Help me choose an amp

[dhead1]

That's what these forums are all about!

BTW Nice system you have there! Always good to see a fellow Polkie!

cfrizz,
Thanks, I have only had the amp and the processor for a month, It sounds pretty goo but there is still some tweeking to do. I need a nice cd player, how is you rotel?

darien87,
did the amp come in yet?


Duane

 

[darien87]

darien87,
did the amp come in yet?


Duane

No dammit!!! It'll be here Tuesday.

 

[darien87]

Hey Tom,

The Belkin PF31 just got here. This is one nice looking power center. I'm definitely gonna have to move put it in the cabinet to show it off.

This weekend, I got my cabinet fan situation all sorted out, and disconnected my speakers from the receiver and routed all the cables to the shelf where the amp will sit, (it was killing me to not be able to watch any movies. I'm waiting to watch The Illusionist and Hanibal Rising).

I'll get the PF 31 all ready to go tonight, then tomorrow, I'll get the amp all hooked up! Can't wait. I'll take pics and get them posted tomorrow.

 

[tomd51]

Sweet, you're in the home stretch...

It is pretty sharp looking, considering it's only for power management. My only advice once you get the Acurus is to make sure you utilize the power receptacle/outlet on the Belkin designated for 'AMP' and not the ones for the low draw devices (CD, DVD, STB, etc.), then re-calibrate the level settings of all your speakers... -TD

 

[darien87]

My only advice once you get the Acurus is to make sure you utilize the power receptacle/outlet on the Belkin designated for 'AMP' and not the ones for the low draw devices (CD, DVD, STB, etc.), then re-calibrate the level settings of all your speakers... -TD

Exactly. I was reading the manual, and I like how it has an 8 second delay on the amp connections to eliminate turn on/off "thump". Although 8 seconds seems a little long.

 

[Seth=L]

Exactly. I was reading the manual, and I like how it has an 8 second delay on the amp connections to eliminate turn on/off "thump". Although 8 seconds seems a little long.

Larger resevoir capacitors means more time to fill them, it's a good thing.
(Martha Stewart markets amplifiers)

 

[tomd51]

Exactly. I was reading the manual, and I like how it has an 8 second delay on the amp connections to eliminate turn on/off "thump". Although 8 seconds seems a little long.

Nah, you won't even notice it. It's a hair more than most receiver's will take before actually outputting any sound (Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, etc.).

Listen to Martha, she knows her stuff. I think on her next show she'll show you how to make an inexpensive, yet reliable shieve for those hard to handle inmates... -TD

 

[darien87]

Nah, you won't even notice it. It's a hair more than most receiver's will take before actually outputting any sound (Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, etc.).

Listen to Martha, she knows her stuff. I think on her next show she'll show you how to make an inexpensive, yet reliable shieve for those hard to handle inmates... -TD

Hey Tom,

One more question. I see that the PF 31 has 2 methods of switching the amp on with the receiver, (120V AC power connections, or DC Trigger output). Unfortunately, I am using both of the AC connections to run my cabinet fans, (I just wired each fan to it's own power cable). So I guess I can just use the trigger out from the receiver. Is there any difference in the 2 methods?

 

[moreira85]

belkin

hey darien thats funny i just bought the belkin pf31 also from buy.com and waiting for it to come in, i have been researching the acurus a200x3 for awhile now, you have to let me know what you think of it when it comes in and what differences you notice!!!

 

[darien87]

hey darien thats funny i just bought the belkin pf31 also from buy.com and waiting for it to come in, i have been researching the acurus a200x3 for awhile now, you have to let me know what you think of it when it comes in and what differences you notice!!!

I just got finished hooking everything up to the PF 31. This thing kicks ***! It's just a damn sexy piece of equipment. I hooked the DC trigger output to my receiver and tried it out and the switched outputs did indeed turn on when I turned my receiver on. Can't wait to get the amp hooked up tomorrow.

 

[darien87]

Here are some pics.

Man that PF 31 is sexy.

Here's where the amp will go.

 

[moreira85]

acurus a200X3

Darien, the pf31 looks impressive, i cant wait to get mine in on friday. i am curious what you have plugged into it besides the receiver, amp, and TV. Do you have your sub plugged into it or is your sub directly connected to the back of the A/C on your receiver?

fill me in on your Acurus thoughts. i am very curious because i have the yamaha 5960 receiver running the VR3s and boston 920 center. i am wondering how these will do powered by that A200X3.

nice setup by the way.

 

[darien87]

Darien, the pf31 looks impressive, i cant wait to get mine in on friday. i am curious what you have plugged into it besides the receiver, amp, and TV. Do you have your sub plugged into it or is your sub directly connected to the back of the A/C on your receiver?

I have my TV, PS 3, Receiver, and Cable box plugged into the "Always on" inputs. My PS 2, DVD player, VCR and Amp are plugged into the "Switched" inputs. I'm using the DC trigger output of my receiver to turn on the switched components.

My subs are self powered, but they are plugged into different outlets than the PF 31.

It's kinda interesting, with all of my components plugged into the PF 31, but not turned on, the Belkin says I'm pulling about 1 amp. When I turn on the TV, it goes up to about 3 amps. I'm interested to see how much juice I'll be pulling with the DVD player, receiver and amp all working at the same time.

 

[darien87]

So here are some pics of the amp in it's new home.

With the PS 3, receiver, amp and TV all on, watching MI 2, I never saw the PF 31 register more than 4 amps. I guess they don't use much power after all. Unfortunately, my fans were still bugging me, so I turned them down some more. I noticed that the PS 3 fan kicked into high gear just like it used to. Oh well. Maybe I'll just try keeping the cabinet door open a bit when I'm watching movies.

As far as my impressions of the amp, it definitely seems to be a step up from the receiver. It definitely plays quite a bit louder. I only listened to music for about 20 minutes. I'll have to do more critical listening later.

One thing I noticed is that with the receiver, when I cranked it up to -5db or so, (with no music or anything playing, just listening to the amp), I would hear noticeable hiss start to kick in at about -10db and get progressively louder from there. With the amp it stays nice and clean. No hiss at all. Although there is some hiss if I have the DVD player on. But I guess that means it's the DVD player that's causing the noise.

One negative about the amp is that it has a little bit of a hum. But you don't notice it if the cabinet door is shut.

 

[tomd51]

Looks sweet, D...

In addition to some of the things you've mentioned, I noticed the soundstage seemed a bit wider with the amp than just with the onboard amps of the receiver. This may depend on the placement of your mains, but if they're close to an equal triangle w/your main listening position, you may notice this as well.

As far as the humming is concerned, you may want to check some of your wiring to keep as much RF interference away from the RCA cables going from your 661 to the Acurus. I haven't experienced this myself (except w/the A500s), but that's typically the cause from what I've seen in other posts.

Once you've had some good listening time with a wide variety of your material, keep us posted on your thoughts. So far, it sounds like a positive step... -TD

 

[darien87]

****** BREAKING NEWS!!!! *******

I think I just figured out why I wasn't completely blown away by my Acurus amp. Last night I listened to some more rock, (a little Megadeth, Pantera, Exies, and some Rihanna and Missy Elliott to hear some bass). Everything sounded good. But for some reason, I decided to check my Rythmik sub and it wasn't even on!!! My VR 2's were putting out all that bass on their own!!

It looks like I had my bass output setting incorrect. I had it set to "sub" when I guess it should have been set to "both". Unfortunately the manual to my 661 is unclear on what the settings really do, but it made it seem like if I set it to "both" that it would be sending a full range signal to my front speakers. I never noticed that the subs weren't on with music, because they were definitely on with movies and games. So this morning I switched the sub output to "both" and lo and behold, the subs came on with music.

I guess that's a testament to the power of the Acurus that I didn't really notice that my subs weren't playing. I am also re-impressed with my VR 2's. I didn't think I could get that much bass out of two 6-1/2" woofers!

Anyway, I can't wait to get home from work today and re-listen to the jazz I initially listened to the other day. David Sanborn should be even more impressive with my subs playing.

Thanks again for the recommendation Tom. Seems like you helped me make a great choice. The guy that I bought the amp from said that the amp didn't hum when he owned it. So now I just gotta find out where the hum is coming from.

 

[tomd51]

I thought something might have been a little off, usually the difference is pretty substantial. This isn't to say the on-board amps of the Yammy are bad, they just don't necessarily compare when doing critical listening at higher volumes with capable speakers.

I've got my VR3s set to small for everything but when I listen to hi-res music (DVD-As & SACDs), then I've got them set to 'large' and the crossovers set to 40Hz. But it sounds like the 661's got different settings than my 2500, so what works for me 'setting-wise' might not necessarily work for you. I was pretty pleased w/my VR3s w/out a sub also, they handle the low end quite well for most music and don't seem to 'lose it' so long as they've got plenty of power behind them.

Well definitely keep us posted, I'm pretty positive you'll be pleased with the changes... -TD

 

[tomd51]

Thanks again for the recommendation Tom. Seems like you helped me make a great choice. The guy that I bought the amp from said that the amp didn't hum when he owned it. So now I just gotta find out where the hum is coming from.

You're quite welcome, I hope it's just what you wanted/needed.

I'm sure you'll pin down the 'hum' issue soon enough, hopefully it's not too bad for now.. -TD

 

[darien87]

You're quite welcome, I hope it's just what you wanted/needed.

I'm sure you'll pin down the 'hum' issue soon enough, hopefully it's not too bad for now.. -TD

I'm sure the amp isn't what my neighbors wanted or needed, but who cares about them.

The hum is really a non-issue. You don't even hear it, unless you have the cabinet door open and put your head about a foot away from the amp. It's just me and my perfectionist nature to want to get rid of it.

 

[tomd51]

I gotcha, I thought it was a hum in the output whereas it was coming from your speakers, not from the unit itself.

You really wanna pacify that pefectionist in you? Change out the soundworks center for something the BA VR line... I used an MC500 a few years ago w/an Infinity Interude setup and never realized how off the panning from left to right was until I got a matching center. It's a nice speaker, it just didn't mesh as well as I'd thought it would.

Depending on your music to movies ratio, it might not be terribly important, but then again... -TD

ps
Really, I'm not trying to spend all your money...