Amp to power only front spkrs?

dagame27

Hey guys if I went with a Harman Kardon avr 235 reciever to use as a preamp and then went with a pair of outlaw monoblocks to power the front speakers, the rest would be powered by the reciever. Would this change the quality of sound. This setup would sound great for two channel music, I would think, but how would multichannel music and movies sound? The avr 235 is 50 WPC and the outlaw is 200 WPC, so what would the end result be? This would be powering rti70's in front with a csi40 in the center and surrounds TBD. Thanks in advance

Chris

McLoki

The end result is that it would sound great. It would offload your larger front speakers so it would only have to power your center and rears. Once you do it (get the monoblocks) just rebalance your system with a radioshack spl meter and you will be good to go.

Michael

Mike682

I plan on doing the same exact thing. Only diff is that I am considering picking up three outlaws for the front soundstage.....although I definately will go with two monos to begin with.

You can get b-stock for $230 from Outlaw. Site says to call to check stock

venomclan

I would recommend going with 3 Outlaws as Mike suggests. I had 5 of them for a while and they were great. I have 1 now and use it as center duty. If you like to watch movies, you will enjoy your center a lot better with an Outlaw.
Venom

aaharvel

3 Outlaws. The ENTIRE front soundstage is most important. I've got 80watts going to my front pair and 60 watts going to my center, sides and back speakers. A 20 watt difference is not noticeable with my system but a 150 watt difference probably would be; not to mention the different 'sound' characteristics of the outlaw monoblocks and the harman kardon receiver.

You're smart to get a 235 for a pre-amp. For a 7.1 path to separates it's probably the cheapest way for the quality you get in return.

actually- wouldn't 3 monoblocks cost around $1,000? For that money you could get their new 7channel amp. It's 125x7 but still- all channels being powered by the same wattage specs of the same manufactorer. Just a thought.

louthewiz

Use the amp for the L/R for now and when you can get a monoblock for your center and you will have some serious power, and remember the more power you feed your speakers the better they will sound.

Airplay355

There is a limit though lou. Sometimes, ya just need better speakers for better sound. An amp wont always make speakers sound better.

louthewiz

Yes I know about speaker limits but I just thought I would share my experience.

BMc

I was planning to do something similar - power the front and center channel with 200 Outlaw mono blocks and the rear speakers with the Outlaw 1070 receiver (or get a separate 200 x 5 channel amp). Will I need to build the A1 non-common ground interconnecting cable since my right and left front speakers are SDA SRS 3.1TL's?

I know the HK230 costs less but I want DVI connections to my monitor the Outlaw 1070 provides.

John K.

Chris, unless the size of your listening room and the loudness level was such that the 235(or other receiver)was inadequate to supply enough power(rather unlikely)there would be no difference at all when separate amplifiers with higher power ratings were added. Unused headroom is just that; unused.

janmike

The Rotel 1080 sure changed the sound on my front speakers. I really understand the separate thing.

aaharvel

janmike wrote:

The Rotel 1080 sure changed the sound on my front speakers. I really understand the separate thing.

same here. as great as my 235 sounded with a 7.1 speaker setup- adding 2 Adcom amps to it really made a difference. Not huge mind you, but very noticeable. $400 well spent if you ask me.

McLoki

John K. wrote:

Chris, unless the size of your listening room and the loudness level was such that the 235(or other receiver)was inadequate to supply enough power(rather unlikely)there would be no difference at all when separate amplifiers with higher power ratings were added. Unused headroom is just that; unused.

I have to disagree on this. The power that you use to control your speakers can make a large difference in the sound the speakers make. (as posted earlier - will let them live up to their potential, not neccesarily make them a better speaker)

The watts can make a difference in the loudness of the speaker, the amps can make a difference in the sound quality. The design of the amp along with the speaker can make a difference in the reproduction of the sound. (bright, mellow, bassy, etc. - this is where that synergy thing comes in to play)

If it was just a question of does it go loud enough for you, you should be able to play any LSi or SDA speaker with a 50 watt sony avr with no problems. (if like most people you play your movies at 10 to 20db under reference level.) If you were wondering, that is not the case.

Michael

Edit - I noticed more of a difference going to an external amp from my SDA 1b's than from my LSi7's - but in both cases there was a sound difference. (with the LSi's the difference was slight to moderate - with the SDA's the difference was very dramatic.)

ublguy

I also run my 2 front lsi9's with the outlaw monoblock. Movies still sound very good without have a seperate amp for the center - but I agree with everyone saying at some point a third amp would be best.

Good luck!