Questions on possible amp purchase.

Jer_ry

I'm trying to figure out exactly what I need. I have an hk avr 435 it states it is 65watts x 7 so does this mean it has a total of 455watts and 91watts x 5 for 5 channel like the way I'm running? I have a really small room and I'm just trying to clean the sound up but don't want to buy something way more than I need. I don't blast my HT the volume rarely goes high. Looking for about a $200-$400 amp for 5 channel. Any help would be great. Thanks.

Early B.

What are you looking to gain? What do you mean by wanting to "clean the sound up?" What kind of speakers do you have?

For a really small room your HK should be sufficient. Besides, you probably won't find a decent 5-channel amp in your price range.

Jer_ry

I have rti4F csi3C (about to get 6's or 8's for F) klh's R and pb10. Like stated in another thread the sound is alright but i have to turn the volume higher than I like to get clean sound but my room being small it's to high to enjoy but boy is the sound awesome but when a lot of action starts going on or music starts playing it's to loud and blarry.

Early B.

The first thing you need to do is get your system calibrated using an SPL meter and by using the AVIA disk or something similar.

surfntomm

i have the denon 2106 and sorry to steal this thread but i keep seeing people talk about spl meters. do you think its fine to just use the mic they provide and do the let it auto adjust the channel levels?

cfrizz

Yes that's fine Surf, that's why they provided it!

danger boy

Jer_ry if i were you.. and i had a budget of $200-$400 i'd look into getting just a decent two channel amp for your front speakers. and let your HK AVR handle the rest of them.

more sound comes from your fronts.. and they need extra power behind them.. so look for a decent 2 channel amp.

Now before you ask. hee hee.. What's the best 2 channel amp? I knew that was coming.. look at Adcom, Marantz, Rotel, Parasound, B&K, Bryston.. although some of those will be out of your price range.. but buy used ones.. your money will go farther that way.

good luck.

Dennis Gardner

It isn't a room/gear issue......................No amp, speaker, receiver, IC, speaker wire, powercord or acoustical treatment is worth anything until you calibrate all channels to work together.

Stop asking the question, when you've been given the answer. You don't change the engine if all you have is a flat tire.

Jer_ry

OK so I can use the mic they provided?? In that case I already calibrated it (mic that came with the unit) So If thats done then amp would be next?

cfrizz

It is not uncommon to run your center channel a db or 2 higher than what is suggested. That may help. If not than yes start looking for an amp to help you out.

It is highly unlikely that you will get a powerful 5 channel amp for the money you want to spend.

Drumingman

Dennis is right on with his statement. The H-K is a fine unit and it's the way your system is set up that is causing it to be "loud and Blarry". Since I run entry level Polks I use EQ's with my H-K and my room acoustics are way less than Ideal. Get it set up right and it will all come together just fine.

Jer_ry

cfrizz wrote:

It is not uncommon to run your center channel a db or 2 higher than what is suggested. That may help. If not than yes start looking for an amp to help you out.

It is highly unlikely that you will get a powerful 5 channel amp for the money you want to spend.

We'll I'm looking at Used price. I'm a bit confused If I use the mic it changes the sub to 120hz and the fronts to 60hz rears 40hz to I thought i read it's supposed to be 80 all the way around for best sound?

MSALLA

Even used you are going to spend much more then 200.00 for the 5-channel amp.
Try tweeking your speakers manually after you run the auto set-up. You should have plenty of power for a small room. Even a good size living room.

AndyGwis

With the 435 (which should be plenty to power those speakers in your small room), you can do some tweaks to get better dialogue in quieter scenes without having way too loud special FX's when thing get rocking.

I either will turn on the NIGHT (dynamic compression, essentially) feature of my 635, that way I can turn it up to hear the dialogue without being blown away when there's some action. Or, you can simply turn up the level of the center channel to get dialogue more clearly without overwhelming dynamics.

If you get the towers upfront, then maybe consider a 2 or 3 channel amp, but until then you can get more out of your current system for free.

okiepolkie

Although the calibration system that came with the HK is probably decent in most circumstances, I would still recommend getting AVIA or DVE and the Rat Shack spl meter to do a manual calibration.

If that doesn't seem to work, then you might want to look at some other things within your system.

Jer_ry

Sweet thanks. To the hk avr owners what settings do you usually use? Say for example for cable audio do you use 5ch stereo or pro logic? Same for dvd's.

Willow

FWIW, I am running tri8 as mains a csi3 and rti4s in rear off my hk 335...I have mine set as mains xover at 60hz the rest @ 80hz.

When I watch reg TV it's PLII when I watch HDTV it's DD all the way. DVDs either DD or DTS, plain cds in 2ch.

Lowell_M

Willow wrote:

When I watch reg TV it's PLII when I watch HDTV it's DD all the way. DVDs either DD or DTS, plain cds in 2ch.

I cross over at 80 hz accross the board...ditto on the processing settings.

Willow

a_mattison wrote:

I cross over at 80 hz accross the board...ditto on the processing settings.

I did have all of mine @ 80 but now that the mains are 60 I find them to have a tad more punch.

Lowell_M

Willow wrote:

I did have all of mine @ 80 but now that the mains are 60 I find them to have a tad more punch.

I'll give that a shot. My sub is a little slow for loud music. Maybe crossing over a little lower would help?? I'll let you know what I think after I have a little listening time. What do you have for a sub?

AndyGwis

I've got the same Xover on mine, 60 for fronts, 80 for the rest.

Same for listening as well, for the most part. DD/DTS for HDTV and DVD, Cable I rarely listen to through system unless it's in HD or a big game. I get a lot of static through regular cable.

Lowell_M

AndyGwis wrote:

I've got the same Xover on mine, 60 for fronts, 80 for the rest.

Same for listening as well, for the most part. DD/DTS for HDTV and DVD, Cable I rarely listen to through system unless it's in HD or a big game. I get a lot of static through regular cable.

My cable signal is pretty clean, but I have to have the volume turned up 10db louder for something on cable vs. a DVD or CD to have similar volume.

Jer_ry

a_mattison wrote:

My cable signal is pretty clean, but I have to have the volume turned up 10db louder for something on cable vs. a DVD or CD to have similar volume.

Thats weird cuz i have to have anything in dolby 10 higher than cable...Anyways So I'm getting 6's and so now is the hard part figuring out a 2 or 3 channel amp. I guess I won't ask "whats the best amp" Instead I'll ask what i should look for. There are so many in the used area but I'm not sure what is a correct HT amp. For starters I take it rotel and other brands are ideal. So besides it saying "2channel" what else should I keep an eye on?

Lowell_M

As soon as I get my game/media room finished and move my equipment in I am going to also move into the realm of external amplification. I don't have any experience other than what I have read here yet, but it looks like there are a variety of reliable brands and options. I am going to work on a minimum budget for what I want, so am going to either 1)spring for an Outlaw Audio 5 channel, or 2) 2 or 3 Outlaw Audio monoblocks for the mains and center. Outlaw seems to be the best bang for the buck new. I did see a Sunfire Cinema Grand 5 channel on Audigone for around $1000, but I'm not sure that is a normal price for a Sunfire.

Stick with a brand that is spoken of highly here and you can't go wrong. I'm going to go 200 wpc min. Give some a listen if you can before you buy.

AndyGwis

I don't think you can go wrong if you get any of the names thrown around on this forum: Adcom, B&K, Rotel, Outlaw, Parasound, even Carver would be okay, but they aren't really supported anymore.

I bought a small Carver TFM-6 to power my center and have a B&K for the fronts. Both work very well and easily best what is considered a fairly powerful AVR, my HK 635.