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Best 9 channels power amp?

New to separates and looking for advice and first hand experience from this community. What power amp would you recommend to power a 5.2.4 system? I would rather keep it to just 1 amp due to space constraints. I have been researching the yamaha mxa5200, monolith 9x, and emotiva xpa gen3. All have plus and minus points. 

Yamaha is well established as a brand and it has a bridge load function so that you can use 2 amp sections to power each of the fronts. It has 11 channels so this would allow it to power 9 speakers with that function on. While rated at 150 wpc, audioholics measured it to run at about 65 wpc with 7 channels driven. 

Monolith is rated at all channels driven with 3x 200 wpc and 6x 100 wpc. I dont know much about their reliability and sound. There's much less reviews on the internet about them than the other 2. 

Emotiva has a 9 channel which has 5x 300wpc and 4x 65wpc. I dont know how these measure as they state it is 2 channels driven rather than all channels driven. I also read the sound is muscular rather than refined. I also read some bugs with their amps. 

If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it. 
jwl244

Showing 1 response by 213runnin

213runnin
914 posts
 
There is no "best" when it comes to a 9 channel amp. Just too many channels and power demand to do it right.

The Monolith is made by ATI Amplifiers in the US, and would be the best option for pure power. Emotiva does make a decent amp too. If I was the OP I’d use an upper end AVR as the pre, and have the following configuration: AVR running the atmos speakers, with an amp driving the 5 channels. Run the AVR’s room correction and you’re all set.

For a 5  or even 7 channel amp there are lots of options.  I’d go with either Outlaw Audio, Adcom or Emotiva. All are buy online. The Adcom only has the one model 5 channel, at 200 wpc and almost 100 pounds, so that might be overkill depending on the speakers being used.
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