any single RT-35's out there

I don't buy the 'wife' excuse. Maybe I'm just spoiled cause my T-Jones is down with audio, but GROW SOME BALLS FELLAS.

Throw some Luda at her 'Move ****, get out the way, get out the way ****, get out the way....'

Cheers,
Big Balla, Shot Calla

Originally posted by scottvamp
Separates means the you have a pre-amp and 1 or more amps.
Most receivers on the market are "intergrated". Pre-amp and amp are all in one unit.
Except "now adays" near top of the line and flagship recievers have just as much if not MORE options than a common pre-amp does. The "upgrade not an option" does not fly with me anymore.
Tons of features and pre-out galore.

Scott,
I’m not saying upgrades are not possible with receivers, just saying IMO separates offer even more options, and more economical ones at that. I found it much easier to build through separates. Just makes no sense to me to tie your amps to SS processor that will be outmoded in a couple years, re-buy a tuner every time, etc. Seems to me that good amps hold resale better than any other link in the electronic chain. And then add the breakdown scenarios and … well maybe it’s just me… to each his own… peace…

brent,
“Headroom” is an old term for the short-term power an amp can provide to handle musical peaks, which demand more than the continuous power level that the amp is rated for. As an example my old Carver was rated at 350w/ch into 8 ohms RMS, but could deliver up to 600w/ch to both channels “for musically significant time periods”. This “reserve” amounted to just over 2 db’s of dynamic headroom. May not seem like much of a “volume” increase for so much more power, but power demands double for each 3-db increase.

But take heart, 1w should produce around 90 db at 1000Hz at a distance of 1 meter (this is actually the old definition of speaker “sensitivity”) from most speakers, so even a 100 w/ch amp has a great deal of reserve power. As an example, say you normally only listen to two watts and the SPL (sound pressure level) at your listening position is around 90 db, pretty loud. To reproduce a 93 db sound the amp kicks up to 4 watts; 96-db/ 8 w; 99-db/ 16w; 102-db/ 32w… so the 100w amp still has room to handle another doubling and a piece. And since the dynamic range of most rock is only about 15 to 20-db, and this range includes going down from your base SPL, you’re in good shape here. By contrast classical music often has upwards of 90-db dynamic range.
But it’s Friday night and you want to crank up Pink Floyd’s The Wall” you say? You want 96-db (8w) during “the soft stuff”? What you going to do when the helicopter comes after you at 108db wanting 128w (99-db- 16w/ 102 – 32w/ 105 – 64w/ 108 – 128w). Oops, sorry… out of amp going to clip city… unless it’s got that extra couple of db’s of headroom.

As I recall, Dr. Spec has a more complete, and better-written, explanation somewhere on post that includes a delve into RMS vs. “continuous”. If I find it, I’ll alert you to it
.
Carver and Adcom were two pioneers in designing amps with headroom. A large number of amps design this in today. Consult your manual to see if yours does.

As for definitions, at least in stereo days, they used to be:
- Separates = individual tuner, pre-amp, amp, etc. - one function per box.
- Integrated amp = pre-amp + amp in one box.
- Receiver = tuner + pre-amp + amp in one box.
Pre-amp almost always used to include a phone pre-amp, not so anymore. Sometimes you saw pre-amp and tuner together, but this was short lived.
Today's HT receivers are as defined above plus SS processors, etc. HT pre-amps include all but the amps, and most times, the phono pre-amp.

Sorry for any confusion, I tend to use “old-speak”. If you have more questions, just ask.

And ‘cuse me guys, but I’ve yet to see a single RT-35 listed yet…. And Russ wasn’t (at least ‘til his last post), in my mind criticizing brent… “anyone” means anyone… as in he’s amazed no one wants the RT-55, not just brent.

We got a newbie here wanting to learn, so don’t heap your cumulative frustrations of him… I mean WTF y’all get commissions on stuff you post…

Ahhhh… feel better now… of course the above is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Yup russman i must be spoiled as well, My wife doesn't care what i buy, she loves the audio stuff also and loves every upgrade "we" make, The wife thing is a sorry excuse!! period..

your ceiling needs to be high enough for "headroom"

kidding, kidding, maybe Russman can explain

Gimmie some adcoms and an adcom preamp and ill b on my way, forget the receivers!

Welp, gimmie the money and ill dream just a tad bit harder