amp: extra power?

baboon

Hello. I'm new to home theaters and stuff. I was wondering if an Amp adds more power to my home theater? And how would I hook it up? from the reciever to the amp, and then from the amp to the speakers? thanks. also, what is a good 3 channel amp that doesnt cost an arm and leg?

p.s. whats bridgeable mean?

haimoc

One reason to have an amp is to add more power to drive the speakers.

A brigeable amp allows to combine two channels into one channel in order to have greater (maybe double) the power.

RECEIVER/AMP/SPEAKER, connect the RECEIVER PREOUTs to AMP INPUTs, then connect the AMP OUTPUTs to the SPEAKERs.

I don't know any 3 channel amp.

McLoki

Originally posted by baboon
Hello. I'm new to home theaters and stuff. I was wondering if an Amp adds more power to my home theater?

Yes it does. Power is defined in many ways though....

In terms of loudness keep this in mind - to hear any increase in volume requires a 3db increase in volume. This requires double the number of "watts". To make something twice as loud requres a 10db increase in volume and that requires a 10x increase in "watts".

Amplifiers typically can produce more current (amps) than a reciever. This will assist in driving speakers with a lower ohm rating (like polks LSi or SDA lines) as well as driving woofers. (the woofer requires much more power than a tweeter due to the fact that it takes more power to move the speaker cone (and air) than it does to vibrate the tweeter. (This can make many speakers sound better but makes the largest impact on speakers with arrays of woofers or large woofers. (many SDA's, RTi12's etc.)

An example of this would be to take a pencil and swing it as fast as you can at something and try to stop it about 1" from the object. Then do the same thing with a baseball bat. One not only requires more strength to swing, but also to stop accurately

The fist point is volume and that can increase with an amplifier.

The second point is sound quality. (This helps explain why a speaker connected to an amplifier may sound better (more clear) at lower volumes than a speaker connected to an AVR. - The Amplifier has the power to drive the speaker cones to start and stop much more accurately.)

What is a good 3 channel amp that doesnt cost an arm and leg?

Used will be your best bang for the buck. I have heard many good things about the following amps from reading the polk forum. (I do not have personal experience with most of them though)

Adcom
Rotel
Parasound
Acurus
Outlaw
carver
sunfire

Also don't overlook some of the older yamaha m-series and Onkyo amplifiers.

Good luck and if you find something interesting but are not sure if it will work for you, just list what speakers you have and what amp you are thinking of. I am sure someone will have an opinion on the combination

Michael

mlong

Great answer. That is very helpful in understanding the concept. I have SDA's that aren't getting enough power from the recevers so now I see why.

Thanks!

Mark

Originally posted by McLoki
An example of this would be to take a pencil and swing it as fast as you can at something and try to stop it about 1" from the object. Then do the same thing with a baseball bat. One not only requires more strength to swing, but also to stop accurately

The fist point is volume and that can increase with an amplifier.

The second point is sound quality. (This helps explain why a speaker connected to an amplifier may sound better (more clear) at lower volumes than a speaker connected to an AVR. - The Amplifier has the power to drive the speaker cones to start and stop much more accurately.)

Michael

cjoyce

I heard that there was some good amps by Peavey. You should check this out if you're alright with buying online:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38076&item=3781954005&rd=1

jdhdiggs

Hamioc and Mcloki have answered a good amount of the questions but I would also add that if you want more info, let us know what your setup is and what you're trying to do.

Also, if you are looking to go deaf for not a lot of money, look into "professional" amps These take balanced inputs and generally have fans on them (The fans make them not popular with a lot of people). But they generate a ton of clean power for the $$$


Cjoyce: Wrong type of amp. Those are good for garage band guitars and the like, but not for HT or 2-channel

Tour2ma

baboon,

Carver for one made some 3-ch amps... Can't think of any others right off-hand, but I am sure there are more...