Monolith 8250x 8 Channel Amp

[the machine]

All,

Tell me I'm dumb for my purchase. I bought the 8250 when it was on sale. My thought was get this for my surrounds/rear surrounds/atmos. While I don't have all of these speakers yet, the set up will be Focal Sopra No1 for surrounds (have them as my LR now and will move them to surrounds when I get No2 or No3s), Focal Kanta No1 for rear surrounds, and Focal ICW8 300 for 4x atmos.

My thought was this is more power than I need for these speakers so headroom for days. Well, on eBay, monoprice has the 8125 for $1444, which is about $750ish less than the 8250 after tax. With the speakers I have/will have, does this make more sense to get the 8125 and return the 8250?

Side thoughts: Now that I have the 8250, I kind of want to just use it for the whole bed level and get a 4 channel for atmos. That puts the amp total cost around $3300. If I return the 8250 for the 8125, Then get the 3 channel buckeye purifi, it's around the same price. I'd have a hard time justifying both the 3 channel purifi and the 8250 for the price alone.

 

[Danzilla31]

All,

Tell me I'm dumb for my purchase. I bought the 8250 when it was on sale. My thought was get this for my surrounds/rear surrounds/atmos. While I don't have all of these speakers yet, the set up will be Focal Sopra No1 for surrounds (have them as my LR now and will move them to surrounds when I get No2 or No3s), Focal Kanta No1 for rear surrounds, and Focal ICW8 300 for 4x atmos.

My thought was this is more power than I need for these speakers so headroom for days. Well, on eBay, monoprice has the 8125 for $1444, which is about $750ish less than the 8250 after tax. With the speakers I have/will have, does this make more sense to get the 8125 and return the 8250?

Side thoughts: Now that I have the 8250, I kind of want to just use it for the whole bed level and get a 4 channel for atmos. That puts the amp total cost around $3300. If I return the 8250 for the 8125, Then get the 3 channel buckeye purifi, it's around the same price. I'd have a hard time justifying both the 3 channel purifi and the 8250 for the price alone.

As a fellow audioholic I feel it's important to say that you are not dumb and I support your purchase

 

[Danzilla31]

All,

Tell me I'm dumb for my purchase. I bought the 8250 when it was on sale. My thought was get this for my surrounds/rear surrounds/atmos. While I don't have all of these speakers yet, the set up will be Focal Sopra No1 for surrounds (have them as my LR now and will move them to surrounds when I get No2 or No3s), Focal Kanta No1 for rear surrounds, and Focal ICW8 300 for 4x atmos.

My thought was this is more power than I need for these speakers so headroom for days. Well, on eBay, monoprice has the 8125 for $1444, which is about $750ish less than the 8250 after tax. With the speakers I have/will have, does this make more sense to get the 8125 and return the 8250?

Side thoughts: Now that I have the 8250, I kind of want to just use it for the whole bed level and get a 4 channel for atmos. That puts the amp total cost around $3300. If I return the 8250 for the 8125, Then get the 3 channel buckeye purifi, it's around the same price. I'd have a hard time justifying both the 3 channel purifi and the 8250 for the price alone.

On a serious note that 8250 is a BEAST I'd do the same thing keep it for the bed layer and as you add on speakers get a 4 channel for the atmos.

You won't need a crazy expensive 4 channel for the atmos speakers anyway and you'll have time before you need to buy it so a couple extra paychecks to make up for your very nice splurg on the 8250 nice choice by the way and your good to go

 

[Danzilla31]

All,

Tell me I'm dumb for my purchase. I bought the 8250 when it was on sale. My thought was get this for my surrounds/rear surrounds/atmos. While I don't have all of these speakers yet, the set up will be Focal Sopra No1 for surrounds (have them as my LR now and will move them to surrounds when I get No2 or No3s), Focal Kanta No1 for rear surrounds, and Focal ICW8 300 for 4x atmos.

My thought was this is more power than I need for these speakers so headroom for days. Well, on eBay, monoprice has the 8125 for $1444, which is about $750ish less than the 8250 after tax. With the speakers I have/will have, does this make more sense to get the 8125 and return the 8250?

Side thoughts: Now that I have the 8250, I kind of want to just use it for the whole bed level and get a 4 channel for atmos. That puts the amp total cost around $3300. If I return the 8250 for the 8125, Then get the 3 channel buckeye purifi, it's around the same price. I'd have a hard time justifying both the 3 channel purifi and the 8250 for the price alone.

Plus the 8250 you can down the road add on more serious speakers for any of your bedlayer speakers and that beautiful beast will run them no problem

So not just headroom audio wise but it'll give you headroom to upgrade to any speaker you want as well

 

[the machine]

Dan, this may or may not happen in the future, but once my focal system is set, I have no plans to ever change them. That's the only reason I'm even questioning this. It's so much power that will likely never get used if I went with a 3x (or 3 monos) + 8250.

The eBay price is roughly equivalent in terms of discount % that the 8250 was. When the original sale was on, it wasn't close, 15% to 28% difference in discount.

I'll probably just keep it as is, but if people can convince me other wise...

 

[Danzilla31]

Dan, this may or may not happen in the future, but once my focal system is set, I have no plans to ever change them. That's the only reason I'm even questioning this. It's so much power that will likely never get used if I went with a 3x (or 3 monos) + 8250.

The eBay price is roughly equivalent in terms of discount % that the 8250 was. When the original sale was on, it wasn't close, 15% to 28% difference in discount.

I'll probably just keep it as is, but if people can convince me other wise...

I LOVE audio stuff I'm the worst guy to help convince you to make a very logical sound reason to save you money

Hopefully some of our more experienced audioholic members who have self control can get on here and talk some sense into you

 

[ryanosaur]

Dan, this may or may not happen in the future, but once my focal system is set, I have no plans to ever change them. That's the only reason I'm even questioning this. It's so much power that will likely never get used if I went with a 3x (or 3 monos) + 8250.

The eBay price is roughly equivalent in terms of discount % that the 8250 was. When the original sale was on, it wasn't close, 15% to 28% difference in discount.

I'll probably just keep it as is, but if people can convince me other wise...

You do want to have some reserves, or Overhead, in your Amp. Same with Subs. I probably very rarely touch the capabilities of some of my gear… but it’s there for those occasional moments when it’s needed.

 

[the machine]

Ryan, that was my initial thought. Extra power can never be a bad thing. I guess now I'm wondering if having 200w on rear surrounds or atmos is double overkill.

Dan, I too have that problem, and used to even worse with headphones. At one time I had something like 14 pairs and 8 amps. I've sold most of it off, but a few pieces still left to go. I only want the sense talked into me though if it in fact does make sense.

 

[ryanosaur]

Ryan, that was my initial thought. Extra power can never be a bad thing. I guess now I'm wondering if having 200w on rear surrounds or atmos is double overkill.

I would put 500w per channel on the Mains and Surrounds, and 250w per channel on Atmos. Rears? Hard one... I would probably keep those matching the rest of my Bed Layer Speakers, but for me, they get used natively in some of the Multichannel Audio that I enjoy.

The way I see it is on a strong dynamic peak, I may need about 1/3-1/2 of that available Power. The important thing to remember is that the next 3 dB above what you need is still another doubling of Power, so if your Speakers really needed all 256w to hit 105dB at your seat, you still have that 3dB of potential as overhead.
As I said, most of the time, I don't even think I flirt with that. It might be a once a year type thing that I try to test the structural integrity of my house.

 

[the machine]

That's gobs of power. Are you saying you would put that on if you could? We have the same 2200's which are 200w.

Maybe facetiousness flew over my head.

 

[ryanosaur]

That's gobs of power. Are you saying you would put that on if you could? We have the same 2200's which are 200w.

Maybe facetiousness flew over my head.

I'm in process of upgrading to Hypex Amps... so over time, those Outlaws will move back and up... then as I get newer Hypex Amps (perhpas the Ncore500X) for my mains, the NC400s will move back and up.

Yes, there is a point of gross overkill... but I'm not there yet!

 

[the machine]

Maybe for the time being (since I just bought the 8250 and an AVM70 8k) I will run bed layer plus 1 atmos off the 8250 and use the 2200s for the remaining 3 atmos speakers.

 

[everettT]

I'm in process of upgrading to Hypex Amps... so over time, those Outlaws will move back and up... then as I get newer Hypex Amps (perhpas the Ncore500X) for my mains, the NC400s will move back and up.

Yes, there is a point of gross overkill... but I'm not there yet!

I've got 3 of the Outlaw amps if anyone needs to add to their collection. I have no issues with them, just don't have an issue with swapping stuff around if someone needs an accommodation, FYI.

 

[Kleinst]

Maybe for the time being (since I just bought the 8250 and an AVM70 8k) I will run bed layer plus 1 atmos off the 8250 and use the 2200s for the remaining 3 atmos speakers.

That seems like a great plan. I love having external AMPs and I can't see its needed or overkill but good thing about them is they should last a long time especially you buying new gear.

I have a couple of the Class A/B Monolith 7x's across my systems and will be interested to hear those getting the class D any differences they experience other than running cooler and being smaller. Guessing they both are great ATI amps.

Have fun!

 

[TheAVInsider]

That seems like a great plan. I love having external AMPs and I can't see its needed or overkill but good thing about them is they should last a long time especially you buying new gear.

I have a couple of the Class A/B Monolith 7x's across my systems and will be interested to hear those getting the class D any differences they experience other than running cooler and being smaller. Guessing they both are great ATI amps.

Have fun!

Same. Find it hard to part with them now. Selling two 200W amps to pay for one 200W amp makes no sense to me. I need 13 channels of external power right now. However, if my system will never really use 50% of the 7X's power, then there's still the possibility I would entertain selling both to help pay for a new pair of 8150's.
My ears are tuned in, but very few have purchased these from Monoprice. Probably why the sales % hit so deep.

 

[fmw]

Yep, thems lousy distortion figures!!

They wouldn't be audible.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

They wouldn't be audible.

You know what the universal rebuttal for that is?

Audibility is NOT the point!

To be fair, people should spend their hard-earned money however they feel. If measurements and specs are that important to them, then that’s what matters. Everyone is different.

 

[fmw]

Of course. People should spend their money as they see fit. I have no problem with that. Perhaps the poster to whom I replied was being facetious.

 

[3db]

They wouldn't be audible.

Maybe under most listening conditions. However, for a few hundred dollars more one can buy a cleaner amp and a better peace of mind.

 

[Kleinst]

Maybe under most listening conditions. However, for a few hundred dollars more one can buy a cleaner amp and a better peace of mind.

I agree with you, for something that will cost a good bit and hopefully last 10-20 years (doesn't mean we don't have the patience to upgrade), spending a few hundred more for quality makes sense.

I think other considerations to determine what's better for the buyer is thinking through whether the input voltage and gain are a good match for their AVR or processor. For those with RCA only on their AVR, I don't know the implications using RCA to XLR but my brief experience in trying that wasn't super positive. Would be love to hear from some that used that set up and were thrilled by it. But with XLR to XLR these are probably fantastic.