliminator could impact the signal and I planning to do some measurements with and without it in the circuit but even before I added it, I was underwhelmed with the performance.

No one knows more about these issues than @gene and I was hoping if he can chime in.
He may chime in, but if do a search, he has in fact covered this topic more than once. Regarding the hum, you should checked all your wiring and connections carefully. Does the AVR hum with the Monolith only, have you try a different amp?
 
A

Andrein

Senior Audioholic
Are my Yamaha AVR (RX-A2060) and Monolith Amp (3x200) mismatched?

I added a Monolith 3x200 Amplifier to my living room setup few months. To be honest, I didn't see any huge improvement in volume at the least. I had lots of issues with ground loop hum. I ended up moving my CC speaker back to the AVR and hooked my L/R speaker through a passive hum eliminator. With this I was able to eliminate the hum issue but the performance issue remains

My current Setup - Yamaha RX-A2060 -> L/R PreOut -> Hum eliminator -> Monolith 3x200 Amplifier -> KEF Q900

While doing some research I stumbled upon couple of threads discussing inadequate Peamp voltage output from Yamaha AVRs

Here is a statement from a Parasound engineer to a customer that I found in a post on Emotiva Lounge.

"Yamaha has been problematic with external amps for years, because they have unusually low output voltage. At full volume you will get less than half of the rated power from the Parasound, This is not an unusual for any external power amp, and the Parasound fully complies with THX recommendations for sensitivity. You should consider a different receiver/preamp brand than Yamaha. Yamaha has kind of painted themselves into a corner"

Monolith Amp specs state that it needs 1.6 V to put out its full power output and has a Voltage gain of 28dB
Yamaha Specs - Rated Output Level - PRE OUT - 1.0V/470 Ohm | Maximum Output Level PRE OUT/ZONE OUT - 2.0 V or more

I am confused whether my AVR is not giving enough voltage to Amp to show me improvement or am I just looking for issues when there is none and just had too high expectations when it came to impact of adding a separate amplifier to my setup. Now I understand that the passive hub eliminator could impact the signal and I planning to do some measurements with and without it in the circuit but even before I added it, I was underwhelmed with the performance.

No one knows more about these issues than @gene and I was hoping if he can chime in.
A2060 should give you enough voltage to run Monolith to full power. My A1070 did not have any issues with Monolith. What you are saying can be relevant to lower end yamaha avrs (and may be not). Did you run ypao after adding Monolith into the system?
 
Phase 2

Phase 2

Audioholic Chief
Are my Yamaha AVR (RX-A2060) and Monolith Amp (3x200) mismatched?

I added a Monolith 3x200 Amplifier to my living room setup few months. To be honest, I didn't see any huge improvement in volume at the least. I had lots of issues with ground loop hum. I ended up moving my CC speaker back to the AVR and hooked my L/R speaker through a passive hum eliminator. With this I was able to eliminate the hum issue but the performance issue remains

My current Setup - Yamaha RX-A2060 -> L/R PreOut -> Hum eliminator -> Monolith 3x200 Amplifier -> KEF Q900

While doing some research I stumbled upon couple of threads discussing inadequate Peamp voltage output from Yamaha AVRs

Here is a statement from a Parasound engineer to a customer that I found in a post on Emotiva Lounge.

"Yamaha has been problematic with external amps for years, because they have unusually low output voltage. At full volume you will get less than half of the rated power from the Parasound, This is not an unusual for any external power amp, and the Parasound fully complies with THX recommendations for sensitivity. You should consider a different receiver/preamp brand than Yamaha. Yamaha has kind of painted themselves into a corner"

Monolith Amp specs state that it needs 1.6 V to put out its full power output and has a Voltage gain of 28dB
Yamaha Specs - Rated Output Level - PRE OUT - 1.0V/470 Ohm | Maximum Output Level PRE OUT/ZONE OUT - 2.0 V or more

I am confused whether my AVR is not giving enough voltage to Amp to show me improvement or am I just looking for issues when there is none and just had too high expectations when it came to impact of adding a separate amplifier to my setup. Now I understand that the passive hub eliminator could impact the signal and I planning to do some measurements with and without it in the circuit but even before I added it, I was underwhelmed with the performance.

No one knows more about these issues than @gene and I was hoping if he can chime in.
That's a question for Gene, or check with a Yamaha tech, they do answer on their support forum. Or check with the company you purchase the amp from. Do your own research! This is a forum with open-ended opinions. I would highly recommend checking with the manufacturers. PS, you are correct, Gene has discovered issue's with Yamaha gear and he has been in contact with Yamahas engineering department. So yeah shoot Gene a email to his inbox, if he has time he will answer. He has many times responded to my inbox questions.
 
S

snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
The 2060 has pretty good power on its own and runs basically silent. The minute you add an amp with 3 prong power cord, you find out the ground situation in that room. Are you running 9 speakers? I’m guessing you may not really require an amp.
 
Phase 2

Phase 2

Audioholic Chief
The 2060 has pretty good power on its own and runs basically silent. The minute you add an amp with 3 prong power cord, you find out the ground situation in that room. Are you running 9 speakers? I’m guessing you may not really require an amp.
Keyword pretty good power, supply remember it is a AVR, some say they are nasty lil black boxs..:p:D;)
 
Phase 2

Phase 2

Audioholic Chief
Keyword pretty good power, supply remember it is a AVR, some say they are nasty lil black boxs..:p:D;)
Lol, have you had a chance to to check out TLS Guy? Aka Doc, post or Threads, he hates AVR'S and in a lot of ways i agree with him. But not everyone can afford all separates or even want to go that route. So we have AVR'S for the masses on a budget. Not everyone can be a true audiophile, :D;) we have to improvise and go about this audio entertainment thing with what means one his.;)
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
It was the Yamaha A800 series AVR that shut down with voltage above 1.9V.

The Yamaha A1000, 2000, and 3000 should be able to handle 2V.

The A2000 series AVR can output almost 200 Watts x 2 Ch into 8 ohms @ 1% THD.

The Yamaha and Monolith amp probably have similar voltage gain of about 28dB, so they will have about the same volume.

The trending consensus on the internet is a bunch of hearsay. No wonder so many new enthusiasts have great expectations when they hook up their new powerful amps, only to realize that the sound is the same as before.

So, bottom line - you have a great amp. But you most likely, like most people, don't need the extra amp to power your speakers. :D
 
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