2. amps-preamps
  3. 163591-139231

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 millercarbon

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Here's what you do. Go find your monolith thing. Or any multi-channel amp. Really does not matter. Find the best one you can. Listen to it. Okay. Then go find any stereo integrated amp. Any. Really does not matter. But just for fun, make it one less than half the price of the monstrosity. One fourth. You think I'm kidding. No. Really. Does not matter. Just go and listen.

Then if you can stand the shock of just how awful multichannel is compared to even half the price stereo, buy whatever you want. At that point it won't matter. But at least you will have given yourself a sporting chance at a good sounding home theater system.
More to discover