Question about amplifiers.

[apliwanai]

I have a 5.2.2 setup in my basement theater. I have seen a number of people on this sub with a receiver AND some additional amps to add power to some or all of their channels.
My question is, how do I know if I should add additional amp(s) to my setup? For example, what benefit does adding an amp to power my front three main channels offer? Or is my receiver enough? I use my theater for everything, TV, streaming, blu-ray movies, video games. I've never really noticed any issues with my sound setup, but I've always been curious about amps. My gear list is below.
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-LX102
Fronts: Paradigm Monitor 7 v4
Center: Paradigm Studio CC 470 v3
Surrounds: Paradigm Titan v3
High Fronts: Paradigm Atom v3
Subwoofer: Dayton 1200 x 2
Projector: Optoma UHD60 4K Projector

 

[Cos]

The very quick answer: You can't add additional amps without upgrading your AVR as you do not have the required pre-outs to support external amps

I will jokingly say, "Ignorance is Bliss" If you haven't noticed any issues and are happy with the sound setup, then don't upgrade. Curiosity is expensive, but if you really feel the need to upgrade, come up with a budget and work from there.

 

[highfigh]

I have a 5.2.2 setup in my basement theater. I have seen a number of people on this sub with a receiver AND some additional amps to add power to some or all of their channels.
My question is, how do I know if I should add additional amp(s) to my setup? For example, what benefit does adding an amp to power my front three main channels offer? Or is my receiver enough? I use my theater for everything, TV, streaming, blu-ray movies, video games. I've never really noticed any issues with my sound setup, but I've always been curious about amps. My gear list is below.
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-LX102
Fronts: Paradigm Monitor 7 v4
Center: Paradigm Studio CC 470 v3
Surrounds: Paradigm Titan v3
High Fronts: Paradigm Atom v3
Subwoofer: Dayton 1200 x 2
Projector: Optoma UHD60 4K Projector

Is your system loud enough without needing to crank the volume to 100%, or near that level? If so, you probably don't need a separate amplifier.

Reviews and user comments cause more neurosis than mothers.

 

[lovinthehd]

Without an avr with a full set of pre-outs as said it's somewhat a moot point. That is one reason I like to get an avr with pre-outs, flexibility in amp if needed as well as ability to use powered speakers. Unfortunately they omit the full set of pre-outs on the lower tier models these days. That said I don't use power amps on my avrs generally....even tho I have spares.

If you're not running into particular audible issues you're probably just fine. You might want to play around with this to help estimate your power needs. http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

 

[Swerd]

My question is, how do I know if I should add additional amp(s) to my setup? For example, what benefit does adding an amp to power my front three main channels offer? Or is my receiver enough? I use my theater for everything, TV, streaming, blu-ray movies, video games. I've never really noticed any issues with my sound setup, but I've always been curious about amps.

Your question can be difficult to answer clearly because the sound quality differences from a larger amp can be subtle and hard to easily describe in words. It depends on your speakers, how powerful your receiver is, and the acoustic properties of your room.

A number of years ago I added an external 200 wpc amp to my existing receiver (AVR). This 2 channel amp drove my front left and right speakers. My AVR at the time, was a modest Denon rated at 70 wpc. So adding the external amp increased the power going to my front left & right speakers by about 3-fold.

At first, I couldn't say I noticed anything had changed. But eventually I noticed that the speaker's bass seemed a little more crisp and firm (less bloated, better controlled?) on certain musical selections. It was subtle, and depended on the music, so it wasn't always noticeable. Within a few weeks, I noticed the audible cues had changed for sound that was comfortably loud vs. too loud. With the more powerful amp, I could listen at louder levels without noticing that it was uncomfortably loud. After that, I started turning it down.

Apparently, with the AVR I had judged when to turn it down by the amount of noise or distortion I noticed. When I started using the bigger amp, those noise cues were less noticeable. It's not unlike driving a car, where I could estimate my speed by listening to the road noise. If I got new tires, or drove on smoother pavement, those cues changed and my sense of speed was off. The more powerful amp was apparently quieter, as in less noisy than the smaller amp, while at the same time, it drove the speakers louder. Words for this are difficult, and I hope my description makes sense.

Of course, as the others above have pointed out, all this is academic for you. Your Pioneer receiver cannot send pre-amp level signals to an external amp. This would require an AVR with pre-amp outputs. Usually these are RCA jacks clearly labeled as pre-amp outputs.

I posted this anyway because you deserve an answer to your question. And, because I wanted to make the point that by tripling the amplifier power, I noticed only a subtle change in sound quality. The external 200 wpc amp I bought was used, and I paid much less than a new amp would cost. It bears to keep that in mind.

 

[fmw]

It is very unlikely that you need anything else. You may want something else but that is another matter. Since home audio rarely uses more than 20 watts per channel except in exceptional instances a receiver has plenty of power. If you have a subwoofer you are not likely to get even to 20 watts since most of the power consumption is in the bass frequencies.

All modern amplifiers have quite flat frequency response performance and inaudible distortion and other anomalies so any sonic differences are almost certainly a result of hearing bias as long as the amp isn't being over-driven. I speak from experience here thanks to a series of bias controlled listening tests I conducted some time ago.

If you like the sound from your system that is all that matters. If you are dying to have something new then, as I say, that is another matter.

 

[Kingnoob]

Without an avr with a full set of pre-outs as said it's somewhat a moot point. That is one reason I like to get an avr with pre-outs, flexibility in amp if needed as well as ability to use powered speakers. Unfortunately they omit the full set of pre-outs on the lower tier models these days. That said I don't use power amps on my avrs generally....even tho I have spares.

If you're not running into particular audible issues you're probably just fine. You might want to play around with this to help estimate your power needs. http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

Yeah unless you crank music loud all day and run fronts on full range you probably won’t need a special power amplifier. You’ll probably get a headache.

 

[AliceMiller]

Is your system loud enough to hear without turning up the volume to 100% or close to it? If so, a separate amplifier is most likely not necessary.

 

[apliwanai]

I have a 5.2.2 setup in my basement theater. I have seen a number of people on this sub with a receiver AND some additional amps to add power to some or all of their channels.
My question is, how do I know if I should add additional amp(s) to my setup? For example, what benefit does adding an amp to power my front three main channels offer? Or is my receiver enough? I use my theater for everything, TV, streaming, blu-ray movies, video games. I've never really noticed any issues with my sound setup, but I've always been curious about amps. My gear list is below.
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-LX102 https://nox.tips/
Fronts: Paradigm Monitor 7 v4
Center: Paradigm Studio CC 470 v3
Surrounds: Paradigm Titan v3
High Fronts: Paradigm Atom v3
Subwoofer: Dayton 1200 x 2
Projector: Optoma UHD60 4K Projector

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