Question regarding discret ch amplification

Willow

I was wondering if a person ownes x receiver which powers say a 7 channel, if this person was only to use 4 or 5 channels, would the other ch. help power the others or are they only assigned to that particular channel?

Thanks

BrentMcGhee

i would have to say probably not.. the only thing you could prob do nmaybe. But i really doubt that the amp is going to take the reserve power from those unused channels and out them towards channels that ar being used

thehaens@cox.net

It doesn't increase your power out per say. However, when you don't have a load, (speaker), on all the channels the amps power supply will have an easier time providing the channels you do have hooked up with the current necessary to maintain the rated power. I personnaly don't have a voltage stabilizer in my set up. But I do have a conditioner. I have seen the voltage drop from 121 to 115 during a dynamic scene in a movie. With this I would conclude, that at the time the amp was only getting 115V the power of the amp would be attenuated....

unc2701

only on really loud/ dynamic passages & 4 ohm speakers. One of the big failures of multichannel amps is that they share a power supply- if you're driving all channels you can max it out... less channels driven means less load on the power supply. However, for normal listening, you probably won't hear a difference.

Willow

thanks, what would I look for to find what the amp-age is on my receiver

amulford

Sunfires amps and receiver do this. They will send power for the unused to the other channels. It is part of the advantage of the tracking downconverter power supply Bob Carver designed.

I'm not sure if other brands do the same. I'm sure some of the "high end" recievers may.

thehaens@cox.net

Originally posted by Willow
thanks, what would I look for to find what the amp-age is on my receiver

You can check what your amps rating is at a given load in the specifications area in your owners manual. You can check the load (ohm) on your speakers by simply unhooking them from the receiver and then putting a Voltage meter on the terminals. Set your VOM to Ohms. If your receiver is stable down to 4 Ohms you could in theory hook up two center speakers that are rated at 8 Ohms and run them in parallel to get more current/power out of your receiver. But be careful to check your speakers. I have two RT-16 speakers that I use for center channel duty, and each is rated at 3 Ohms, when they are run in parellel you have a 1.5 Ohm load. To much for my little Marantz MA-500. So instead I ran the speakers in series, that way the amp is seeing a 6 Ohm load. Accoring to the manual of the Marantz at this impedance it puts out about 180 watts.