Power Amp

[bruin62]

picked up my new 5 channel power amp today and I was wondering what's the best way to set this up? I have a 7.1 setup would most people just connect the front speakers or should you connect the side channels as well an just leave the surround back channels connected to the reciever? Any help would be great

 

[herbu]

picked up my new 5 channel power amp today and I was wondering what's the best way to set this up? I have a 7.1 setup would most people just connect the front speakers or should you connect the side channels as well an just leave the surround back channels connected to the reciever? Any help would be great

You have a 5 channel amp... why not use it? Connect your Front Left/Center/Right, and your Left & Right Surrounds. Let your AVR power the Rear Surrounds. (That's how I have my 7.2 system w/ a 5-channel amp set up.)

 

[bruin62]

Thanks for the help

 

[bruin62]

Well i had to unplug everything so I could move things around for this amp hook it all back up went to plug the power cord in an behold it's a two prong cord it needs a three prong. Searched my house for a hour and I was lucky I found one that fit.i was told this is a new unit not a refurbished one when I bought it so how could they put the wrong cord in at the place it was built?

 

[fmw]

How do you know it should be a 3 prong? It may not matter.

 

[bruin62]

In the back of the amp there is three prongs an the cord only has two female slots it's missing the ground hole

 

[fmw]

The male connector on the amp is a standard connector. The chassis ground may be sufficient.

 

[herbu]

how could they put the wrong cord in at the place it was built?

People make mistakes. A manufacturer will make models that are identical except for the power receptacles/cords which are specific for requirements in different geographies. At the final packing station, an operator will grab a cord from boxes of cords... hopefully the right box. That's why many cords will have a barcode. The operator scans the barcode to assure he has the right cord. It doesn't always work.

I wouldn't worry about it being an indication that the unit is not "new".

 

[KEW]

Did you say what your new amp is?
I would probably hook the front three to the new amp, leaving channels 2 & 4 idle (to spread out the heat) and let the Marantz drive the 4 surround channels.
I am assuming you listen to music in stereo (so surrounds are not playing full music signal).
My thinking is that the front three are maybe 70% of the load and a 70/30 division is probably a rough estimate of amp capabilities (a lot of guess work to this, but wanted to explain the logic behind the guesswork).
In truth you can do about whatever you want and never come close to taxing your capabilities. That is the nice thing about over-kill (again I am assuming, you may have speakers that are especially demanding)!

 

[KEW]

The male connector on the amp is a standard connector. The chassis ground may be sufficient.

If the amp has 3 prongs, you cannot physically connect a non-grounded cord.

 

[fmw]

If the amp has 3 prongs, you cannot physically connect a non-grounded cord.

I made an assumption that the cord had 3 prong female and 2 prong male. Do we know that is not how the cord is configured?

 

[highfigh]

The male connector on the amp is a standard connector. The chassis ground may be sufficient.

If the cord has no ground, the chassis won't be grounded, it means the power transformer has been connected only to the hot and neutral, without a separate ground. The chassis isn't connected to the neutral. If the amp has a male IEC outlet (required to meet CE regs), the cord won't combine anything, internally. It could be done by an end user (no, I'm NOT recommending this) but it's not the way the amp was designed to be powered. An old amp with a two prong power cord can be re-wired to have a grounded cord by separating the transformer's primary connection to the chassis and grounding that separately, but it's not practical (or safe) to install a two-prong cord on an amp that has a grounded chassis.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I would

1. Use all 5Ch of the ext amp
2. Buy a new 3-prong cord (Home Depot, Lowes, etc.)

 

[fmw]

I'll leave you folks to argue over the cord.

 

[KEW]

I made an assumption that the cord had 3 prong female and 2 prong male. Do we know that is not how the cord is configured?

Every cord I have looks like this (except a few don't have the ground):

I don't think it would meet the IEC criteria if it had the ground hole but no ground pin.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'll leave you folks to argue over the cord.

Oh, hey, it's a fact that my 3-prong cords sound better than yours.

 

[herbu]

Oh, hey, it's a fact that my 3-prong cords sound better than yours.

Ha! The joke's on you! You oughta hear my 4-prong cords!!! And I got 'em on sale... 20% off! Saved $300!!! Who's laughing now?!?!

 

[Seth=L]

Ha! The joke's on you! You oughta hear my 4-prong cords!!! And I got 'em on sale... 20% off! Saved $300!!! Who's laughing now?!?!

What's the extra prong for? Are you compensating for something?

 

[bruin62]

The amp is the NAD T955 Kew. I just robbed the cord off of my home puter for now. The store said they will give me a new one next time iam in there

 

[Seth=L]

The amp is the NAD T955 Kew. I just robbed the cord off of my home puter for now. The store said they will give me a new one next time iam in there

Definitely calls for a 3 prong IEC power cable. I believe some of their receivers feature a detachable 2 prong cable, that may be what happened. Or they got an order of power cords wrong (it's almost certain they don't make the cables themselves).