1st Amp Please help!

[goodavis]

Hello everyone,
If I could get some assistance with purchasing my 1st amp, I'd greatly appreciate it.
I am running a 5.1.4 system.
Receiver: Anthem Mrx1120
L/R: Definitive Technology BP9040 with Atmos enabled A90 attached
Center: Definitive Technology CS9080
Surround: Definitive Technology Pro monitor 800
Height: SVS Prime Elevation
I have narrowed my search down to two amps maybe 3 as a possible to drive my front 3. The receiver can drive the rest.

Prime choice: Emotiva XPA 3 275w x 3 The most powerful of the 3 @1199

2nd choice Monolith: 7 200w x 7 slightly less power than Emotiva but for only $400 more get 4 extra channels which a 7 ch in Emotiva prebuilt or sending the XPA 3 back in to add channels at a later time will cost more than the Monolith.

Last Outlaw 5000: 120w x 5 Least power of the 3 & most budget friendly @ 599 but not sure if would be able to tell the diffrence in power between the 3.


I am more concerned with power, performance & sound quality. I'm not in need of balanced inputs & from reviews it seems all amps had good build quality & nothing significant to report as a con. If anyone has had a comparison between these any info is appreciated. Also if the info given could be in layman's terms, I'm not a tech or an engineer I'm a noob lol.


Thanks in advance

 

[lovinthehd]

Kinda depends on your needs, how far away you are from the speakers and how loud you want. Try playing around with this spl calculator to get an idea what the power differences mean for your speakers. Do you feel your receiver can't provide the levels you want? Another idea if you don't mind a coupla boxes that aren't as pretty as some of the consumer amps is something like a few Crown XLS 1502s.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

$3500 AVR w/ 11CH amp w/o XLR, Front LR Speakers sensitivity 92dB/w/m.

In most rooms, you won’t even need any ext amp. Your AVR doesn’t have XLR.

If you sit no more than 12FT and don’t listen crazy loud, you want to use your $3500 AVR as a pre-pro, I would get 2 x Outlaw 5000 for all 9Ch.

 

[PENG]

My favorite is the Monolith 5 channel, simply for the best transformer size on per channel basis, a theoretical benefit only.