I'm looking for recommendations on a good multi-channel amp that I can use to drive either a single source globally to multiple zones or individual local sources for each zone. I was hoping Emotiva would have something, but I think all their multi-channel amps are home theater amps so they can't take a single input and drive it equally across all channels. I'm using this to drive a pair of outdoor speakers, some in-ceilings in the dining room, kitchen and master bedroom, so I don't need any kind of crazy power, but I'd like it to comfortably drive whatever form of music to reasonable levels without struggling.
Any thoughts?
-What audio level do you want to achieve? Audio Control, Niles, Russound, URC, Parasound, Speakercraft, Origin Acoustics, Dayton (Parts Express), Audio Source, ATI and others sell 12 channel amps that can be summed to mono, bridged, use the same source input or assign one of two sources to each pair of channels and in the case of the Parasound, you can connect two speakers to each channel because it has two sets of terminals and it's designed to handle a 2 Ohm load. The Audio Control, Parasound, Niles, ATI and Russound are the most expensive, the Dayton and Audio Source are the least expensive. I have used Niles and the Dayton multi-channel amps and both worked well/sounded good.
-The only problem with the Dayton came from water splashing in and damaging some of the components, which killed three of the channels. The rest still work fine but the lost components are surface mount, so it may not be worth repairing. I have it set up mono for a pair of speakers in the Kitchen speakers and Dining Room, two channels bridged for the Family Room subwoofer and four channels bridged/Mono to two channels, for the deck speakers, which have an outdoor volume control under one of the benches. The Kitchen/Dining Room/Deck are fed by the Zone 2 output from the AVR and can be operated without the Main being used.
-The Parasound looks like a beast. Some of the Audio Control Architect amps have equalization for each channel and AFAIK, all of these can be turned on via 12VDC trigger, manually with the power switch or by sensing the incoming signal.
-I think the Dayton and Audio Source are the only ones that can be bought from someone other than a custom integrator/contractor.
-If you want a multi-channel amp to receive signal from a stereo source, you can use something like the ART headphone amp- it has level controls for each output but the better method for this, which is called Distributed Audio, is to use a small distribution amplifier with the ability to adjust the level for each channel/pair and to sum the signal to Mono. When speakers are separated by larger distances that prevent hearing two of them equally, stereo doesn't matter and actually causes the far channel to be almost inaudible. If you want to cover a large area evenly, go Mono- that doesn't mean "it sounds like AM radio", it means all of the sound comes from each speaker with full range, equally (unless you want some to play at a lower level.
