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B&W 805 D4: which 5 channel power amp should I go with (home theater): Parasound or Rotel

Hearing Hans Zimmer score play during scenes from The Dark Knight, Inception & Interstellar is life changing. The 805 D4 works great for l/r speaker for movies. Of course I need to add a center channel which would either be the HTM81 D4 or the HTM82 D4 but I’ll save that for another discussion.

Here are the power amps I’m looking at:

Parasound:

- Halo A 51

- Halo A 52+

Rotel:

- RMB-1585

- RMB-1585MKII

 

I’m not able to go into an audio store to test out power amps  so I would like your expert opinion on which might work better with these speakers or if you have any recommendations for 5 channel power amp then I would gladly go take a look at those online.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

candyisdandy

Showing 3 responses by nekoaudio

nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 

@candyisdandy the extra headroom is usually nice. The volume difference between 180W and 250W isn't much. But the A 51's current capacity is higher, and that can translate into audible improvements even a the same volume, given that the B&W speakers you are considering do not just stay at 8 ohms impedance.

nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 

Those Parasound and Rotel models are going to sound different from each other. Hard to know which would be a better match for what you're looking for. What would you say are your top goals from the sound reproduction of the amplifier?

nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 

Do power amps help with brightening or warming the sound of speakers that are pretty much bright? Like if I wanted a warmer sound which one of these amps would be warm sounding if that's a thing?

@candyisdandy I'd recommend the Parasound A-models if adding some warmth is your goal. I'm not sure what issues AudioTroy is referring to, but I see the A 51 and A 52+ as currently available.

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