Yamaha Pro Amps Poll

[poutanen]

Jeez Mike, I can get a P7000S here for $750 CDN, at a proper retailer (no flea-bay)... I'll ship one over to ya! lol...

I was going to get a P7000S to power my subs before I decided to change my setup for a little more "pedestrian" layout.

 

[mike c]

ok ... so i bought the P2500S for around 550USD

there's a sale coming up in a few days that will sell it at 400+ bucks!!!

i don't have money, my wife is doing the "i told you to wait" spiel again ...

but i want another one!!

 

[WmAx]

ok ... so i bought the P2500S for around 550USD

there's a sale coming up in a few days that will sell it at 400+ bucks!!!

i don't have money, my wife is doing the "i told you to wait" spiel again ...

but i want another one!!

So, what did you think about that amp in general besides just "I want to buy another...."?

-Chris

 

[mike c]

actually, they're connected to the L and R surrounds at the moment, since i have the mains connected to the Behringer EP2500

but yeah, the fans have never turned on, but of course, i will have to try mains duty to see if they turn on.

the sale also includes a PC4800N for just 800 bucks

 

[rcpilot_971]

Im thinking about buying a Yamaha P3500 for my mains I have infinity KAPPA 8.1 they need a lot of power to drive them. and I like to play it loud for music. my qustion. is I have a Denon 3808 receiver rated at 140wpc that I will use to power my center channel and my rears ( Kappa 7.1 ). will the yamaha over power my other speakers running off the denon.

Also what cables will I need do I need some kind of RCA adaptor and use banna plugs for the speakers


Thanks Tim

 

[A9X]

Im thinking about buying a Yamaha P3500 for my mains I have infinity KAPPA 8.1 they need a lot of power to drive them. and I like to play it loud for music. my qustion. is I have a Denon 3808 receiver rated at 140wpc that I will use to power my center channel and my rears ( Kappa 7.1 ). will the yamaha over power my other speakers running off the denon.

Also what cables will I need do I need some kind of RCA adaptor and use banna plugs for the speakers


Thanks Tim

No. If the system gain is set up correctly, up until the point where the Denon is audibly clipping.

 

[poutanen]

Im thinking about buying a Yamaha P3500 for my mains I have infinity KAPPA 8.1 they need a lot of power to drive them. and I like to play it loud for music. my qustion. is I have a Denon 3808 receiver rated at 140wpc that I will use to power my center channel and my rears ( Kappa 7.1 ). will the yamaha over power my other speakers running off the denon.

Also what cables will I need do I need some kind of RCA adaptor and use banna plugs for the speakers

Thanks Tim

Hey Tim, the short answer is: No. As long as your receiver is setup correctly.

Here's the long answer: I'm not familiar with the Denon receivers, but I imagine it's got something similar to Yamahas YPAO for auto setting the distance, levels, etc? If not you could use an SPL meter to set your levels.

Here's how I set up my old system. The centre was being powered by a denon amp (POA-5200), the mains were being powered by a Behringer A500, the subs were being powered by an A500, and the rears were being powered by the receiver (Yamaha RX-V1500).

The denon amp has no gain control, it's a simple on off, so it was simple, just plug into the receivers RCA out and go. The behringers have gains, similar to the Yamaha power amps, and I set them at roughly 45% of max. Why? Because with the speakers hooked up to the amps, and nothing being input to the amps, the noise level from the amps started to get noticable at around 50% gain. You may get a mild hum or pink noise from a power amp if you turn the gain up too high. I used to have a ground loop fault in the wiring in my house, so it was very noticable through the power amps...

Anyway, once everything was hooked up, and the gains all set at roughly 45%, I simply powered up the receiver and used the YPAO mic to auto tune itself. Again: you can use an SPL meter and a measuring tape from the main listening position to do a similar job.

When watching movies, ie. the chopper scene from Apocalypse Now, all speakers would play at the same level, making the sound very transparent. Of course I programmed the Dolby PLII Music listening mode to shift about 80% of the sound to come from the front mains, utilizing the higher headroom of the behringers and giving the rears a break from the workout. I imagine the Denon would allow you to customize it's PLII decoders to send more to your mains while listening to music...

Good luck!

 

[rcpilot_971]

Hey Tim, the short answer is: No. As long as your receiver is setup correctly.

Here's the long answer: I'm not familiar with the Denon receivers, but I imagine it's got something similar to Yamahas YPAO for auto setting the distance, levels, etc? If not you could use an SPL meter to set your levels.

Here's how I set up my old system. The centre was being powered by a denon amp (POA-5200), the mains were being powered by a Behringer A500, the subs were being powered by an A500, and the rears were being powered by the receiver (Yamaha RX-V1500).

The denon amp has no gain control, it's a simple on off, so it was simple, just plug into the receivers RCA out and go. The behringers have gains, similar to the Yamaha power amps, and I set them at roughly 45% of max. Why? Because with the speakers hooked up to the amps, and nothing being input to the amps, the noise level from the amps started to get noticable at around 50% gain. You may get a mild hum or pink noise from a power amp if you turn the gain up too high. I used to have a ground loop fault in the wiring in my house, so it was very noticable through the power amps...

Anyway, once everything was hooked up, and the gains all set at roughly 45%, I simply powered up the receiver and used the YPAO mic to auto tune itself. Again: you can use an SPL meter and a measuring tape from the main listening position to do a similar job.

When watching movies, ie. the chopper scene from Apocalypse Now, all speakers would play at the same level, making the sound very transparent. Of course I programmed the Dolby PLII Music listening mode to shift about 80% of the sound to come from the front mains, utilizing the higher headroom of the behringers and giving the rears a break from the workout. I imagine the Denon would allow you to customize it's PLII decoders to send more to your mains while listening to music...

Good luck!

My denon does have gain level for each channel but would 350wpc be to much Im thinking I might not be able to use all the power do you think the 250wpc be better



Thanks tim

 

[poutanen]

My denon does have gain level for each channel but would 350wpc be to much Im thinking I might not be able to use all the power do you think the 250wpc be better
Thanks tim

I'm not familiar with the Kappas, but a little research said they are rated for roughly 300w!?! If so they'd be fine with either amp. I was running my Yamaha mains at 175wpc and they were fine like that. Though I did try them at 500wpc, and this brought new meaning to the term 'dynamic range'...

If you can take one thing in common from myself, Mike C, and a few other who use/have used pro amps... buy big. It's so cheap per watt, you might as well get all the power you'll ever need rather than wishing you had just that little bit more headroom one day.

THX into scenes at my house used to leave people looking like a deer in the headlights.

 

[rcpilot_971]

I'm not familiar with the Kappas, but a little research said they are rated for roughly 300w!?! If so they'd be fine with either amp. I was running my Yamaha mains at 175wpc and they were fine like that. Though I did try them at 500wpc, and this brought new meaning to the term 'dynamic range'...

If you can take one thing in common from myself, Mike C, and a few other who use/have used pro amps... buy big. It's so cheap per watt, you might as well get all the power you'll ever need rather than wishing you had just that little bit more headroom one day.

THX into scenes at my house used to leave people looking like a deer in the headlights.

Ok thanks I think I will order the yamaha p3500s
what cables will I need do they make a RCA cable adaptor to hook up the the input on the AMP

Thanks Tim

 

[mike c]

My denon does have gain level for each channel but would 350wpc be to much Im thinking I might not be able to use all the power do you think the 250wpc be better



Thanks tim

no you won't overpower your other speakers.

i'm also using a 3808 and the 4 surrounds are powered by the receiver.

 

[rcpilot_971]

no you won't overpower your other speakers.

i'm also using a 3808 and the 4 surrounds are powered by the receiver.

What cables are you using and whare did you get them

Thanks Tim

 

[mike c]

What cables are you using and whare did you get them

Thanks Tim

i custom made RCA to XLR cables.

but you can use RCA to RCA with an RCA to TRS adapter

i just don't like using adapters.

 

[scorpious]

Dear members, sorry to barge in with this, but this is the only place where I have found people paying attention to Yamaha Pro Amps.

I am about to purchase the Yamaha P series Pro Amp.

Question: I will be connecting Parasound Halo P3 with balanced connectors to the Yamaha and then to B&W803s. what do you think of the setup? noise hiss etc...

I am thinking P3500S or P2500S. i am leaning towards P2500S because it saves me about $100. I will be using this system at home, and in 2CH setup.

If you think the preAmp would be a Issue, which one is the correct one for P3500S or P2500S, for Under $1000 or $700. I listen to classical, Instrumental/Orchestras, POP.

Again, I am sorry to intrude into this wonderful Poll.

 

[rcpilot_971]

i custom made RCA to XLR cables.

but you can use RCA to RCA with an RCA to TRS adapter

i just don't like using adapters.

where can I find the TRS Adapter do you have a link for them


Thanks Tim

 

[mike c]

where can I find the TRS Adapter do you have a link for them


Thanks Tim

i don't have a link ... but it looks like this:

 

[WmAx]

where can I find the TRS Adapter do you have a link for them


Thanks Tim

Note: your pre-amp out needs a higher than average voltage output to work well with the pro-amp, as the the pro-amp has a lower inherent sensitivity since pro line level signals are far higher in voltage compared to consumer line level signals. While you can turn up the gain knobs to compensate, if you turn them up too high, you may get audible hiss/noise out of the speakers. If this was found to be the case in your set up - now worry - there are a variety of consumer to pro line level adapters that boost the signal amplitude to match ideally.

-Chris

 

[rcpilot_971]

i don't have a link ... but it looks like this:

Ok thanks

I did find the XLR to RCA cable at monoprice will this work ok





Chris
How do I know how much voltage my denon 3808ci puts out. where do you find the signal booster


Im also looking at the XPA-2 looks like a good amp and a lot less hassall but the cost is a little more


Thanks Tim

 

[WmAx]

Ok thanks

I did find the XLR to RCA cable at monoprice will this work ok





Chris
How do I know how much voltage my denon 3808ci puts out. where do you find the signal booster


Im also looking at the XPA-2 looks like a good amp and a lot less hassall but the cost is a little more


Thanks Tim

Really, you would have to take a voltage meter and play a sine wave on your stereo and measure it's output voltage on the RCA outputs. If it's like 4 volts AC, it would be sufficient for certain.

The Art Cleanbox is an example of a low cost converter box that will do this conversion.

-Chris

-Chris