Finally...My first amp!!

DannyD

So I finally picked up a used Marantz MM9000 for my first venture into external amplification. The price was too good to resist at 350.00. It's rated at 150wpc to all 5 channels. Anyone have experience with this amp or could shed some light for me on what to expect? I can't wait to hook it up. I should be getting it in a week ot two. Did I make a good choice in the Marantz? This will hopefully tie me over for a few years until I'm ready to dish out serious cash on something really good. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated;)

Bamadude

Congrats! you sound just as excited as me. I just bought my first amp (Sunfire Cinema Grand) which should be here by the weekend

Daniel

adam2434

Certainlly seems like a nice first step into separate amplification.

As an experiment, you may want to try bi-amping the 10's and letting the AVR handle the surrounds. If you listen to music in 2ch a lot, this could help get the most out of the 10s.

DannyD

How would I go about bi-amping my 10s and letting the Avr handle the surrounds?

danger boy

good work Danny D, you can hardly touch a good two channel amp for that price.. let along a 5 ch one. WTG!!

bobman1235

When I recently switched from AVR to external amplification I was blown away by the difference. You'll definitely be happy.

AndyGwis

I believe to bi-amp the Rti10s off the Marantz, you'll need a couple y-splitters / adapters. Take the left channel from the AVR preout and split that to channels 1 and 2 of the marantz amp. Put channel 1 speaker level outs to the left Rti10 lows, put channel 2 speaker level to the left RTi10s highs. Do the same thing with the right channel preout (splitter to 3&4 of amp, 3 on lows, 4 on highs). Then, a regular, single RCA from the center preout of the AVR to channel 5 for the marantz, then speaker level out from channel 5 of marantz to center speaker.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but that at least sounds right.

adam2434

DannyD wrote: »

How would I go about bi-amping my 10s and letting the Avr handle the surrounds?

Danny, I got your PM, but I'll just reply here.

No, the amp can't be bridged.

Here's what you would do to try bi-amping:

1) You would need a y-splitter from the left and right pre outs on the AVR. I believe there are companies that make 1 piece cables for this purpose (I think Signal Cable will make them).
2) One end of the y would go the L front input on the amp, the other to the L rear input. Repeat for R channel.
3) Remove jumpers on speaker binding posts.
4) Connect L front speaker output to top set of posts, with another speaker wire (could use 1 wire if it has 4 conductors), connect L rear to bottom set of posts. Repeat for R channel.
5) Use amp for center channel.
6) Keep surround channels connected to the AVR via speaker wire.
7) Calibrate all channels, which you will need to do in any case.

The reason I suggested this is because surround channels really do not draw much power compared to the center and fronts, and the 10s should open up and sound more dynamic with more power.

Since you said that you're 95% HT in the PM, I honestly don't think bi-amping will give you much, especially if you're running L and R as small, sending bass to the sub.

If you did a lot of 2ch listening without the sub, then I'd say give bi-amping a try to determine if you hear a significant improvement feeding more power to the 10's.

Oh, and nice price on that amp.

adam2434

Andy beat me to it...

jwhitakr

Congrats on the new amp purchase. Sounds like you definitely did it right the first time instead of trying out a lower-end model amp and then eventually going through another upgrade ... I think that's a wise choice.

I'd 2nd (3rd/4th?) the advice to try bi-amping your 10's and leaving the AVR to handle the surround duty. I've done a bit of experimenting with the surround channels amplified externally vs. using the AVR to power them, and I personally did not notice any improvement with external amplification. I'm sure there are others who would disagree, and there may be some other factors that might change your experience, but it's at least worth a shot.

AndyGwis

Yours looks better, though, Adam.

DannyD

Correct me if I'm wrong...by bi-amping the 10's, I'm essentially sending 150 watts to the tweeters and 150 watts to the 7 inch woofers??? If I didn,t bi-amp and hooked it up the normal way, the woofers and tweeters would share 150 watts?

danger boy

DannyD wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong...by bi-amping the 10's, I'm essentially sending 150 watts to the tweeters and 150 watts to the 7 inch woofers??? If I didn,t bi-amp and hooked it up the normal way, the woofers and tweeters would share 150 watts?

yes that's true... which isn't a bad deal either.. i think people forget really how little wattage most speakers need.. it's usually only if they are 4 or 6ohm that they require more power/current and when you push your music or loud passages in a movie where it puts more demand on an amp.

Still though, having an external amp is much better than trying to run 5 speakers off a receiver.

DannyD

adam2434 wrote: »

Danny, I got your PM, but I'll just reply here.

No, the amp can't be bridged.

Here's what you would do to try bi-amping:

1) You would need a y-splitter from the left and right pre outs on the AVR. I believe there are companies that make 1 piece cables for this purpose (I think Signal Cable will make them).
2) One end of the y would go the L front input on the amp, the other to the L rear input. Repeat for R channel.
3) Remove jumpers on speaker binding posts.
4) Connect L front speaker output to top set of posts, with another speaker wire (could use 1 wire if it has 4 conductors), connect L rear to bottom set of posts. Repeat for R channel.
5) Use amp for center channel.
6) Keep surround channels connected to the AVR via speaker wire.
7) Calibrate all channels, which you will need to do in any case.

The reason I suggested this is because surround channels really do not draw much power compared to the center and fronts, and the 10s should open up and sound more dynamic with more power.

Since you said that you're 95% HT in the PM, I honestly don't think bi-amping will give you much, especially if you're running L and R as small, sending bass to the sub.

If you did a lot of 2ch listening without the sub, then I'd say give bi-amping a try to determine if you hear a significant improvement feeding more power to the 10's.

Oh, and nice price on that amp.

As you instructed in step 2, I just want to clarify. One end of the y splitter will go to the left front input of the "Marantz" amp and the other end of the y will go to the left rear "surround" input of the marantz amp. Just a little confused since I'm still a newbie. I don't want to blow anything up LOL!! Thanks for all your help...this forum rocks becuse of people willing to helpout.

jakelm

Better make sure that the amp has the same wattage for front and surround. I know most amps rate it the same , but wind up something like, 100 watts front and 60 watts surround.

That would throw balance off..

DannyD

What's the best way to figure out if the front and rear channels are balanced in respect to their wattage outputs?

adam2434

DannyD wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong...by bi-amping the 10's, I'm essentially sending 150 watts to the tweeters and 150 watts to the 7 inch woofers??? If I didn,t bi-amp and hooked it up the normal way, the woofers and tweeters would share 150 watts?

The 10s are 3-way speakers with 2 crossover points. Therefore, it could also be possible that one set of inputs goes to the mid/tweeter and the other goes to the woofers. This would seem to make more sense, but you could contact Polk to confirm.

adam2434

DannyD wrote: »

As you instructed in step 2, I just want to clarify. One end of the y splitter will go to the left front input of the "Marantz" amp and the other end of the y will go to the left rear "surround" input of the marantz amp. Just a little confused since I'm still a newbie. I don't want to blow anything up LOL!! Thanks for all your help...this forum rocks becuse of people willing to helpout.

Yes.