Is the onkyo m282 any good? Any better options?

slammin86

I am looking for an amp to power my m70's. My setup consists of an onkyo 270 (currently set to bi am on the m70's) a CS2 center, m30's for surrounds, and a ed a2-300 sub.

For home theater everything is perfect, but for 2 channel stereo I feel that an amp could be beneficial for these speakers. I saw the onkyo m 282 and they usually sell new for around 160. It is rated 2x100. Is it worth it?

I am limited on height by 7" if anyone has any other suggestions.

DaveHo

This amp has been talked about a couple of times recently. Search is your friend. Here's a link: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111087

PrazVT

When I was starting out w/ my RTi A speakers (and didn't know anything about external amps and brands), I bought on M-282. It works if you're on a budget and you're otherwise powering all your speakers from your receiver. But it doesn't have nearly the punch of higher end amps. It'll take the load off of your receiver, but SQ won't improve. I'd say get a Parasound / Rotel / NAD / Adcom / etc. amp used off of Audiogon, rather than spend the same $$ on the M-282.

cnh

I agree with a number of people in the thread link above. The 282 is really more of a second room amp and that is what Onkyo designed it for. For use with its remote room AVR function. Not really a stand alone power amp for raw power!

In fact the Onkyo A9555 integrated amp would put the 282 in the back seat in a shoot out and that's only rated about 85w/channel but has way more High Current capacity!

A cheap solution would be something like an Adcom GFA-545 used? Or a Carver or Parasound equivalent. Or any of the others mentioned by PrazVT above. You could probably pick something up for 200 that was originally more like 700-1000 MSRP!

cnh

comfortablycurt

A friend of mine has an Onkyo 282...and I've never really been impressed by it. My Onkyo TX-SR606 AVR has just as much punch as the 282 does.

You'd do much better to find something like an Adcom GFA-545. They can be had for around $200-250, and are leaps and bounds better than the 282.

slammin86

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am also looking at the emotive upa2.