Power Amps

[Ultra Violent]

What would I need to be looking at to add to my denon 3808 (or what ever its called). It's 175W into 7 channels. Currently im only running 5 channels so it should have bit of spare capacity. Was thinking about mono blocks for the front 3 channels.

[DavidY]

UV

A lot depends on how difficult your speakers are to drive and what you want from them. Most full speakers (ie not satellites) will benefit from amplifers with decent power supplies, ie ones that can perform transient changes from very quiet to very loud, very quickly and effectively. However you may well find that one of these amplifiers with less watts will actually produce a more dynamic sound than your Denon receiver (which will be limited by its power supply when heavy demands are put on it). You can tell the Denon doesn't have a big power supply as it weighs less than 17kg (my current 5 channel power amp weighs 3 times as much!)

What speakers are you using and how loud do you really want to play?

davidy

(BTW If you are interested in some Meridian Power Amps, I have some for sale, as I've quite a collection at present!! I have going 1 x 200w stereo and 2 x 160w monoblocks, the monoblocks are gain matched with the 200w stereo amp, so one of them will drive a centre and the 200w will drive left and right. Even the monoblock weighs about the ame as your Denon!!! - email me through my profile if interested)

[Ultra Violent]

I may have the model number wrong on my receiver, but it weighs about 30k! I would be interested in your amps, PM with details. The speaks are the XT4 B&W range.

Edited by Ultra Violent on Saturday 7th March 21:37

[DavidY]

Sorry my fault, I read it as 3803 not 3808! Have emailed you through PH about the Meridian Amps, they really are very decent kit, but I 've just gone further up the Meridian food chain!

All the best

Davidy

[Plotloss]

Have a look at the Denon POA-A1HD

Epic performer. Sets the standard in the midrange price bracket

Alternatively, in the digital domain, something like a DAD-M100ProII per channel from Flying Mole produces incredibly clean sound.

[P700DEE]

It is very unlikely that you are using anywhere near the 175 watts per channel that you currently have. Watts are not a measure of quality and not very helpful even in terms of how loud it will go. Most people rarely use more than 1 watt as with most speakers this gives you about 90dB. Musical Fidelity do (did) produce a "Turbo" amp that adds on to your existing power outputs but to use power amps like the meridians you will be attaching them to pre outs and not using the built in amps. Are you looking for Volume or quality ?

[Ultra Violent]

Quality, the denon has a shared transformer for all channels. The XT range of speakers are more difficult than most to drive (IIR), so was wondering whether taking the front channels off its work list would improve quality. Looking better transition between loud and quiet, if you know what I mean.

[P700DEE]

I doubt that reducing the load on your amp will see any benefit, and you should check that doing so will not damage the amp. You can try changing to Russ Andrews mains leads and cabling which now have some scientific backing to reduce the mains noise floor and hence improve the sound. He also advocates "balanced" mains , basically an isolation transformer, I was shocked at his price and found I had a suitable transformer at work. It has significantly removed noise from my mains and benefitted the sound

[JustinP1]

P700DEE said:

I doubt that reducing the load on your amp will see any benefit, and you should check that doing so will not damage the amp. You can try changing to Russ Andrews mains leads and cabling which now have some scientific backing to reduce the mains noise floor and hence improve the sound. He also advocates "balanced" mains , basically an isolation transformer, I was shocked at his price and found I had a suitable transformer at work. It has significantly removed noise from my mains and benefitted the sound

Whilst I am an advocate of mains conditioning, I think it is also worth mentioning that Russ Andrews was taken to task by the Advertising Standards Agency about the content of the advertisement about mains equipment. The ASA found against him and he had to remove the claims.

I am guessing the wording has been changed since then? I think the ruling was quite recent.

That said, although the claims may not have been strictly accurate, from my experience the Isotek stuff does work. I have been really surprised. There was a big improvement in both the noise floor and accuracy of low level detail and also the dynamic range, especially in the bass.

[P700DEE]

Russ Andrews commissioned a study and proved his claims Kicked the ASA into touch.

[DavidY]

Mains regeneration (perfect 230v sine wave) or an isolation transformer, will make an audible difference in areas of either high population density or noisy mains. You have to be careful with earth signals with the Isolation Transformer.

However mains cable changes without any form of filtering/regeneration will have little or no effect. This is certainly my experience, and yes I have tried several cables from Russ Andrews and in my system they made no difference. As long as you have decent quality plugs and cables and that the hi-fi is not on part of house circuit that contains, fridges, freezers, kettles, etc, then IMO playing with mains cables is a waste of your hard earned money.

davidy