New person here!
I'm considering a separate power amp for my 4700. I run a 7.2 setup. I am mostly interested in a separate 3-channel amp for LCR, but am confused if the way to get the most out of the 4700 is to run totally in pre-amp mode so I can switch off the amps and get lower noise or distortion?
I do feel like my speakers could use extra power too. Loud action and loud orchestral music seems to get "flat" or "mushy". I have a feeling I'm losing dynamics. I have SVS Prime bookshelves for LCR (87 db sensitivity), Prime Satellites for surround, and JBL E10 for surround-backs. I sit about 10 feet from the front three in a highly treated room, and crossover at 80 Hz to dual SVS SB-2000s. I would say it's 50/50 movies/music.
So the question is: what will see the most benefit?
- A high quality 2 or 3 channel (I do a fair amount of two channel listening, mainly classical) like the Parasound A23+ or a Monolith 3-channel,
- some sort of 7-channel amp, like Emotiva BasX 7, so I CAN run in pre amp mode, but lessor quality to keep the price similar to the above two
Super excited to be a part of this community!
Cheers,
Mark
Keep in mind that double the power =3db - if you are headroom constrained, you need to aim for an additional 10db most likely... so 4x to 8x the power rating.
Best way to determine whether an amp has ample current capability, is to look for doubling of power from 8 ohm to 4 ohm, and then doubling again from 4 ohm to 2 ohm - amps that do this have heaps of current capacity... but are also rare... the closer an amp gets to this ideal, the more capable its power supply in terms of providing loads of current.
Having said that - your speakers have a nominal impedance of 8 ohm - so current should not be an issue!
The other thing to watch for - is when the X4700 is under load, driving its speakers - it has a measurable impact on the pre-amp performance. (check Amir's review... - in the Review index...)
So the cause of the problem may not in fact be a lack of amp power, but the impact on the power supply of the power amp running hard, then causing issues on the digital circuitry (DAC, DSP, etc..)
If that is the case, the you won't need "more" power, or current, you just need to take some load off the X4700. It's a bit of an unknown whether taking 3 channels off the AVR will do the job, or whether you need to run it as a pure pre-amp.... - and no way of telling until you try! (do you have a spare amp, or a friend who can lend you one?)
The Emotiva BasX7 should be plenty of power for your speakers - and would allow you to turn it into a pure pre-amp... if you later decide to try for height speakers - you can experiment and see whether using the AVR for those impacts on the sound quality and decide from there.
Keeping in mind that surrounds and height speakers do a lot less work, and therefore need a lot less power/current.
Hope that helps!
