Reciever power VS external amp

[mesojdm]

So I am on the quest for a power source for my surround sound L/C/R & rears. Now my question; is the reciever I am looking at is rated at 130X5....and the external Emotiva amplifier I am also considering is rated at 125X5. WHat is the benifit of going with the emotiva VS saving my money and using the reciever's built in amplifer? Does the emotiva have more headroom? thanks!!!

 

[Davemcc]

A lot of this decision should rest on what speakers you are using. Speaker specs will tell you how strong an amp you need to power them properly.

The difference in amps can quite often be found in it's ratings. First, the receiver may or may not be rated to drive a 4 ohm load. It may not be able to deliver the current required. Separate amps are generally rated down to 4 ohms and often down to 2 or 1 ohm. Other factors to consider are the distortion ratings. Some receivers will measure distortion at 1% in order to advertise a higher watt rating. Separate amps generally will measure to about .04% or lower distortion. Also, make sure that the receiver's distortion was measured at a full spectrum, 20-20k Hz instead of simply at 1k Hz.

Manufacturers can play fast and loose with testing procedures to increase the advertised watts rating. The trick is to understand the ratings and what they are telling you about the amp. Generally, if you have speakers that are 8 ohm and reasonable sensitivity, a receiver will be fine. But if you are driving 4 ohm speakers with lower sensitivity, a separate amp may make sense.

 

[agarwalro]

A lot of this decision should rest on what speakers you are using. Speaker specs will tell you how strong an amp you need to power them properly.

The difference in amps can quite often be found in it's ratings. First, the receiver may or may not be rated to drive a 4 ohm load. It may not be able to deliver the current required. Separate amps are generally rated down to 4 ohms and often down to 2 or 1 ohm. Other factors to consider are the distortion ratings. Some receivers will measure distortion at 1% in order to advertise a higher watt rating. Separate amps generally will measure to about .04% or lower distortion. Also, make sure that the receiver's distortion was measured at a full spectrum, 20-20k Hz instead of simply at 1k Hz.

Manufacturers can play fast and loose with testing procedures to increase the advertised watts rating. The trick is to understand the ratings and what they are telling you about the amp. Generally, if you have speakers that are 8 ohm and reasonable sensitivity, a receiver will be fine. But if you are driving 4 ohm speakers with lower sensitivity, a separate amp may make sense.

+1 Good advise.

I have a Denon 3806 powering Axiom M60's. Recently I added a dedicated amp and did not perceive any improvement. My guess is that the AVR was sufficiently powerful to drive the speakers and I did not "need" a dedicated amp.

On an unrelated not(e), I sleep much better now .

 

[MatthewB.]

I have found that adding a seperate amp sometimes makes a difference and sometimes not. Case in point I used to have a Denon 4802 hooked up in my main HT system and it was rated at 125 wpc, but when I hooked up a simple 60wpc Adcom stereo amp to drive my small rear channel speakers, I found way better clarity and headroom than the recivers internal amp could muster (and the Denon had one heck of an amp built in) But then I have outboard amps where I can't tell much of a difference between the reciever and the outboard amp. I feel as long as you are happy with the sound and your not noticing any clipping or distortion, than your reciever would be fine. No sense throwing away money for a possible incredibly slight increase in sound quality. You may find that adding room acoustics would be a cheaper and better solution to improving sound.