Amplifier under 700???

Posted by Jay Chalfant [IP: 207.114.146.12] on May 10, 1999 at 13:30:18
Using Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT):

In Reply to: Amplifier under 700??? posted by Alan L. Maier [SysOp] May 07, 1999 at 20:19:30

Alan,

You said: "As for Technics vs. H/K, you will find the H/K to have a cleaner, "silkier" sound with more impact in the bass area."

Nice call. Before I read this I brought my new Infinity Kappa 5.1 speakers home and plugged them into the Technics receiver. I really enjoyed the sound of these speakers at the showroom and the home listening setup (speaker placement) was very similar so I expected to have a very similar listening impression. However, I was immediately struck by the loss of bass and a much harsher sound.

The receiver used at the showroom was an H/K 3600. I'm going to return the Technics. More watts but less quality.

The only question now is what to replace it with, that is, which H/K component. Right now I am focusing on two strategies.

1) Get an H/K 3270 to drive the Infinity's and (on occasion), another set of speakers in an adjacent room. I would use the pre-out on the 3270 to go into a small power amp to drive two more sets of speakers in two other rooms that are on impedance matching volume controls. The speakers/placement/wiring in these other rooms are lower quality so I would not invest a great deal in the second amp. I don't yet know how small (cheap) of an amp I could buy that would satisfy this requirement.

2) Get the H/K PT2500/PA5800 pair and use channels 1-4 for the first two sets of speakers. (I'm assuming that with the PT2500 I can direct simple stereo signals at the 1/2 & 3/4 inputs on the amp.) I would send a mono signal to channel 5 to drive the speakers in the other two rooms. (Can I simply 'Y' a stereo out from the pre-amp into channel 5 on the power amp?) I think I would be happy with mono in these rooms because they don't have speaker placement for good stereo imaging in any case. I don't yet know if this is technically feasible however. (Will this put too much a load on the amp?)

Any thoughts you might have on either of these strategies would be appreciated. One extra benefit of (2) that I see is that I could set up a switch box between the amp and the first two sets of speakers that would allow me to (a) bi-amp the Infinities by themselves or (b) drive both sets with a normal single amp configuration. I would look forward to having a very focused, quality oriented configuration for the Infinities for those times that I want to just sit and listen carefully.

I know this must sound like a crazy situation, but what I am really looking for is a flexible and cost effective system. Sometimes I want a high-quality, audiophile experience using only the main speakers, other times I need to drive many sets of speakers and am willing to live with *some* degradation of quality.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

-J

Follow Ups:

• Amplifier under 700??? - Alan L. Maier [SysOp] 21:07:25 05/11/99 (0)

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