5 ch amp decision- opinions please


In upgrading my HTS I am trying to decide on a new power amplifier-

It has come down to these-

Anthem MCA-5
EAD Powermaster 1000
Parasound HCA 2205A
Sunfire Cinema Grand serII

I use my system about 50/50 music/theater, so musical performance is important.

Any opinions about how these compare? All dealers usually only carry one line, so I haven't had the chance to do a controlled comparison.

Rest of components:

Fronts- Proac Response 1.5s
Center- Proac center channel
Surrounds- JM lab 905
Processer B&K Ref 30 (thinking about going to Anthem AVM20)
rickmichaelson

Showing 1 response by inscrutable

I agree with Tim (the other Tim ... well, this one too unless I'm schizo). I'd guess you are setting all your speakers to small (running less than full range), in which case many of these amps are overkill wrt power. You could downsize and put more quality (this is not to say any of these rec's are not good to great quality)in the front pair for the same $.
Tim