Denon X3700h and amp

[BlenderBoy]

Hi. New here but watch a lot of YouTube on home theater stuff. I have a Denon X3700H and a 7.1.2 setup in my apartment. So I watched a lot of videos and decided on getting an external amp to take some of the load off of the AVR so I bought a BasX A3 amp. I figured that I’d run the left and right front tower speakers and the center channel off of the Emotiva amp and keep the surrounds and height on the Denon.

So got everything hooked up and powered up the AVR and went into amp assign to configure it and only see preamp for every channel.

Is there no way to connect the A3 to my AVR to power my LCR?

 

[lovinthehd]

You'll have to define what you hooked up and how? The 3700 can certainly do what you want. Amp assign of pre-amp only is not what you want, unless you had external amps for all channels. The pre-amps are live all the time in any case, so just concentrate on the overall 7.1.2 limitation.

 

[BlenderBoy]

I didn’t power up the amp yet, but I guess I should try it (can’t do it now as landlords live above but will try in the daytime tomorrow). I have RCA’s going from AVR preamp (FL, FR, & C) to the amp plus the trigger cable and associated speaker wires. . So if that works and I run the room correction with the mic then set the levels with my sound meter then I’m all set.

I was hoping to be able to turn off the amps in the Denon for at least the front channels to free up some power for the others

You'll have to define what you hooked up and how? The 3700 can certainly do what you want. Amp assign of pre-amp only is not what you want, unless you had external amps for all channels. The pre-amps are live all the time in any case, so just concentrate on the overall 7.1.2 limitation.

 

[lovinthehd]

I didn’t power up the amp yet, but I guess I should try it (can’t do it now as landlords live above but will try in the daytime tomorrow). I have RCA’s going from AVR preamp (FL, FR, & C) to the amp plus the trigger cable and associated speaker wires. . So if that works and I run the room correction with the mic then set the levels with my sound meter then I’m all set.

I was hoping to be able to turn off the amps in the Denon for at least the front channels to free up some power for the others

It doesn't really free up power using the settings that turn off some of the electronics involved, but can offer a slightly lower thd at higher pre-out voltage. Not a particular worry as far as audibility goes. I don't think your 3700 has the ability to turn off some of the amps circuitry like that in any case outside of the full pre-amp mode.

Just choose the most appropriate amp assign setting https://manuals.denon.com/AVRX3700H/NA/EN/DRDZSYasydxfyy.php

Otherwise yeas, that's the way to go. If you run Audyssey you don't particularly need to set levels manuallly.

 

[BlenderBoy]

Thanks.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm wanting to use 11 channels with my Denon AVR-X3700H which happens to require an external amp. My initial research led me to the Emotiva BasX series of amps. Specifically the A3 and A7 seemed the most promising. For those with more experience, is there a reason I would prefer one model over the other?

Personally if I'm getting an external amp I'm getting something more substantially powerful than the Emotiva BasX series....they're more like the avr's amps than different.