question about seperates

dcorrea · November 2003

Ok,
being the complete noob that I am, I was doing research on the seperates. I came across the Sunfire site and ran into their pre-amp, reciever and amp. Now i pretty much gathered that I can hook the amp up to my existing AVR in order to drive more power to my speakers, but what exactly does the pre-amp do? Is the sunfire receiver nothing more than a high end AVR?
If I was to build a HT with seperates, what exactly would I need to purchase? Sorry for all the questions, but I am still learning.
Thanks in advance.

howie777 · November 2003

The only thing an amplifier does is take an input (CD audio from the pre/pro) and amplify it (make it louder). So the preamp does everything else. It decodes DTS, Dolby Digital, Pro Logic, switches the video and audio inputs. And so on. Its basically the controller of the system.

And Sunfire does have an AVR but they also sell amplifiers and pre/pros too.

So a receiver is the same as having a pre/pro and and amplifier. The only difference would be higher quality with the pre/pro. Now there may be some other things, like not all pre/pros have an AM/FM tuner ( I think) but basically a receiver has to cram both the pre/pro functions and the amplifier part into one box so they have to cut corners. With seperates you have two boxes and don't need to cut corners which is why seperates are usually better than a single receiver.

Just a note, pre/pro stands for preamplifier and processor (I think)

So you can either get a receiver, speakers, DVD player and TV or get a pre/pro, amplifier, speakers, DVD player and TV (don't forget yoru TiVo!)

Hope that helps

Howie

dcorrea · November 2003

thanks for clearing that up. I think I was mainly confused by the fact that sunfire had an AVR and I thought they only did seperates. That made me think that I would need the pre/pro, receiver and amp for a seperates system. Thanks alot.

Phil Dawson · November 2003

The preamp increases gain (makes it louder), in the signal sent to the amplifier, everything else is processing.
Phil

Tour2ma · November 2003

Good explanations above. And yes, pre/pro is short fro Pre-amp / Processor. One of the central functions of a pre-amp not mentioned is source selection.

The things that tend to make separates theoretically better include separate power supplies and elimination of amp generated interference in the relatively low voltage pre section.

An AVR design can overcome these issues, but as they do, the AVR price approaches that of separates.

jmasterj · November 2003

Hey dcorrea,

welcolme to the forum, just to add a note the sunfire ultimate receiver vs the sunfire pre/pro, power amp combo only real difference is the lack of a tuner with the latter. I'd be happy with either. Things to consider are budget, space, how you intend to use the system, and how much power you want/ need, can't go wrong either way. Let us know what you decide. Good Luck

dcorrea · November 2003

Well as my wife would put it I am never satisified. Although I absolutely LOVE my setup now, I am always looking forward to the next upgrade. I just put my setup together over the last 6 months so seperates are still a ways away but it never hurts to plan ahead.

question about seperates

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