Better to have 11.2 or 9.2 with external amp?

}Fear_Inoculum{

}Fear_Inoculum{

Senior Audioholic
Which would be better to have? An AVR with 11.2 channels, or an AVR with 9.2 and a 2 channel external amp, both being used to set up a 7.2.4 system.

Cheers.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
More likely than not, you will benefit from putting your Front 3 on an external Amp as most AVRs will start to be limited if trying to push the volume during movie night.
As always with conversations like this: YMMV.
You should explore (if you haven't already) an online SPL Calculator to help determine your needs.
Peak SPL Calculator
Consider that your Front 3 will demand the most power more likely than not and the demand placed on Surrounds, Rears, and Atmos/Presence Speakers is usually much less.

All that said:
What AVRs are you looking at?
What are your speakers?
 
}Fear_Inoculum{

}Fear_Inoculum{

Senior Audioholic
More likely than not, you will benefit from putting your Front 3 on an external Amp as most AVRs will start to be limited if trying to push the volume during movie night.
As always with conversations like this: YMMV.
You should explore (if you haven't already) an online SPL Calculator to help determine your needs.
Peak SPL Calculator
Consider that your Front 3 will demand the most power more likely than not and the demand placed on Surrounds, Rears, and Atmos/Presence Speakers is usually much less.

All that said:
What AVRs are you looking at?
What are your speakers?
Denon AVR-X4700 or the X6700, or something comparable to those from Marantz. I was looking at the Yamaha RX-A3080, but that is impossible to find right now.

I'm upgrading my L/C/R to Paradigm 800F from a terrible budget brand I bought in 2015.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
If you don’t listen super loud or sit too far away, and the speakers don’t present a difficult load, you may likely be fine without additional amplification. Again, this really gets into the minutia of an age old conversation. ;)
I chose mono block amplification for my Front 3 and Surrounds because I am more into music, and I wanted the Surrounds included to keep the system matched for 5-channel audio.
That said, it’s nice to take some load off the AVR, and I would still recommend cooling for it as well, something like the AC Infinity Aircom T8 or similar (depending on your set up).
Regardless, I would suggest starting without. It’s easy to hear if you are getting the performance you want. D&M have a 70% guarantee on power delivery for all your channels. So take your stereo power rating and reduce that to 70% and that’s what you should be able to expect to be delivered to all channels when running your 7.x.4.
As far as the difference between the models… just shop for the features you want. If the 4700 does it all, go for that and plan on adding the amp to get the +2 channels. This is really a personal preference kinda thing at that point. ;)
 
}Fear_Inoculum{

}Fear_Inoculum{

Senior Audioholic
If you don’t listen super loud or sit too far away, and the speakers don’t present a difficult load, you may likely be fine without additional amplification. Again, this really gets into the minutia of an age old conversation. ;)
I chose mono block amplification for my Front 3 and Surrounds because I am more into music, and I wanted the Surrounds included to keep the system matched for 5-channel audio.
That said, it’s nice to take some load off the AVR, and I would still recommend cooling for it as well, something like the AC Infinity Aircom T8 or similar (depending on your set up).
Regardless, I would suggest starting without. It’s easy to hear if you are getting the performance you want. D&M have a 70% guarantee on power delivery for all your channels. So take your stereo power rating and reduce that to 70% and that’s what you should be able to expect to be delivered to all channels when running your 7.x.4.
As far as the difference between the models… just shop for the features you want. If the 4700 does it all, go for that and plan on adding the amp to get the +2 channels. This is really a personal preference kinda thing at that point. ;)
I guess "super loud" is subjective as well lol. For me, loud is amazing. For my wife, not so much. Not much music listening with this set up, as it's my HT room and due to where it's located it's impractical to use it for much more than HT. I do like my movies loud though. Currently, seating positions are ~9' to the front row of seating and 14~15' to the back row.

I might even be able to get away with the X3700, but I don't want to short change myself if we decide to move/build a new house (which is being discussed right now) and I get to build a bigger HT room (which I will be building should we go that route).
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
I guess "super loud" is subjective as well lol. For me, loud is amazing. For my wife, not so much. Not much music listening with this set up, as it's my HT room and due to where it's located it's impractical to use it for much more than HT. I do like my movies loud though. Currently, seating positions are ~9' to the front row of seating and 14~15' to the back row.

I might even be able to get away with the X3700, but I don't want to short change myself if we decide to move/build a new house (which is being discussed right now) and I get to build a bigger HT room (which I will be building should we go that route).
Reading that, I’d say you should consider planning on amps for at least the Front Three right out of the gate.
Without you saying it directly, I have to assume you want to achieve reference level SPL. Even with a speaker rated at 92dB sensitivity, you'll want to have power on tap for that. I'd say you should consider at going straight to an Amp that can provide 200-300w of good clean power. While you won't need it all the time, having the power available for those precious moments is nice.
To be fair, you absolutely could get away with less. the difference between 128 and 256w will only be 3dB SPL, after all. I would argue though, that depending on your SPL needs, I like to have that headroom in store so that if I am pushing my system in a more spirited session, I'm not pushing it completely to the point of tapping out it's potential.
Of course, YMMV. ;)
 

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