Thanks for all the replies. To answer some of you, I have Axiom speakers. I’ve been happy with them for many years and didn’t bother mentioning the brand due to the negative air surrounding them on this site in the past.
As for the Monolith or Outlaw amps, I’m certain I wouldn’t be able to use them without running a dedicated 20 amp line—something that would require far to much work than I’m willing to do. Thanks to Peng’s link to the bench test of the 4520–I was looking for one, but somehow didn’t see that myself—my belief that that AVR was plenty powerful while running 7 channels seems to be accurate. I have it in my head that I want no less than 100 Watts per 7 channels driven. The amp, though, is not really for this AVR. I’d like to buy a new model and have found that few today still offer the power of the 4520. Seems to me more these days are in the 115 to 125 Watt range, but that’s with only 2 channels running. Been looking at something like the Marantz SR7013 but suspect it would drop below 100 Watts per channel when running 7 channels, so the 125 Watt 7 channel amp I’ve been considering was a way to buy a non-flagship AVR and still get the minimum power I desire.
Would I like a 200 Watt amp like the Monolith? Sure, but I think even if the power drain on my existing out wasn’t a concern, I don’t really need quite that much power. However, as some have pointed out, the small amount of power I’ve been considering in a 125 Watt amp would probably not be noticeable, so I’m inclined to consider forgoing it in favour of looking at an AVR with more power. The cost of a slightly cheaper AVR and an amp would certainly be higher than something like a Marantz SR8012 or Denon AVR-X6500. But I’m still unsure and probably change my mind tomorrow...
