Rowidick: I will give you the best 5-channel amp on the market today for the money. Sherbourn 5/1500- it's 5-mono blocks in 1 chasis. I did alot of study on these and the three brands were in the running. Sherbourn blew all of them away, musicality and video [pure]. If you don't want to hear this , than out of these 3 either two but parasound, lot of dealers are dropping them for troubles. Hope I might have helped you just a little bit . |
true on the parasound's.also poor poor build qaulity!i auditioned,two preamps,that broke!during the audition!!!check out those super duper high qaulity volume knob's.i know were talking amp's here,but just thought i'd share that.as for marantz,i havent heard a marantz,that could beat a mass market jap brand lately.they sound BAD!dave... |
thanks for the feedback on parasound. i have not brought one home yet to audition but i guess i was intrigued by their 10 yr warranty. the sherbourne might be more than i want to spend but possibly i can pick one up used or as a demo. will also look at the marantz mono's. |
You don't specify your maximum price range, so let me add a couple of options. At the lowest cost, you might consider the Outlaw 5-channel amp. The relatively new Outlaw line of equipment has gotten very good reviews, and they sell direct via Internet (their 5-channel HT amp sells for $1100). Next up in price is the Adcom 7500, which provides 5x150 wpc, with a price of around $1800. Last, if you want to go for very high quality HT sound, you should audition the Bryston 9B-ST, which has rated "Class A" by Stereophile. It's a good deal more money (MSRP of $3800, as I recall, but can be bought discounted for around $2800). |
You should also know that to get repairs on a piece of Parasound gear you have to take it too one of their local electronic repair shops. In Houston, the repair shop is an old tv repair shop. I left an amp there for six weeks after which they finally informed me that they still had not obtained the parts. I gave up on the Parasound and would not buy another product from them. Make sure you check who does repair work for the brands you are interested in. I will only buy from manufacturers who handle repairs themselves. |
You have to be careful when looking for 5 channel amps. Since the manufacturer assumes that you'll be using this primarily for HT use, they tend to make them sound "exciting". As such, the bottom end may be slightly hyped for impact, the mids are slightly forward for increased vocal clarity and the top end slightly "hot" for added "detail". The response is quite a bit of a "rollercoaster" ride. As such, they sound great for movies and such but typically do not do the best with music. A long term "ride" with some of these amps, much like a rollercoaster, will tend to make you "sick" and "fatigue'd".
One 5 channel amp that others have suggested sounded pretty good was made by the same folks as Golden Tube Audio. Can't remember the name, but i have seen them for sale here and in other places. I'm sure that someone will help me out with what company this is. Only problem with these is that the company is out of business. Since some dealers still have these brand new and as demo's, they are closing them out relatively inexpensively and may even be covering the warranty themselves.
Other than that, you might want to look at some of the B & K's if you can find them used. Not the last word in detail or refinement, but typically a good value and on the smooth side of neutral. This should help to balance out your system also. I would avoid any Acurus multi-channel amps even though they can be found at excellent prices on the used market. They simply would not be a good match with your speakers as you have described them. Hope this helps. Sean
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sean
thanks for your input. it helps. any comment on the rotel 1075 or marantz mono's with my nht's? take care. |
While i am not overtly familiar with the Rotel stuff, the Marantz 700's would be a better choice than the Marantz 500's in my experience.
Something else that you might want to check into is using a two channel amp for the mains with as little sacrifice in quality as you can and then a three ( or more ) channel amp to fill in the rest for HT use. You might even be able to find something within the same product line using this approach. While it may eat up more rack / shelf space, i think that the results would be more inline with what you may be striving for. Sean
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I have a Marantz MM9000 5ch Amp. After a break-in period it is very nice for movies and also good with music. I noticed that someone commented that all things Marantz sounded "BAD"... I think he may have "BAD" ears!!! I'm not saying Marantz is the best, but bad is not even a fair statement. The best thing to do is talk to professional listeners(any quality audio shop)and tell them the type of sound your looking for.
Good luck. |
I think you should get a 6 channel AMP from ADA. Their model
PTM-6150 get high appraise from Home Theater Magazine and other Bristish magazine. It get the same rating as Bryston 9B in Bristish magazine. Its street price can be under $2000. You can research this amp in e-coustics.com and manufacturer web site ada-usa.com The six channel amp can power you rear channel (THX-EX) without purchase additional amplifier. |
I have also heard the Sherborn 5 channel amp, very nice, it really is an over achiever, you really may want to take a look at it. |
Hi Rowidick. Have you considered any of the amps from ATI? I've been using an ATI AT1505 with 5 NHT satellites to good effect. I wouldn't consider my system to be bright, and that may be due in large to the smooth Pioneer front end.
However, this does not double as a music system for me. I wasn't happy with it's musical reproduction, so I ended up building a separate music only setup.
The ATI is plenty powerful, and since you're mostly concerned with HT, this might warrant a look. |
I have tride all of them. "BY THE ROTEL". The rotel compared nice with my ML331. But the marantz was nice. The marantz & ATI lacked the soundstaging of the rotel. |
