Amplifier, Or Not ?

NJ_Guy

Am new to the home audio scene, having recently inherited some things and buying some affordable vintage equipment. I bought Polk monitor 10 speakers and the seller gave me a Denon pma 920 amp (from the late 80's or early 90's) just to de-clutter.

My receiver is the Denon 3808ci and center speaker Polk CS400i.

Is there any useful reason to connect the amplifier in this setup ?

rooftop59

As far as I can tell that denon is an integrated, so you will have two preamps and volume controls I’m the chain which won’t sound so good. I would just keep it as a backup...

NJ_Guy

Yes, the Denon is an integrated HT unit. I've read that connecting the amp to the HT receiver pre-outs would lessen the overall power output needs of this tuner (to center channel only) which lessens distortion...and the amplifier would power the front speakers with cleaner sound than the receiver would. Is this bunk ?

rooftop59

BOTH denons are integrated amps, one is an AVR (3808), the other a two channel integrated (pma 920). Both have volume control, correct? That is the problem. You either need a pure power amp with no preamp circuitry or an integrated with HT bypass which bypasses the pre-amp and sends the signal straight to the AVR.

Your M10s likely would benefit from adding a two channel amp into the chain, but you don't have a power amp, you have an integrated (power + preamp in one chassis).

DaveHo

Actually, the PMA 920 has pre-outs/main-ins, so he could connect the pre-outs from the 3808 to the main ins on the 920. The power ratings of both are similar, but, power wise, the 920 may edge out the 3808 if driving more than 2 channels. Sound quality wise, you'd have to give it a try & see what your ears tell you.

NJ_Guy

Apologies for not being clear, am a newbie after all. Yes the specifics I kind of mentioned in my second post above is that I would connect my 3808 pre-outs to the amplifier-in termimals to power only the monitor 10s, and the 3808 would power only the subwoofer and center speaker. I had read the main receiver would be less taxed this way, causing less distortion if the amp fed the front L/R speakers. I would not use the tuner functions on the amp for anything. So you guys are saying there aren’t any compelling reasons to do this ? Is overcomplicating ?

skrol

+1 on what Dave Ho said. My experience with a Denon AVR-888 (same as AVR-2308) HT receiver vs a Denon DRA-835R stereo receiver is the 835 bested the 888 in every way driving RTA-11TL's. The bass had more authority and better controlled. The sound stage was much more open.

The PMA-920 internals look very much like the DRA-825R that I had before the 835. I believe they are the same but the 825 adds a tuner.

I would think there would be a good advantage to utilizing the PMA-920 as a main amp for the left and right speakers and the 3808 for everything else.

That said, my Marantz SR7010 drives the RTA-11TLs very nice.

NJ_Guy

ok will try....will need to set the 3808 subwoofer setting to LFE (not LFE+Mains) I think.

Willow

For very little coin there might still be a B&K amp for sale in the FM.