B&K or Rotel?

get your ears on them some do not like the sound of the new Rotel digital amps.

I don't think you could go bad with either amp. I personally never had the running hot problem on any of the B&K amps I have owned.

It also depends on the sound you want. The Rotel is more sterile to me which isn't bad and maybe even more accurate but I prefer the little extra warmth I got from B&K.

I had one in a TV stand and the other was on an open audio stand. Neither got hot. Warm? yes but never hot.

It also depends on the volume you play them at. If you have it cranked up the whole time almost any amp will get hot. But sitting idle or at normal listening levels it should be fine. Just make sure there is a couple inches of room above it for heat to dissipate.

I run a Rotel 1080 for my LSi25s and a Rotel 1085 (Class D amp) on the center LSiC and 2 pairs of Rtia series speakers for surrounds. I do not note any ill effects of the Class D amp on the LSiC for sound quality but of course I am using this HT not critical music listening sessions. I would feel comfortable with running my LSi25s on a Class D amp though.

Z

Although B&K went out of business, its products are on the way back to market because the company was purchased by ATI.

http://www.bkcomp.com/

The 200.7 is a powerful 7 channel class A/AB amp, the Rotel a class D (switching) amp. I've had B&K amps run warm, not really hot. Class D amps should produce almost no heat.

sm88 wrote: »

I've owned the Rotel 1075 and Rotel 1070 and both were quite excellent through Paradigm Studio speakers. Very well built amps.

I ran my lsi 9's ad 7's off the rmb-1075 and it did a great job. No need for a ton of power the 7's and center is fairly easy to drive.

The RMB-1095 is also a great amp in the $1000 range. It has a ton of power but is very heavy.

You can't go wrong with either...grab the one you get the best deal on.

Personally I like B&K better. YMMV.

You'd only find B&K right now through the used market (Audiogon, Ebay) unless there is new stock among some of the dealers still. Prices on their used gear seem to be down a lot since the company went under. ATI may bring new B&K products back on the market later this year. They have stated their intent to support a dealer network, so online sales are not likely if that happens.

I actually preferred using a lower powered 5 channel amp for center and surround speakers and a separate more powerful 2 channel amp for the main speakers. I had a B&K 7270 amp for a couple years but found it was really overkill for surround speakers, even the Polk LSiFX's.

footwedge wrote: »

After further research, I'm now looking at the w4s multichannel amps for several reasons: weight, coolness and can be delivered to my door. Also looking at the Dac2.

Would the 7 channel with 3@550-4ohms for the fronts and 4@220-4ohms for the rears and zone 2 be sufficient?

I would also like to upgrade the oink and sony cd/dvd player (DVP-NC600). So, if I get the dac2 what pre and blue ray/cd player would you recommend with similar price points of the other equipment? Would the SC-27 work? or would it be overkill along with the dac2?

Hope this is not confusing. I've been doing a lot of reading and I think I might have overloaded my brain; but, after finally acquiring the LSI speakers, I'm ready to overhaul everything and need expert advice.

That's plenty of power, a lot more than you will need for sure. I wouldn't put much emphasis on output either, few speakers need more than 150 wpc to shine, and LSI's are fairly efficient. Even my Usher BE-718's, which were admittedly horribly inefficient only really needed 150-200 wpc. So look more so to quality of power than amount with the LSI series. Wyred makes great products, but I do believe their amplifiers are Class D, so make sure this is something you want, the general consensus I've read and my own experience suggests Class A and AB have advantages in sound quality, but D is continually improving and has a major advantage in efficiency, thus far less heat output and no need for bulky heat sinks that make up a majority of an amp's weight.

As for the Wyred4Sound DAC2 I own one and can't say I could find better for the price I paid. It is fantastic, despite some minor compatibility issues on my computer with USB out, and what is especially nice is that it has a built in preamp stage. Wyred's preamp is done very well, eliminating the need to purchase a dedicated 2 channel pre, which can save you quite a bit. I run it straight to my MC352

Standalone DAC devices are typically two channel, used with a CD player or now through a computer's digital output. For home theater you need what is referred to as a Processor, which has DAC's for each and every channel built in and decodes home theater formats to provide the additional signals. You can think of a processor as a receiver minus the amp and sometimes tuner. They typically have switching features, they act as preamps be they 2 channel or HT, and often have tone control / bass management built in.

The Wyred4Sound DAC2 is going to beat the sound quality of any reasonably priced processor when it comes to 2 channel audio, but no, despite having 8 channel chips it is not capable of doing more than stereo. What it does have, however, is an HT bypass. This way you can use it as a 2 channel DAC / Preamp but then bypass the signal for Home Theater over to a processor.

If home theater is your goal, skip the Wyred and get a processor. A good one should do a relatively good job at stereo will providing heaps of features.

I've owned the following:
Outlaw 950
Cheap, but I did not care for the sound it produces - seemed harsh. Lots of features for the money! ~$150-200

Anthem AVM20
Feature packed, good two channel and great HT processing, not to bad on price either; a solid unit. ~$400-500

Anthem AVM30
Very similar to the AVM20 but with extra bass management and a better setup, loved it but got away from HT. ~$500-700

Rotel RSP-1068
Worked well for my needs at the time but was six channel and not seven, not that many movies actually have discrete seven channel sound but feature wise this was still a letdown. Sounded better than the Outlaw but I found the Anthem more intuitive, feature rich, and of at least as high quality sound. ~$300-400

McIntosh C39
Fantastic sound quality, warm and silky smooth, but this is a mid 90's processor and was limited to the original HT formats. The preamp section was fantastic and borrowed from their strict stereo preamps, which lends to it's excellent tone. ~$700-800, sold mine to a Polkie actually!

Parasound P/SP 1500
Didn't much care for the operation but the sound quality was a step up from the Outlaw. Required a special DAC module and cable to run multi channel formats, which is a pain, but I have been impressed with plenty of Parasound products and think their newer processors might be worth looking into, compare them vs Rotel

The DAC2 will not allow you to connect an ipod directly, Ipods either go through that USB cable which requires a software installation on your computer, or through the headphone jack. The headphone out on an ipod is analog - it uses the tiny cheap DAC's that are built into the ipod to convert the mp3 files to music. You'll need some sort of ipod dock or to run it from your computer to use it that way.

The bypass is one of the input settings, when you switch it to bypass, it "passes" the signal through the system so that instead of going to the two channel route, it continues on to your processor where a 5.1 signal can be processed. I've never tried it but it should work.

Processors are also almost always preamps, you only need one or the other. The processor will have a built in volume control, as well as input switching and everything else. Even video switching. Processors also always offer 2 channel in addition to the extra. I'd suggest starting with a good processor and if you are unsatisfied with the 2 channel performance then considering making the upgrade to the Wyred. I don't think you'll be unsatisfied with it though, you could even find a processor with the same DAC chip built into it, though obviously the implementations of the circuitry do vary between units.