amp blues...

olilugo

Well I am sad. This weekend I tried an in-house demo of an amplifier and the results were not what I expected at all.

First the equipment I have/used for this demo:
Mains: RTi6
Center: CSi5
Surround: FXi3
Sub: Velodyne 3750
DVD player: Panasonic S53
Receiver: Pioneer VSX 812K
Speaker cables: Monster
Interconnects: Signal Cables Analog two (RCA).

I was able to convince a local ROTEL dealer to let me borrow one of their floor models to test in my house. I decided it had to be the RMB 1095. 5x 200W/c at 8ohms, 330w/c at 4ohm.

After all the good recommendations to get 200w/c so I can grow into.

First I run my system without the amp watching a movie; I wanted to have a measurement as to what my system was like before I introduce the amp. So I put the volume at -30dbs it sound very good I am please.

Time to introduce the ROTEL amp.
First problem; my interconnect cables have not been broken-in, they need about 50h of continuous playing time. Since I don’t have that luxury, the Amp was only given to me for a 10 hours demo.
With that in mind I decide to connect everything.
To my surprise I had to put the volume about a -31 dbs and I can see the sound was just a bit louder, but about the same sound as without the amplifier. And of-course bright which I attributed to the new interconnects.
The I decided I would to set the receiver to say -18dbs and it got louder to the point that it was too loud. So I set it back to about 28dbs.
So why am I sad, for one I was thinking I would be at -60dbs and be able to comfortable listen to the movie, which was not the case, I was also expecting to be that much more clear not loud, and it was not.
So what does this all mean? Does it mean my speakers are efficient enough to be driven by a regular receiver? Does it mean that because my receiver is a low end receiver I am not able to take full advantage of the amplifier?
What would it take to listen and get a better cleaner sound as opposed to loud and busy?

Please keep in mind that this setup is 95% for movies.

Any help will be greatly appreciated…

Early B.

In terms of sound quality, the amp can only sound as good as the signal it is fed. The problem could be your DVD player and/or receiver.

I think I understand part of your issue. I've tried separate amps before, but they didn't sound too much better than the receiver. In order to get better sound, I think I'll need to go all the way -- a separate pre/pro and multi-channel amp.

jakelm

olilugo wrote: »

Does it mean my speakers are efficient enough to be driven by a regular receiver?

Yes

Does it mean that because my receiver is a low end receiver I am not able to take full advantage of the amplifier?

Yes

What would it take to listen and get a better cleaner sound as opposed to loud and busy?

Step up on more than just the amp.

Sinsetivity of the amp has alot to do with the output. The amp has much more headroom than the reciever, but if it has the same sinsetivity in the input, then you will find that you will get the same output at the same level on the reciever.

I just went through all of this when I switched from my HK to my external Hafler. Even though the Hafler has more output power, the sinsetivity of the amp is about the same as the HK AVR, so my listening level on the HK was just about the same with or w/o the external amp.