I am starting to even wonder if an amplifier is even necessary. I read somewhere that most of the power from an amplifier goes to reproducting bass. If my subwoofer is doing everything below 80Hz than my receiver should have plenty of power for the satellites. Most receivers today being at least 100 watts x 7, and most being able to give at least 80 with all channels driven, is it still necessary to have an extra amplifier ?
We have this myth again and again. The power divide for most program material is 400 Hz. Although a lot of speakers will draw more power below 400Hz, if they are diffraction loss compensated. The power below 80 Hz is minute, unless you are a bass head demanding bass at unnatural levels. The problem is Hollywood again! They boost effects in the LFE channel 20 db. So in movies there are episodic high power demands below 80HZ.
The most pervasive and WORST myth on these forums, is that if you buy a huge powerful sub, the rest of the system has nothing to do. That is just plain nonsense, and yet it persists on these forums again and again.
My amps that supply the two drivers producing sound below 80 Hz never even get warm, unless playing organ music with a lot of 32ft stops pulled, or a battle scene such as in Master and Commander. It is the amps taking the frequencies above 80Hz that really get the work out.
Even in my last system, and I still use these speakers as the rear surrounds, which are biamped at 180 HZ, it is the amp handling the signal above 180Hz that gets much hotter than the one supplying the signal below 180Hz.
We need to put this misleading myth to bed once and for all.
