in various research both here and elsewhere, i have read some things that seem to indicate one might get slightly better 2-channel music performance from a stand-alone 2-channel amplifier (or 2 dedicated monoblocks) versus the 2-channel performance one might get from using, say, a 5 or 7 channel amplifier. i think the idea behind this belief was that with a 2-channel (or monoblock) amp, one gets purer performance, less interference, power supplies feeding fewer amps, etc.whereas using a 5-channel amp for 2-channel listening might stick you with shared power supplies trying to feed more amps and/or more potential for interference, etc.
i ultimately want to have a separate amp driving my speakers, but am wondering if buying a 5-channel amp, which is a convenient and all in one package, will to some noticeble degree reduce performance when i only want to listen to 2 channel music. the other option being using a 2 channel amp to drive my mains and some other arrangement to drive the center and surrounds, thus leaving the sound sent to my mains purer, if this theory is correct. i don't want to gain HT convenience of a single 5 channel amp, but give up 2 channel performance.
is it splitting hairs to worry about the potential performance difference from the above options? if money were no object, one would get high quality dedicated monoblocks for each speaker. but, that is not happening in my scenario.
