Amps of differing power output vs speaker volumes

Ok so lets start off by reviewing your system.
For the Main channels your sporting a Incredible Halo A21 , I love this amp , it's powerful clean and stupid dynamic. Then for some reason you picked up a NC 2125 2 channel amp and bridged it for the center channel. I'm not a fan of bridging amps as in my experience they tend to not sound as good and they don't track as well. I listened to amps Bridged and unbridged and unbridged always sounded more natural or organic to me. I'm of the mind if you want more power , get a bigger badder amp like the NC2250 you have for the rear channels. If I where you at this point I would use the NC2125 for the surrounds and the NC2250 for the center channel.

Now I'm gonna give you real world experience and advice. I have done this kinda thing many times and left with unbalanced sounding system. Yeah it works and most probably will not notice as much as you get caught up in the movie and not pay attention to the balance of the system. But I do , I have done extremely high end theaters and when we used multi 2 channel amps or a 2 channel and 5 channel of different power same brand and even series( which you failed to do ) sounded uneven especially at reference levels.
What I have experienced with the front 3 is when they are powered by different amps , it actually sucks ****. The one system that comes to mind as a Proceed / Martin Logan system I did which was about 600k room total. This theater was badass and I have to fix it as the owner was a 2 channel guy and wanted Prodigy's for 2 channel. He wanted the baddest 2 channel Proceed amp and could care less about the center 4 surrounds and a pair of surround backs. It had twin Decent subs living on the front stage. By the way this system when finished was breath taking and probably one of my favorite theaters I done to date.
So What we did to fix this is get all the same amps running everything and the system came into balance and seemly surround. When something moved around the room, you didn't really notice different speakers doing the job. When we had un even power fully calibrated and dialed in , you could tell the main speakers had better dynamic range and took away from the overall experience. I was annoyed and had to sell dude more amps. After listening both ways he thanked me and felt money well spent.

So back to your system. I would sell all those awesome amps you got and get a 5 channel amps from Halo A series or just a NC series. I like both a lot and honestly with RTiA series speakers your Denon can do the job by itself. I personally don't like Denon receivers and especially as a pre as they tend to not have any dynamic range , even as a pre. They sound like a typical receiver being outclassed. A pioneer Elite SC-57 would solve all your problems , power your system correctly sound way better then what you are doing now , save you on plugs and your electric bill and give you the best experience you ever had in your home.
You can take all the extra money saved with all those amps IC's electric bill and buy mad Blu ray movies.You wouldn't need the DAC magic either unless your using it for the SB and then yeah keep it. You could go Digital out to the Pioneer Elite and get very close results and much better then what you are doing with that Denon.

If you like having external amps and you like your Denon for whatever reason then I strongly suggest this amp.
http://www.parasound.com/nc/5250v2.php
I fully believe this is all you need ever and you can upgrade to any speakers you want and keep this amp on board. You could keep your NC2250 if you ever decide to go 7 channels.

Good luck with what ever you decide to do.

I'm willing to bet the SC-57 sounds as good or better then your current setup even with the amps in line. Your going to be impressed with it's dynamic range and clarity compared to the Denon and amp setup.

You now can clean up all those power cords and not have such a mess behind the rack. Clean simple effective.

mantis wrote: »

I'm willing to bet the SC-57 sounds as good or better then your current setup even with the amps in line. Your going to be impressed with it's dynamic range and clarity compared to the Denon and amp setup.

You now can clean up all those power cords and not have such a mess behind the rack. Clean simple effective.

Is there something wrong with the quality of Denon. I have heard 2 knocks on it in this thread.

To anyone here who HAS the sc-57, or the sc-37, how much tweaking did you do to the system before you got it sounding the way you liked it? I know everyones ears different, so thats something to consider. I just hooked up my 37, and so far I can already tell the difference from my old vsx-1020k.

Do you guys use the thx settings? or just the auto surround most of the time? I mainly use it for movies, so Ive been **** around with the settings.

This might be a stupid question, but are the iceamps always on? or is there something specific you have to do?

It sounds like you have a very reliable Denon 3311ci. You shouldn't have any problem selling it.

I wouldn't worry about if you can sell the Denon or not you should (if you deside) have no problems.
What Dan is also saying is you will have a better balanced sound system by not mixing power amps, each amp will have a differant sound signature to it not to mention the power differance. The Halo will walk over most amps even some with more power. This is where the power rating becomes less important because of the Halo's ability to play so clean and dynamic even under a demand. Some amps sound differant played at higher volumes then at lower volumes the better amps just get louder without changing the overall sound. I'm sure you have heard it said that "it sounds better if I turn it up", I have, and I experianced it. I look forward to hearing what you deside and your thoughts when you get it done.

Dave

PrazVT wrote: »

...I prefer the A21 to the NC2250 so most likely I'd save up and spring for the A51...

Dude, not to knock your RTi's at all, because they are great HT speakers, but an A51 seems like overkill big time. I think you'd gain a much larger improvement in sound for the money by buying new speakers instead of buying an A51.

Good luck with the elite, that thing looks effing sweet!

PrazVT wrote: »

Well if you ever hear RTi A7s with the a21 or nc2250, you'll hear the difference. An AVR will never compare to me. Rti A7s handle 300wpc - no overkill here!

Oh I know there is a difference; I'm a firm believer in quality electronics, but I'm also a believer that their quality should be commensurate with the speaker's quality and that the speakers make a bigger difference in overall sound. I wouldn't run a 600w/channel Bryston 28BSST^2 on a pair of Monitor 70's... not because the Monitors couldn't handle it, and not because that Bryston wouldn't make the Monitors sing better than they ever have, it's that I know I'd gain a much larger improvement in sound by buying a less expensive amp and using the left over money to buy a pair of LSiM's to replace the Monitors. Hands down.

It has nothing to do with the quantity of watts; it has to do with the quality of watts.

The rti's could handle an amp that was rated at 3000 watts per channel, but that makes no difference.

Anyway, just my two cents.

and BTW I'm not saying to not use an external amp; I'm saying that buying a less expensive external amp, and using the extra money to upgrade your speakers, will make a ginormously bigger difference in sound than just splurging on the amp will.

falconcry72 wrote: »

In all seriousness, for the price of that A51, you could get 2 pairs of the new LSiM-703's and the LSiM-706c center channel. Now that would be an upgrade!:biggrin:

I forgot that there was a surround speaker in the LSiM lineup: the 702f/x, so you'd probably want that instead of a second pair of 703's.

PrazVT wrote: »

I haven't had much success getting subs to integrate properly w/ bookshelves. Either Audyssey sets the sub vol too low for music or the subs sound really obnoxious.

Hence, my preference for full-range towers - the bass is there, but there's nothing for me to have to screw around with, and the bass sounds natural.

If there's a way to get that experience with bookshelves / subs, I'd be open to 703s in the HT.

Oh there's a way. You just have to set it yourself. Forget Audyssey.

I see a 5.1 LsiM setup in your future...

JimAckley wrote: »

Based on that statement, I'm gonna go ahead and say you haven't heard the 703s yet :biggrin: You'd be shocked at what they're capable of

Not many of us have heard them yet. I'm waiting on them to make their way to the east coast.