Forget about all those calculations. Listen to your system carefully and learn, if you haven't heard it before, to determine the sound of clipping. With 86dB-sensitivity speakers, I'd say you're at the edge of having NOT enough power for a home theater, which many of us love to run at higher sound levels than music systems.
More power gets you reserves to drive your speakers as loudly as you like...it gets you a sense of ease...of never being strained.
I'd think a poweramp with at least 200 watts per channel into 8 and rated to double into 4 Ohms would sound better than your receiver, even tho 200 is just a fraction of a deciBel more than 185. (We'd need to be sure we're measuring exactly the same ways to determine just how much more power the poweramp has over that of your receiver.)
Here's another consideration--amps with fewer channels on one chassis tend to sound better than those with more, because there's more channel separation and also because each power supply has more headroom. That means that if you need 5 channels of amplification, 2 amps of 2 and 3 channels will sound better than one 5-channel amp, other things being equal (which, of course, they never are!). That's sort of why lots of us prefer the sounds of mono amps.
Consider the Proceed HPA-series amps--250wpc/8, 500wpc/4, in 2- and 3-channel versions. They were discontinued last year and are quite affordable.
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More power gets you reserves to drive your speakers as loudly as you like...it gets you a sense of ease...of never being strained.
I'd think a poweramp with at least 200 watts per channel into 8 and rated to double into 4 Ohms would sound better than your receiver, even tho 200 is just a fraction of a deciBel more than 185. (We'd need to be sure we're measuring exactly the same ways to determine just how much more power the poweramp has over that of your receiver.)
Here's another consideration--amps with fewer channels on one chassis tend to sound better than those with more, because there's more channel separation and also because each power supply has more headroom. That means that if you need 5 channels of amplification, 2 amps of 2 and 3 channels will sound better than one 5-channel amp, other things being equal (which, of course, they never are!). That's sort of why lots of us prefer the sounds of mono amps.
Consider the Proceed HPA-series amps--250wpc/8, 500wpc/4, in 2- and 3-channel versions. They were discontinued last year and are quite affordable.
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