A good first amp?

rengnath

Hey everyone,

So Ive been making some upgrades to the home theater. Ill be moving in March, and the stereo will be going in a large rec room in the basement. Ill be keeping my RT1000i mains, and I'm debating whether or not to keep my Monitor 7Cs or not. I've run both as mains and rears, but I'm still deciding if something else would be better paired with the RT1000i speakers.

I'm replacing my PSW250 with a BIC Acoustech PL-200. I've read some great reviews on this sub, and I'm really excited to get it out of the box once its delivered today.

Im replacing my Yamaha HTR-5840 for a new Yamaha RX-A800. I would've loved to go with the RX-A1000, but the it was a little to far out of my price range.

I was doing the usual searches online for audio equipment and I found a Harman Kardon 770 amp, working condition with original box, for $100. Its rated at 65w x 2 channels. If I wanted to get my feet wet by starting to get in to amplifiers, would this be a good choice? I would plan on hooking it up to the new RX-A800 to run the mains, but I'm not sure if it would be worth it. Any opinions?

nhhiep

the HK 770 will deliver way more power and probably sound better with polk Rt series than the RX

mhardy6647

Very respectable amplifier. I'd certainly think it is worth 100 smackers in good working order.

You can peruse the owners manual at http://www.harmankardon.com/resources/Brands/harmankardon/Products/ProductRelatedDocuments/en-US/OwnersManual/HK770%20om.pdf

rengnath

Thanks for the input!

Will I be ok running the receiver pre outs right to the amp? Or do I need to look in to a preamp first, or any other equipment?

mhardy6647

Line level, analog receiver pre-out (which is I assume what you're talking about) is just what the doctor ordered to drive a two-channel power amp such as the hk770.

rengnath

That's what I needed to know Thanks a lot for the help!

rengnath

Well the amp ended up being sold before I could get to it, but now Ive been looking a little deeper.

I found a "refurbished" Yamaha MX-630 for $350 shipped

A used but in like new condition B&K ST2140 for $300 shipped

Otherwise Im looking at an Adcom GFA-555

Any opinions on which route to go? My gut says go with the Yamaha even though it has some signs of wear (dings and scratches on the case), but its clean power with only .003% THD. The B&K would be nice only because its already in pristine condition, so I wouldnt have an ugly piece of equipment on my rack (MAJOR PLUS!). Adcoms see to be pretty nice, but Im not sure on the quality. I would buy the B&K right now, but its rating has .09% THD, and isnt that pretty high for an amp? I'll be matching this amp up to my Yamaha RX-A800 and powering my rt1000i towers. Eventually, I will probably bridge the amp to power the center and buy something more powerful for the towers.

F1nut

One needs to understand that specs don't mean everything and one needs to understand how to read specs because most of the time it's not comparing apples to apples. For example, the Yamaha .003% THD, is that rating over the entire frequency range or only at 1kHz? Even if that rating is over the entire freqency range it doesn't mean it's the better amp. It's entirely possible that the B&K with it's higher THD rating has a much beefer power supply compared to the Yamaha meaning that it will still be singing at higher volumes while the Yamaha has run out of steam. As far as THD goes, it's generally considered that anything below 1.0% is inaudible.

Anyway, out of the 3 amps you've listed my choice would be the B&K.

tonyb

I'll second the B&K suggestion. Lots of balls and will sound better than the others matched up to that Yammie.

rengnath

The problem I was having with the specs was because each amp was rating the THD over the whole frequency, and they both had similar wattage ratings. I ended up going with the B&K, and I don't think Ill be disappointed. I look forward to getting some power behind my rt1000i towers to see how they can truly perform.

Thanks for the suggestions.

ViperZ

rengnath wrote: »

The problem I was having with the specs was because each amp was rating the THD over the whole frequency, and they both had similar wattage ratings. I ended up going with the B&K, and I don't think Ill be disappointed. I look forward to getting some power behind my rt1000i towers to see how they can truly perform.

Thanks for the suggestions.

You won't be disappointed. I used to think that RT1000 are fine with the receiver until I hooked up a dedicated 2-ch high current amp to my HT. What a difference lol.

tonyb

I forsee one small problem.....after adding an amp, your gonna want new speakers. That rabbit hole is calling your name.